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May 15, 2007
Hillary and Univision
Ed Lasky
Blogger Clemensando, who covers Hispanic media, is fairly confident that Haim Saban's investment in Univision will not influence its coverage of the election to favor Hillary, as I fear:
...it is the flip question asked by some liberals during the long reign of Univision's former board chairman, CEO and controlling shareholder A. Jerrold ("Jerry") Perenchio who is a major donor to the Republican Party and affiliated causes such as the Swift Boat Veterans Campaign.
Did Perenchio's command of the company result in coverage tilted in favor of the Bush Administration? I saw no evidence of that over the course of many years. And, in fact, it was under Perenchio's ownership that the nationally syndicated Univision Radio disc jockey, Eddie 'Piolín' Sotelo, vociferously called for Hispanic immigrants to march in the street. Not exactly the mainstream Republican party line. [....]
... given how Univision managed to maintain its editorial independence during the long absolutist reign of major Republican donor Jerry Perenchio I believe it is a safe bet to think the same will be true under the partial ownership of major Democratic donor Haim Saban. And I base my belief on close observations made over the years as a reporter covering the network for various trade publications.
I greatly appreciate the civility and thoughtfulness of this post, but respectfully disagree. I think you have to look at the degrees of separation and the intensity level of the support. Did Perenchio gush over Bush as Saban has over Hillary? Was Perenchio the largest funder of the GOP, as Saban is for the Democratic Party? Saban gave a huge amount of money to the Brookings Institution - a liberal think tank. He clearly did this because of a desire to, at the very least, influence public discussion of our foreign policy. Would he be tempted to flex his muscles over at Univision to also influence public discussion?
We also live in feverish, more partisan times. Univiison may have engaged in citizenship drives before, but the intensity seems greater now than ever before. Again, it is a matter of degree.
Of course, time will tell, and I suspect Clemensando will be on top of the question and will call the shots as he sees them. I could not ask for more.
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