Recall that during the 2016 cycle, Univision aired hard hitting, but clearly factual coverage of Tangerine’s campaign (due in large part to Tangerine’s open disdain for asylum seeker / immigrant rights, and “monsters / cartels / rapists” boogey-manning).

Flash forward to 2023, and suddenly — as of last week, despite Tangerine vowing in his speeches to thwart more US laws, and treaties in his treatment of asylum seekers, should he win in 2024… the network aired what can only be styled as a full hour love letter to him. Cloying questions, no follow ups on obvious lies, and a picture painted, with the aid of the interviewer… that all US latin peoples would be far better off under his dictatorial style. [This despite the fact that at his rallies, he now regularly calls for mass deportations, without process of law.]

To his credit, Mr. Leguizamo has risen to the challenge, and with many others of good will, and with many others of good will, is seeking meetings, to be sure that Univision will commit to independent, factual coverage of the 2024 cycle — else, a boycott. In point of fact, Univision suddenly refused to accept a statement from Mr. Biden, or the Democratic Party in response to the one hour Trump commercial, citing a “just adopted” policy. The TV networks air almost uniformly pro-business coverage in Mexico, treating authority figures like Tangerine with near reverence.

There is almost no coverage of dissenting views. And the peoples of the US do not want to see Univision become a “Mexican-style outlet” — as to Tangerine.

Here is the WaPo on it all — but is sure feels like there’s been some payola offered / gifts exchanged via son-in-law Jared Kushner, for this new “soft focus” coverage — doubly so, where Trump just was this weekend endorsed by “old razor wire” Gov. Abbott of Texas:

…The nation’s largest Spanish-language media company, Univision, faced growing backlash Friday for its handling of a recent interview with former president Donald Trump, as major Latino advocacy groups delivered a letter of protest to the network’s executives and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus prepared to request a meeting with the network.

Actor and comedian John Leguizamo, who recently took a turn as host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” also posted a video on Instagram on Thursday night calling for a boycott of the network until it stopped its rejection of Biden ads, some of which were canceled just before the Trump interview aired….

These are strange times, and low information voters are the ones — if any — the Democrats need to worry about. Anyone getting solid independent news, and evaluating it critically… is going to be pretty unlikely to vote for Tangerine (unless they buy into whyte replacement theory). That may in fact be a rather small risk, but it is worth working to short circuit yet another means by which Trump’s lies go out, unchecked to people not paying close enough attention. Onward.

नमस्ते