Friend,

A couple of weeks ago, you heard from me about ratings-hungry media executives who promote Trump for profit. Well, bad news on that front: Since I emailed you, yet another media outlet has come to Trump’s aid.

Univision, provider of news coverage to more than half of the country’s Latinx population,¹ broadcast a friendly interview with Trump that failed to hold the serially indicted former president accountable. The interview happened after network execs met in private with the former president and Jared Kushner.²

We’ve sounded the alarm before about non-English-language disinformation,³ and Univision’s breach of journalistic integrity is yet another warning. Will you sign our petition today urging the network to put truth over profit?

The interview represents a sea change for Univision, whose longtime journalist Jorge Ramos drew accolades during the Trump years for calling out the president’s anti-immigrant rhetoric — and was even kicked out of press conferences for his efforts. The seismic shift toward Trump began when Univision suddenly canceled Biden campaign ads and interviews with White House officials — and further devolved when Univision conducted the same kind of reputation-laundering interview that we’ve come to expect from far-right outlets like Fox and Newsmax.

The network refused to confront Trump’s blatant lies, including his deceitful rant against reproductive rights. In fact, the “interview” — which was really just pro-Trump propaganda — was so awful that it’s sparked an outcry among everyone from a former Univision president⁴ to a top anchor who just quit in protest.⁵

Add your voice to the rising chorus demanding serious action around non-English-language disinformation.

In the words of celebrated actor/producer John Leguizamo, Univision has become “Magavision” in the runup to the fateful 2024 presidential election.

Thank you for speaking out,

Tim and the rest of the Free Press team
freepress.net

P.S. Propaganda has no place on our airwaves. Urge Univision to hold Trump and his cronies accountable.

1. “Univision, America’s Spanish News Giant, Reaches Out to Donald Trump,” The Economist, Nov. 23, 2023

2. “Kushner's Mexican Connection,” Popular Information, Nov. 27, 2023

3. “Tell Big Tech: Answer Big Questions About Non-English-Language Disinformation,” Free Press

4. “Trump Interview an ‘Insult to Hispanic Community,’ Ex-Univision Head Says,” The Guardian, Nov. 21, 2023

5. “Univision Top Anchor Departs Amid Reports Of Media Outlet’s Shift Toward Donald Trump,” Deadline, Nov. 15, 2023

Friend,

For far too long media execs have played along with Trump’s strongman charade, aware that his tele-presence is a boon for ratings and revenues. Now, U.S. democracy is reaping what they have sown.

At a speech delivered on Veterans Day, Donald Trump used rhetoric nearly identical to that used by Adolf Hitler.¹ Rather than honoring veterans as one might expect, Trump labeled his adversaries “vermin” — promising that, if elected, he would use his power to “root out” anyone he sees as against him.

To state the obvious: Parroting Hitler should not be considered normal behavior … ever. But the media have grown used to covering Trump’s extremism as if it’s standard political fare.²

For decades, the former president has capitalized on the media’s obsessive attention to paint an alternative vision of himself — one in which he features as a powerful and decisive figure instead of a twice-impeached, criminally indicted sexual abuser who sought to overthrow a democratic election that he lost.

A growing number of journalists is finally being explicit in using “fascist” to describe Trump’s beliefs — and “dictatorship” to describe his vision of a violently reshaped United States should he win a second term.

This is a start, but it’s still too little and almost too late. To protect democracy, the media need to report more on the rise of fascism in America — and they also need to reflect on their efforts to enable it.

Years ago, media execs eagerly hitched their wagons to the Trump Show to boost their ratings. As they themselves admit, as long as Trump’s preening cruelty makes them richer, there’s no need to worry about the consequences. Some examples:

• Then-CBS CEO Les Moonves said in 2016 that devoting so much airtime to then-candidate Trump "may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS."³
• Former media exec Jeff Zucker has done more than anyone to build the modern myth of Donald Trump:⁴ While at NBC, Zucker created The Apprentice, which rebranded Trump from a bankruptcy-spawning loser to an alleged boardroom genius. Zucker later moved to CNN and again focused the cameras on his favorite media monster to ride that same ratings boost.
• Head of German media giant Axel Springer Mathias Döpfner sent a message on Election Day in 2020 and asked his fellow execs to “ … pray that Donald Trump will again become President of the United States of America.”⁵

The news business is about putting on a show that will draw the largest numbers of viewers, and Trump — like Hitler and Mussolini before him — is a camera-ready showman. Never mind that, if elected to another term, he’d likely use his power to once more undermine media freedom and silence dissenting voices.

Our commercial media system does not hesitate to showcase fascist demagogues for profit, and our democracy pays the price. There must be a deep reckoning that shifts the ways large outlets report on Trump and acknowledges the commercial incentives that led to this dangerous moment.

With a presidential-election year just on the other side of the holidays, the danger of a Trump-coddling media couldn’t be greater: Free Press will always demand that the media hold the powerful accountable, but we need your help to sustain this work.

Thank you,

Tim and the rest of the Free Press team
freepress.net

1. “How Trump’s Rhetoric Compares with Hitler’s,” The Washington Post, Nov. 13, 2023

2. “The News Media Isn’t Biased Against Trump. It’s Biased For Him,” Intelligencer, Oct. 6, 2020

3. “Leslie Moonves on Donald Trump: ‘It May Not Be Good for America, but It’s Damn Good for CBS’,” The Hollywood Reporter, Feb. 29, 2016

4. “Jeff Zucker’s Legacy is Defined by His Promotion of Donald Trump,” The Washington Post, Feb. 3, 2020

5. “Politico’s New German Owner Has a ‘Contrarian’ Plan for American Media,” The Washington Post, Jun. 6, 2022