Normally, the leading evening news broadcasts of the nation’s top Spanish-language television networks, Univision and Telemundo, cover U.S. political developments significantly less than their top English-language counterparts, ABC, CBS and NBC.
But Donald Trump’s entry into the U.S. presidential race changed all that. During the three months that elapsed between the day of Trump’s campaign announcement speech on June 16 and September 15, the day before the second Republican presidential candidates’ debate, Trump was the subject of 304 minutes of combined evening news coverage on Univision and Telemundo, compared with a total of 271 minutes on ABC, CBS and NBC.
In other words, the two top Spanish-language news shows, Noticiero Univision and Noticiero Telemundo, churned out more Trump news than their counterparts on the top three English-language networks, a remarkable level of coverage.
But the overwhelmingly predominant tone and nature of the coverage Trump has received on Spanish-language television has been anything but favorable. Since day one of his campaign, Trump has been consistently depicted on these networks as a racist and enemy of the country’s Hispanic-origin population.
As part of the content analysis of the coverage, MRC Latino prepared a 90-second video compilation of some of the most negative depictions and characterizations of Trump featured between June 16 and September 15 on Telemundo and Univision:
TELEMUNDO: A piñata with Trump’s face on it circulated among the crowd. They beat it up, they say, to vent the frustration they have with the magnate.
UNIVISION: Alberto Ciruana, Univision’s President of Programming and Content, posted this message to Instagram, apparently comparing the millionaire with the suspect in the massacre of nine African-Americans in a church in South Carolina.
TELEMUNDO: Donald Trump has become Mexicans’ favorite piñata.
TELEMUNDO: Today Trump, who is seeking the presidency as a Republican, again repeated that Mexico only sends drug dealers and rapists.
UNIVISION: What Trump’s plan doesn’t mention is that the wall has cost millions of dollars and has become a monument to triviality.
UNIVISION: Joe Arpaio, the Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, who like Trump is famous because of his anti-immigrant positions.
UNIVISION: Days after calling Mexican immigrants criminals, Donald Trump says he loves the Mexican people.
UNIVISION: He refused to take back his negative comments about Mexican immigrants, whom he called criminals and rapists. Trump made these comments in interviews with NBC and CNN, three weeks after his anti-immigrant speech.
UNIVISION: Like Jorge Ramos, Governor O’Malley has been leading the fight against Donald Trump’s racism and disdain against the Latino community in general.
As evidenced by the coverage on Univision and Telemundo, Trump’s opening campaign statement criticizing Mexico for “not sending their best” and on the contrary, for “sending people that have lots of problems” including bringing crime, drugs and with only “some” good people presumably among them, was immediately and consistently projected as a racist and anti-immigrant slap in the face against the country’s entire Hispanic-origin community.
As a result, the corporate structures at both networks quickly moved to sever their commercial ties with Trump’s Miss Universe organization. In retaliation, in short order, Trump not only refused to do interviews with these networks and sued one of them, but was also subsequently caught up in explosive encounters with both networks’ lead anchors at separate press conferences.
Trump’s subsequent announcement of a hard-line immigration policy, advocating for the completion of a border wall with Mexico and aggressive enforcement of current U.S. immigration law, only added fuel to the fire in Univision and Telemundo’s withering barrage of anti-Trump coverage.
During the three-month period, hardly a week went by without another perceived Trump-related outrage, including incidents of beatings of unauthorized immigrants that were allegedly motivated by Trump’s rhetoric, as well as Trump’s sharp criticism of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s display of his Spanish-language skills.