The reason? Oh, nothing much. The five candidates are refusing to participate at the request of three Florida Hispanic Republican lawmakers who accused Univision of running a 'news' story about the 24-year-old drug bust of Senator Marco Rubio’s brother in law in retaliation because Rubio refused to do an interview on the show Al Punto, which supports amnesty for illegal aliens.
Univision of course is denying the attempted blackmail, and said in a statement that has called the allegations of a quid-pro-quo “absurd,” and said that the July story was reported fairly and accurately.
Yes, and of course the arrest of Rubio's brother in law back in 1987 when the Senator was 16 is a major story that merited two full days of extensive coverage.
Meanwhile Univision isn't covering the story of President Obama being photographed campaigning with Malik Shabazz, one of the members of the New Black Panther Party who was convicted of civil rights violations for "patrolling" a voting station in Philadelphia with a night stick. You might remember that one..the charges were dismissed right after Obama was elected over the career prosecutor's objections and after the conviction was made.
But then neither is much of the Dinosaur Media.You can only imagine what the coverage would be like if Michele Bachmann or Mitt Romney was caught campaigning with David Duke or with members of the Aryan Brotherhood.
Three of Rubio’s friends and political allies – U.S. Rep. David Rivera, state House leader Carlos Lopez-Cantera, and Miami-Dade Republican Chairman Erik Fresen – called Monday for the Univision boycott in a letter to the Republican National Committee and the campaigns.
“This attempt at extorting a respected Republican elected official like Senator Rubio, who is also a proud American of Hispanic descent, is offensive and unacceptable,” they wrote.
They called for Univision to apologize and to fire its news president, Isaac Lee, who was accused of offering the quid-pro-quo deal to Rubio. Lee has repeatedly denied the charge.
"We respectfully decline your request to issue a public apology or to request the resignation of our President of News, Mr. Isaac Lee. Lost in the inflammatory language being used by you is the that our story was truthfully and accurately reported," Univision said in a written statement issued before midnight Monday.
“More importantly, Univision takes exception to the false assertion that it attempted to ‘extort’ Senator Rubio in any way, shape or form,” the statement said. “At no point in time did anyone from Univision offer to kill or soften the story regarding Senator Rubio’s brother-in-law in exchange for appearing on any Univision news program."
You see, Marco Rubio made a mistake. He doesn't believe in demonizing illegal aliens, but he doesn't believe in amnesty for them either and that didn't sit well with the people in charge over at Univision because he's a high profile politician who might very well get offered the vice presidential nomination...and as *gasp* a conservative Republican. Dios Mio!
Not only do the GOP candidates gets props for standing on principle and doing the right thing, they're also not losing anything. Both NBC and Telemundo will be airing GOP presidential debates in Spanish, and Spanish speaking voters will ample opportunity to see those debates.
Good for all of them. Its time to hold the MSM responsible for their biases and inadequacies.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile why is it Rubio's fault that his BIL was arrested on a drug charge at anytime in his life never mind when the Senator was a teenager himself? Are you somehow now responsible for everything a potential relative does or even a genetic relative does for their entire lives...oh yeah forgot it only counts if your a republican. If you are a democrat then according to the MSM you aren't responsible for your minister, friends, associates- heck you aren't even responsible for your own lawlessness or drug use.
Another thing you don't mention. The owners of Univision are Mexican and Rubio's a Cuban. The two groups don't have much in common,Cubans mostly vote Republican and Mexicans mostly vote Democrat.
ReplyDelete