Univision owner Haim Saban pushes Clinton team to Latino strategy
Major Hillary Clinton donor and Univision owner Haim Saban pushed Clinton to come out more forcefully against Donald Trump for his remarks about Mexican immigrants — but also expressed concerned that Univision was starting to be seen as too pro-Clinton, hacked emails released by Wikileaks show.
In the summer of 2015, shortly after Trump launched his campaign with the pronouncement that Mexico sends over illegal immigrants who are “rapists”, Saban told the Clinton team in multiple emails and phone calls that he thought Clinton needed to do more to push back on the comments and shore up Latino support.
"Haim thinks we are under reacting to Trump/Hispanics. Thinks we can get something by standing up for Latinos or attacking R's for not condemning,” Clinton campaign chair John Podesta wrote to senior members of the campaign.
Clinton campaign vice chair Huma Abedin wrote back that “if Haim is raising it, it means he’s hearing it from his Univision colleagues."
Univision has not been shy about its position on immigration or Trump. Top anchor Jorge Ramos has famously tangled with the Republican nominee and denounced him, saying he is “spreading hate.” Though Ramos has also drawn criticism from some in the mainstream media, who say he strays from objectivity into advocacy, Univision News President Isaac Lee — who has equated speaking truth in today’s politics to speaking out against the Nazis during World War II — has vigorously defended Ramos’ journalist-activist role.
As a result of Saban’s urging, the Clinton campaign drafted a detailed media plan around Clinton’s planned speech before a Latino advocacy group and included an interview with Univision anchor Maria Elena Salinas.
But in later emails from August of 2015, Saban seemed concerned that Univision was appearing to be too pro-Clinton. He forwarded to Abedin an article from Hot Air published in May of 2015, headlined "The press is starting to notice Univision’s pro-Hillary boosterism”, which linked to a piece by POLITICO about the deep Univision/Clinton relationship. "I have nothing to do with it,” Saban wrote. "i NEVER tell our news dep. What to cover.,,,unlike some of my peers."
Abedin replied “welcome to our world!"
That doesn't mean Saban didn't enjoy when Univision helped Clinton. Rob Friedman, former Co-Chairman of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group sent Saban an email praising Univision's Democratic debate from March of 2016.
"I just wanted to tell you that I thought the moderators for last nights Debate were excellent," Friedman wrote. "They were thoughtful, tough and incisive. I thought it made Hilary appear direct and strong in her resolve. I felt it advanced our candidate. Thanks for Univision. "
“I like this one," Saban wrote, forwarding the note to Clinton's top staff.
In a statement, Univision emphasized its business-editorial separation.
“Univision News is an editorially independent division of Univision Communications Inc. We are devoted to in-depth, quality journalism and maintain or independence from the larger corporation. Mr. Saban has always respected that independence and has never tried to get involved or made any requests to our news division.”
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