Tonight's the night: The much-hyped "Rise Up As One" concert event- billed as "a celebration of music and unity" airs live on both Univision and Fusion. Here's what to expect now that the event is finally here.
Here's how anchor Jorge Ramos described the event as Univision proceeded with its platform-wide push:
JORGE RAMOS, ANCHOR, UNIVISION: We'll listen to music. Here in San Diego, from where we are broadcasting, is where the "Rise Up As One: One Voice" concert will be held this Saturday, in order to celebrate unity and diversity here in the United States. It is being put together by our network Univision and our English-language division Fusion, with sponsorship by Sprint, at this border region between San Diego and Tijuana.
We always suspected this was going to be a political event - even its initial announcement was timed to coincide with the one-year anniversary of Jorge Ramos' staged expulsion from the Donald Trump press conference in Iowa. These suspicions were immediately confirmed with the announcement that tonight's free concert will be held on 15 acres adjacent to Cross Border Express (CBX), which connects San Diego with Tijuana, Mexico.
At this point, Fusion doesn't even bother to hide the political nature of the event:
Music knows no borders. That’ll be especially true on Saturday afternoon, when Univision and Fusion Media Group will host RiseUp AS ONE, a concert to celebrate music, diversity and unity on the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego, California.
This bi-lingual, live-music event will feature leading musicians who represent the best of our diverse and inclusive society, and are providing the soundtrack to the concept of border schmorder.
Credit to George Varga of the San Diego Union-Tribune for cutting through the spin in his own preview piece appropriately titled, "All-star 'RiseUp AS ONE' border concert to promote diversity in Donald Trump era". I can't think of a better nutshell title than that. But in case there is any remaining doubt as to the true nature of the event:
Jorge Hernandez Sr., the leader of Los Tigres Del Norte, agrees that the unity music can foster is essential. But, he added, Trump’s volatile candidacy is a key impetus to RiseUp.
Hernandez is so offended by Trump’s hostile remarks about Mexicans and Latinos that he refuses to say the candidate’s name aloud. Instead, he prefers to refer to Trump as “this person.” Los Tigres has recorded a series of Public Service Announcements encouraging Latinos in the U.S. to vote.
“Especially now with this election coming, we want to raise our voices,” said Hernandez, a longtime San Jose resident who has dual U.S. and Mexican citizenship. “The way we’ve been treated and spoken of by this person has been very ugly. And my part, and Los Tigres’ part, in RiseUp is we want to raise our voice to this person, to be known. We can wake people up to the reality that we live in in this country and that we make major contributions to it. So, at our concerts, we try to give people reason to vote.”
Imagine my shock.
After having served up a belly-full of "thought leadership" yesterday, RiseUp will honor the sort of diversity that goes only skin-deep. Everything about the event will be undergirded by advocacy for progressive policies, featuring preaching between performances. Jorge Ramos is listed as a host, so you know there will be some sermonizing at some point. Rest assured, there will be no diversity of thought featured at RiseUp.
If I were a betting man, I would really like the odds of Hillary Clinton making an appearance at RiseUp, whether via video or in person. I would expect nothing less from the network that stands the most to gain from the election of Hillary Clinton - further cementing its status as a liberal special interest group with a news and entertainment division.
