Surprising no one, Univision continues to give favorable coverage to ObamaCare. Also surprising no one: that the network continues to do so without presenting any opposing perspective.
Here is a portion of the network’s coverage of the Motion to Open Debate on ObamaCare that aired on July 25, 2017:
MARIA ELENA SALINAS, NEWS ANCHOR, UNIVISION: Dozens of activists mobilized in Washington, D.C. against the eventual repeal of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. Numerous protesters attended the event in wheelchairs, as the United States Senate voted in favor of opening the debate on replacing the law, which has benefited millions.
Univision has had a long history of shilling for the beleaguered Affordable Care Act, and MRC Latino has chronicled this cozy relationship from its inception. As MRC Latino Director Ken Oliver-Méndez noted back in 2014:
The California Endowment, whose logo appears in the ad, serves as a financial funnel for this partnership, and last year signed a $20 million deal with Univision for its “multi-platform” ObamaCare enrollment campaign, as reported by Kaiser Health News. It has yet to be revealed whether or not the new ad series is tied to a fresh multi-million dollar deal between the two organizations.
Partiality in Univision’s news coverage of ObamaCare has been a chronic problem at the network, as documented by the Media Research Center's landmark April 2014 study Hispanic Media in the Balance. The content analysis of the network’s flagship news program, Noticiero Univision, found that over the course of four months, liberal advocates of ObamaCare were cited nearly five times as often as conservative opponents of ObamaCare.
Three years and one presidential election later, very little has changed. The nation's leading Spanish-language network continues to offer little to no views in opposition to President Barack Obama's legacy legislation, even as its onerous mandates cause the insurance market to implode.
True to form, Salinas' blurb closes by mentioning the "millions" that have been helped by ObamaCare. Not a peep, though, about the millions upon millions who lost their doctor, were forced out of their great primary care plans into inferior plans with much higher premiums and deductibles, or those have lost their jobs due to the law's cumbersome mandates.
Until that changes, Univision's viewers cannot rely on the network for credible coverage on ObamaCare, and that is indeed a shame.
