Instead of showing off its journalistic prowess, Telemundo’s much-heralded first U.S. Spanish-language media interview with President Trump showcased the network’s penchant for dishonesty and deception.
One of the most startling moments was when anchorman José Díaz-Balart doggedly professed ignorance of a January 2019 NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey that showed President Trump’s job approval rating among Hispanics climbing to 50 percent:
JOSÉ DÍAZ-BALART, ANCHOR, TELEMUNDO: Mr. President, I have not seen any poll that says
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’ll show it to you.
DÍAZ-BALART: With all due respect, that you have 50% support among Latinos.
The referenced poll was reported on by his own network’s national evening newscast on January 21, 2019:
ROGELIO MORA-TAGLE, CORRESPONDENT, TELEMUNDO: A poll by PBS and NPR, the public television and radio, show that since the shutdown began the President has lost support in many sectors, but surprisingly has gained almost 20 percentage points with one group: Hispanics. Today, the President was bragging about that figure. ‘My numbers in the polls among Hispanics rose 19 percent and reached 50 percent´.
President Trump clearly has a better handle on his Hispanic polling numbers than the lead anchorman of one of the nation’s top Hispanic networks.
Much more disturbing, however, was Telemundo’s ongoing determination to make no distinction between Trump administration policy towards immigrants who lawfully enter and live in the United States and those who do not.
Just as MRC Latino has been doing for years whenever similar grossly unfair statements are made on both Telemundo and Univision, President Trump found himself having to call out and correct Díaz-Balart when the anchorman accused him of being “very tough on immigrants.”
“When you say that, you mean illegal immigrants,” Trump immediately interjected.
The worst part, however, is that even following this presidential correction, the veteran NBC and Telemundo anchorman steadfastly refused to acknowledge the difference between the tens of millions of immigrants who are authorized to be in the country and those who are not:
DÍAZ-BALART: You have also been very tough on immigrants. Uh, and just this week the tweet
TRUMP: When you say that, you mean illegal immigrants.
DÍAZ-BALART: Immigrants who cross
TRUMP: Because I've been very good to immigrants, but illegal immigrants, right.
DÍAZ-BALART: Immigrants who cross
Pursuing the same line of dishonest questioning, Díaz-Balart also had the gall to ask Trump "Do you have something against immigrants?" This to a man who has married two of them and whose current immigration agenda calls for maintaining green cards for new immigrants to the U.S. at over one million per year:
DÍAZ-BALART: Do you have something against immigrants?
TRUMP: Uh, I love immigrants. I love immigrants. This country is based on immigrants. Our country is based on immigrants, and without it, in fact, I’ll tell you, I want people to come in. I have brought so much industry into the country. We have 17 car plants under construction. We have FoxConn coming in to Wisconsin. We have all these massive companies. You know, we’re doing incredibly well. 3.5% unemployment. By the way, lowest Hispanic unemployment rate in the history of our country. Lowest Asian, lowest African-American also. But we have the lowest Hispanic unemployment rate in the history of our country. Hispanics today are - have the average net wealth – the wealthiest they’ve ever been. Under Trump, not under Obama.
