Univision’s news division took the controversy that has engulfed the Florida gubernatorial race and predictably...for lack of a better term...they monkeyed it up.
Univision led off its August 29 national evening newscast with the firestorm that has erupted after Congressman Ron DeSantis, now the GOP nominee for Governor of Florida, said in an interview that “the last thing we need to do is monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state” in reference to the socialist policies espoused by his Democrat rival Andrew Gillum, the Mayor of Tallahassee who also happens to be African-American.
The first warning sign was that it fell on Univision correspondent Lourdes Del Río to cover the kerfuffle. In the past, Del Río has essentially whitewashed the history of convicted FALN terrorist Oscar Lopez Rivera, and given a totally uncritical platform to those who seek to turn tragedy and grief into a political commodity.
As is clear from the report, today’s monkeyshines were accorded similar treatment:
LOURDES DEL RIO, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISION: But what has set tongues wagging the most today…
U.S. REP. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): ..the last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda…
LOURDES DEL RIO, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISION: ...are statements by DeSantis to Fox News, where he used the word “monkey” - a term considered by some to be racist - in order to warn that were the African-American Gillum to be elected, who he called a socialist, the state would be ruined. There has been much criticism. His campaign defended him by stating that the remark was about Gillum’s socialist policies and it is absurd to characterize it as anything else.
There are two major sleights of hand within this 30-second clip that only bolster Univision’s reputation as being chronically biased against Republicans. In the first, Del Río lets DeSantis’ remark go untranslated (a big ethical no-no) before giving viewers a prejudicial condensation of the remark with no context as to “monkey it up”. Del Río simply throws “monkey” out there and leaves it to viewers to infer racism without any context or background. On its face, this is patently dishonest - more so given that in Del Río’s native Puerto Rico there are commonly used Spanish-language expressions that are very similar to “monkey it up” (“hacer monerías”, “monear”) that have zero racial connotations whatsoever. Univision’s viewers are deprived of that critical perspective and are instead spoon-fed race grievance.
Second, Del Río also mistranslated the clarifying statement from the DeSantis campaign, and omits a critical contextual portion. Del Río turns this:
Ron DeSantis was obviously talking about Florida not making the wrong decision to embrace the socialist policies that Andrew Gillum espouses. To characterize it as anything else is absurd. Florida’s economy has been on the move for the last eight years and the last thing we need is a far-left Democrat trying to stop our success.
To displaying this on the graphic and passing it off as an actual quote:
The remark was about Gillum’s socialist policies and it is absurd to characterize it as anything else.
There’s fake news, really fake news, and then this kind of blatant act of partisan butchery. It is part of a persistent pattern at Univision, and conservatives running for statewide or federal office should not expect much different - especially when running against an avowed "Abilish ICE" candidate.
