MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Senator Marco Rubio has a new target when it comes to the Affordable Care Act, Spanish Language media, specifically Univision and Telemundo.
Senator Rubio was discussing a study from the conservative Media Research Center with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt when Florida’s junior senator said Spanish media have been “all-out advocates” for the law.
“Both of the major Spanish language networks, but Univision in particular, have basically become all-out advocates for Obamacare, trying to get people signed up,” Rubio told Hewitt, via Mediaite.com. “I mean, if ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, anybody were doing that, I mean, there would just be an extraordinary amount of criticism.”
The MRC study found what it called a “clear liberal slant” in newscasts on Telemundo and Univision. The group has looked for liberal bias in English-speaking media as well.
The founder of the MRC, Brent Bozell, has a history of controversial remarks against people who disagree with his conservative values.
He called Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts “a traitor to his philosophy” for not overturning the ACA. Bozell called President Barack Obama a “skinny ghetto crackhead” on a Fox News show.
Telemundo and Univision both denied the allegations of bias and Bozell admitted that conservatives need to find a way to “constructively engage” with the Spanish-language media.”
“We have an open invitation to elected officials and representatives from all sides to address our community on issues of importance and relevance,” Univision spokesperson Jose Zamora told Politico.com.
Univision has embarked on a company-wide initiative to encourage the Latino audience to sign up for health insurance, but Univision executives said the reason behind that is Latinos have one of the highest rates of uninsured populations and could benefit from signing up for health care.
