Marco Rubio is supposed to be the Golden Boy Trojan Horse for the
repugican cabal
with the Hispanic community, but at least one Spanish-language
television network Univisión staffer isn’t buying it.
The Miami Herald
reported that Angelica Artiles, assistant to Univisión’s Vice President
of news, took to Rubio’s aide’s Facebook page to unload freely, calling
the repugican lawmaker a “loser” and “a token slave boy.”
“Oh. wow, the loser is going to speak after our
President,” Artiles wrote on spokesman Alex Burgos’ Facebook page at
9:33 p.m. Wednesday. “Anything to get publicity. Ask him to do us a
favor and stay home that night.”
A fight ensued with the Rubio aide. Patriotism was brought up. Etc.
Rubio aide Burgos wrote, “While you may be content with mediocrity under
this President, I am not. And fortunately neither are patriots like
Marco Rubio who have opportunities like next Tuesday night to offer an
alternative way forward. I am proud to work for him and actually feel
sorry for you for writing this.”
She then used a diminutive term for Rubio’s first name,
“Marquito,” and proceeded to compare him to a Disney dwarf, a “token
slave boy” and a “fool” who was passed over by repugican Mitt Romney on
his presidential ticket last November.
The Miami Herald reports that her feelings reflect the feelings of
many at Univisión, “Sentiments like that reflect the prevailing
political feeling among Univisión’s higher-ups at its Doral
headquarters, say Univisión insiders.”
Artiles has since deleted her comments and her Facebook account is inactive.
Now for the gold, considering this is coming from the party of Faux
News, where they don’t save slams like “Disney dwarf” for Facebook, but
rather use them in primetime to delegitimize the President. Carlos
Curbelo, a repugican Miami-Dade School Board member, told the
Miami Herald,
“I was shocked to learn this was a Univisión Network employee. This
again points to an unfortunate anti-Rubio, anti-repugican culture at
Univisión which threatens the network’s credibility.” Indeed.
The repugicans charge that Univisión is anti-repugican because the network is owned by a major Democratic donor, Haim Saban. But
Al Jazeera
has accused the network of being uber wingnut, “Israeli-American
businessman Haim Saban, a self-described “one-issue guy” – that issue
being Israel – who has been up front about purchasing media outlets to
promote his own political views.”
Univision joined ABC in a joint partnership in May of 2012.
Univisión wasn’t started as a fair and balanced news network, though
it does boast an award winning newscast. It started as mostly
entertainment, geared toward a Spanish speaking audience. It should
hardly come as a surprise that a venture started precisely for a
specific audience also seeks to amplify the voices of that audience on
policy matters.
But we should note that repugicans call it biased when Univisión
reported on Marco Rubio’s brother’s trouble with the law, as their
network runs false stories about President Obama the Kenyan Marxist
coming for the white man’s guns.
It is not the r after Rubio’s name that is the issue; it is his
opposition to the DREAM Act. It just so happens that most repugicans
share that opposition and this makes them unattractive to people who
disagree with them.
The repugicans don’t seem to understand the difference between being
anti-repugican out of nothing but spiteful hate and being
anti-repugican because repugican policies have been hating on
Hispanics and using them as a get out the vote punching bag for their
bitter base. The repugican's policies have treated minorities in general like
they are the problem. The repugicans keep whining about Univisión
supporting Democratic immigration proposals, as if it’s biased for
Hispanics to prefer policies that do not demonize undocumented workers.
Yes, it seems that many at Univisión have a position on immigration.
This does not mean that they are not truthful. Having a position is not
the same thing as being dishonest in order to advance that position (see
Fox News). So long as donations are disclosed openly, and positions are
made clear, representing a voice in the debate does not automatically
render one unfair. The repugicans have zero room to wiggle on this issue,
given Faux News’ failure to disclose donations to repugicans and free
air time to the 2012 repugican presidential line up.
The fact that Hispanics have a right to their point of view and this
is not a bias but rather participation in the debate was made by
Univisión to
The Hollywood Reporter:
Of course, many media critics and pundits, especially
from factions hostile to immigration, have accused Univision’s news
division of engaging in “advocacy journalism.” But Salinas contends the
network does not take a position on issues. “I think of it more as
contributing to democracy and to the debate on immigration,” she says.
“Because without our point of view it’s not a debate, it’s a monologue
of blaming immigrants for all the ills of this country.”
Leave it to repugicans to feel victimized by other people’s life experiences.
It’s mean to call a repugican anti-immigrant, even after they told
undocumented workers to self-deport, passed the Papers Please law in
Arizona and touted it nationally during the repugican cabal's primaries, and won’t
stop nattering on about fences. See, when the repugicans beat you up,
you’re supposed to like it, especially if they dress it up to appeal to
you, ala Marco Rubio. Or as some people put it so harshly, “Loser, token
slave, and Disney dwarf!”