Spinning Against Sen. Paul, in Spanish

April 9th, 2015 6:20 PM

The nation’s leading English-language television networks aren’t the only ones giving presidential candidate Rand Paul a hard time.  Spanish-language networks Univision and MundoFox have also been battering the Kentucky senator in their initial coverage of his presidential aspirations.

In fact, neither Univision, MundoFox nor Telemundo have even been able to properly identify Senator Paul’s political ideology. While Univision and MundoFox both labeled Paul an “ultraconservative,” Telemundo anchor José Díaz-Balart bizarrely called Paul a “Conservative Liberal.”

Although all three were off the mark, perhaps Telemundo's classification, in at least Spanish-language terms, actually came closest to Senator Paul’s ideology: that of a liberal in the classical sense, better known in the U.S. political context as a Libertarian. As a libertarian, Senator Paul’s actions are guided by a series of core convictions, such as liberty and individual responsibility, tolerance, peace, respect of private property, free markets, representative democracy, due process and a limited and constitutional government.

These convictions could very well make Paul an attractive candidate for a large cross-section of modern-day Republicans, Democrats and Independents, including many U.S. Hispanics. 

MundoFox made the most egregious error in its initial coverage, by labelling Paul on screen as a candidate who "would go against immigrants.” MundoFox anchor Rolando Nichols failed to mention Paul's position in favor of legal immigration, much less his stance on any other issue.

For Univision’s part, although anchor María Elena Salinas referenced Senator Paul’s theme of “restoring the country,” the rest of the network’s coverage was decidely negative and unfair.

Univision reporter Pablo Gato chose to only cite critical pundits: Republican Adolfo Franco tarred the Senator with labels such as “isolationist” and classified Paul as a relic of the 19th century. Democrat Melisa Díaz said of Paul “he opposed immigration reform and hasn’t taken pro-Hispanic positions” whatever that means.

Gato went out of his way to point out that Paul did not mention Hispanics during his announcement speech. Gato did, however, reference the fact that Senator Paul enjoys considerable support for his position against spying on the American people.

Below is the English-language translation of the cited Univision segment, followed by the original Spanish.

GATO: This Republican says that his vision as an ultraconservative, anti-government, and isolationist eliminates him as a possible President. On such an important day Rand Paul did not even mention the issue of immigration or the term Hispanic.

DIAZ: Well, he is a candidate that has been opposed to immigration reform, a candidate who has not taken pro-Hispanic positions.

Original Spanish:

GATO: Este republicano dice que su visión ultraconservadora, anti-gobierno, y aislacionista le elimina como posible presidente. En un día tan importante, Rand Paul ni mencionó el tema migratorio o la palabra hispano.

DIAZ: Bueno, es un candidato que se ha opuesto a la reforma migratoria, un candidato que no ha asumido posturas pro-hispanas.