Does Hillary-Univision deal cross a line? [View all]

[n2doc]

by Raul Reyes

Imagine if a major television network entered into a partnership with a presidential nominee, and promoted that candidate across their media platforms. Just think of the outrage and charges of bias that would ricochet through the press.

Or maybe not.

Univision, the country's top Spanish-language network, has entered into a multiyear deal with Hillary Clinton to promote the health, education and well-being of young children. As part of an early childhood development campaign that she began last year, Clinton has signed on with Univision to promote "Pequeños y Valiosos" (Young and Valuable), a program to encourage Hispanic parents to develop their children's language skills. Among other goals, the program wants to help close what is known as a "word gap," the vocabulary differential between low-income children and their classmates. Clinton and Univision officials kicked off the program at an event in at a Head Start program in East Harlem.

That's all good, right?

Not really. Although the program has worthy goals, the problem here is that a major broadcaster is getting awfully close to a presumptive nominee for president. A second problem is that many in the press are largely ignoring this relationship. Marc Caputo, a political reporter for the Miami Herald, wrote about the Univision/Clinton ties, and several conservative media outlets picked up his column. But other than that, this has been a non-story — which is a shame.

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/02/23/raul-reyes-univision-hillary-clinton/5616437/