Latino Advocacy Organization Calls Out Trump For Denying Access To Hispanic Media

Trump Has Ignored Hispanic Media For Over A Year

Latino Victory, an organization that advocates for Latino representation in politics, launched an online petition calling out Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for ignoring Hispanic media, highlighting that “Since June 2015, the most interaction Trump has had with Hispanic media has been to deny them access and attack them.”

The petition asks Trump to “give Hispanic news organizations the respect they deserve” and pointed out that, while he’s ignored Hispanic media, “In June, he spent over three hours being interviewed by Fox News.” The most prominent anchors in Hispanic media -- Telemundo’s José Díaz-Balart and Univision’s Jorge Ramos -- have issued multiple interview requests that Trump has continued to ignore, deepening his disconnect with Latino audiences.

Trump responded to Ramos’ first request by making the journalist’s personal information, including his phone number, public, and on another occasion by sending him a “personal” letter containing a campaign bumper sticker and a donation request. In addition, the candidate has shut down Diaz-Balart at a press conference, had Ramos ejected from another presser by security personnel, and denied press credentials to Univision correspondent Lourdes del Río.

Trump has a record of lashing out at media that features critical coverage of him: he revoked The Washington Post’s press credentials and threatened to do the same to The New York Times, saying the Times “is going to hell.” Trump and his supporters have also suggested they might use government power to retaliate against media. More than one hundred Univision journalists signed on to an open letter to Trump criticizing his threats to the free press -- which reflect a worrying trend in Latin America -- and decrying his practice of “obstruct[ing] coverage by denying press organizations access to campaign events.”

Trump has recently retreated to Fox News, a network that houses his defenders and sycophants.