Univision News

Below is Univision’s official statement regarding the recent allegations made by Sen. Marco Rubio’s office. The statement was drafted by Univision’s General Counsel and was released on Monday night.

Official response from Univision 

Univision Communications Inc.
October 3, 2011

David Rivera U.S. Congressman Florida, District 25

Carlos Lopez-Cantera House Majority Leader Florida House of Representatives, Republican State Committeeman Miami-Dade County

Erik Fresen, Florida State Representative Chairman, Republican Party of Miami-Dade County

Re: False allegations against Univision

Dear Messrs. Rivera, Lopez-Cantera, and Fresen:

I am responding on behalf of The Univision Network Limited Partnership (“Univision”) to your letter to Mr. Randy Falco dated October 3, 2011. We respectfully decline your request to issue a public apology or to request the resignation of our President of News, Mr. Isaac Lee. Lost in the inflammatory language being used by you is the fact that our story was truthfully and accurately reported.

More importantly, Univision takes exception to the false assertion that it attempted to “extort” Senator Rubio in any way, shape, or form. At no point in time did anyone from Univision offer to kill or soften the story regarding Senator Rubio’s brother-in-law in exchange for appearing on any Univision news program. Univision, like any reputable news organization, has requested and would welcome the appearance of Senator Rubio on air, although he has declined Univision’s recent invitations to be interviewed. It would be completely incorrect to assume, however, that Univision would alter any news content in exchange for such an appearance. Any statement to the contrary is patently absurd.

The fact that no such offer or “extortion” took place is easily confirmed by the fact that two of Univision’s internal legal counsel were on the call with Senator Rubio’s staff and by the fact that there was no reference to any alleged extortion in the follow-up letter from the Senator’s office to Univision repeating its request that Univision kill the story. Surely they would have used this “fact,” if it existed, to further their efforts to prevent the story from reaching the public. 

We remain committed to providing U.S. Hispanics fair and balanced coverage of the issues that matter to them, and we welcome Senator Rubio to join all elected officials from both the Republican and Democratic Parties (and all others) to continue reaching out to our viewers through the Univision Network.

Sincerely,

Arya Towfighi
Vice President and Assistant General Counsel

For more information on the situation, see the most recent Associated Press article.