Los Angeles Times
By Christine Mai-Duc
August 26, 2015
In
his latest showdown, Donald Trump ordered Univision anchor Jorge Ramos
out of a news conference Tuesday, telling him to “go back to Univision.”
Ramos,
who like Trump is known for his confrontational style, didn’t back down
until he was escorted out of the room by security. Eventually, Ramos
was invited back, where
he sparred with Trump over the Republican candidate’s immigration
proposals.
Trump
has had some high-profile tiffs with media figures recently, battling
publicly with Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly, and on Tuesday with
the network’s chairman,
Roger Ailes.
But
prodding Ramos, who has been called the Spanish-language Walter
Cronkite, could prove dangerous for Trump, who thus far been something
of a Teflon candidate. Here’s
why:
Ramos is a very important figure for American Latinos
The
57-year-old has anchored “Noticiero Univision,” Spanish-language TV’s
No.1-ranked newscast, for nearly three decades and is considered a
trusted source of news. A
2010 study by the Pew Hispanic Center found that among Latinos, Ramos
was the second-most recognized Latino leader behind Supreme Court
Justice Sonia Sotomayor and other polls have shown he is one of the most
trusted public figures among Latinos.
"Spanish-language
news has almost the same pull as the priest in the pulpit," Rep. Xavier
Becerra (D-Los Angeles), told the Los Angeles Times in 2013. "And Jorge
Ramos
is the pope, he's the big kahuna."
Ramos
has a lot of followers: according to Nielsen ratings, more than 2
million viewers tune in to “Noticiero Univision” nightly. For
perspective, in 2013, that was three
times the audience of CNN’s “The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer.”
During
the last presidential election cycle, Washington Monthly called Ramos
the broadcaster who would most determine the outcome of the 2012
election.
Despite that, Trump at one point on Tuesday night said he "didn't know much about him."
Ramos has a personal connection to immigration issues
A
native of Mexico City, Ramos moved to Los Angeles as a student in 1983
and took UCLA Extension classes in journalism. He landed an on-air job
at KMEX-TV, Los Angeles’
Spanish-language station. Three years later, he was named an anchor for
Univision, becoming one of the youngest national news anchors in
television.
Ramos has consistently used his position to unabashedly push for immigration reform.
"I
am emotionally linked to this issue," Ramos told The Times in 2013.
"Because once you are an immigrant, you never forget that you are one."
Ramos sees himself as an advocate for millions of Latino immigrants, and so do they
For
many Latinos, Trump telling Ramos to, “Go back to Univision,” reflected
shades of racism and echoed the familiar phrase, “Go back to Mexico.”
Earlier this year, Ramos defended his focus on immigration in an open letter to Republicans.
"The
Republican Party has been complaining lately about how some Latino
journalists, including me, only ask them about immigration," he wrote.
"That is correct, but what
Republicans don't understand is that for us, the immigration issue is
the most pressing symbolically and emotionally, and the stance a
politician takes on this defines whether he is with us or against us."
Ramos has been unapologetic about his and the network’s stance.
“Our
position is clearly pro-Latino or pro-immigrant," he said in 2013. "We
are simply being the voice of those who don't have a voice."
Latinos,
in turn, see Ramos as a leader. According to the Pew Hispanic Center
survey, 38% of Latinos surveyed considered Ramos a major Latino leader.
At
a University of Texas at Austin forum earlier this year, Univision News
president Isaac Lee summed up the network’s audience: “Univision’s
audience knows that Jorge
is representing them,” Lee said. “He is not asking the questions to be
celebrated as a fair and balanced journalist. … He’s going to ask the
person whatever is necessary to push the agenda for a more fair society,
for a more inclusive society and for the Hispanic
community to be better.”
Much like Trump, Ramos seems to be a glutton for conflict and doesn’t often back down
Ramos
quit his first reporting job at a Mexico City TV station after his
bosses demanded he soften a piece critical of the Mexican government and
he refused.
Ramos
has said he approaches interviews with world leaders in the context of
warfare. “My only weapon is the question,” he told The Times in 2013.
During
the 2012 presidential campaign, Ramos moderated a series of Univision
candidate forums, and pressed Mitt Romney and President Obama hard on
immigration issues.
After confronting Romney about his proposed “self-deportation” policy,
Ramos turned to President Obama.
"A
promise is a promise,” he said, prodding the president over the
administration’s deportation of more than 1.4 million people and failure
to tackle immigration in his
first term. “And, in all due respect, you didn't keep that promise.”
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