Is the Univision Decision to Cancel Biden Ads a Deep State Conspiracy?
The network’s collusion with Trump will expose the right’s hypocrisy on 1st Amendment issues
Did I dream this, or didn’t we just live through many months of the right complaining that the First Amendment was being destroyed by the left? Wasn’t there a “Twitter Files” report that detailed a list of grievances, used extensively in Congressional hearings, that outlined all the ways that the government and the 2020 Biden Campaign pressured Twitter and other social media companies to suppress information that might be damaging to the right’s electoral aspirations? Weren’t we supposed to think that there was “election interference” due to this unseemly behavior?
I’m pretty sure I wasn’t dreaming, and am still not dreaming, as these complaints continue to this day. Right wing talking heads and Twitter/X accounts still bring this up as evidence of left-wing control of, and bias within, social media and media in general.
Well, I’m sure they’d be chagrined to know that, once again, a political campaign is attempting the same anti-free speech deep state techniques to quash their political opponents’ First Amendment rights.
The Washington Post has reported that the Hispanic television network Univision canceled ads bought by the Biden campaign that were bought and paid for and set to run during a recent network interview with Donald Trump. Furthermore, this was announced on the same day as the Trump interview, and right after a personal meeting between Trump himself and some network executives.
Is there any other explanation than they were persuaded by Trump to remove the ads? Is this not pressuring the network to take action against a political opponent? Is this not the suppression of information harmful to a political campaign? Is this not “election interference”?
Will we see Congressional hearings about this? Will there be posts on Twitter/X from the right-wing crowd about these shenanigans and how inappropriate they are?
In case you don’t see where I’m going with this, the answer is “no”....there will be no hearings or outrage on the right about this, because it obviously benefits their cause.
It is certainly debatable whether this type of behavior, either from Trump, or the Biden campaign or the FBI in 2020, is appropriate. But in the end, the decision to suppress information on a platform is not really a First Amendment issue, and needs to come from that platform’s executives. And their decisions may or may not be swayed by one or several external forces.
But it is their business how they want to handle their business. They are companies operating in a capitalistic system and are driven by ratings and clicks, and, therefore, profits. If they achieve those profits in a non-fraudulent way, then they are legitimate business decisions.
It is certainly troubling that Trump can influence a whole network’s advertising content like this. I am not personally comfortable with the idea that the Hispanic vote might be swayed more towards Trump due to the suppression of anti-Trump ads juxtaposed against a puff piece interview with him.
But this is the system we live and die by. One would have to think and hope that there’s a chance this could backfire against Univision. If they are seen as cozying up to Trump, they could lose viewers, and therefore lose advertisers, and therefore lose out on profits. But even if they don’t, and they decide to become the Hispanic version of Fox News, and that helps to increase their profits, that is just an unfortunate reality we all have to deal with.
However, this is not a First Amendment or “free speech” issue any more than the Twitter Files revealed any First Amendment or “free speech” violations. But even if they disagree with me on this, I’m sure the right will not bring this up when they grieve some more about their loss of First Amendment rights.
Buy the lie, ignore the rest