Univision and Fusion anchor Jorge Ramos says when it comes to covering Donald Trump, journalists should not try to be impartial.
“It doesn’t matter who you are — a journalist, a politician or a voter — we’ll all be judged by how we responded to Donald Trump,” Ramos writes in latest edition of Time Magazine. “Like it or not, this election is a plebiscite on the most divisive, polarizing and disrupting figure in American politics in decades. And neutrality is not an option.”
{mosads}Of course, all while Ramos is lecturing journalists and voters how they should act and think in actually justifying bias against a presidential candidate, he really should try putting into practicing another tenet of journalism:
Transparency.
Because nowhere mentioned in Ramos’ screed is the fact that his daughter, Paola Ramos, has worked in the Obama Administration or on his re-election campaign. He also conveniently fails to share that Paola is currently a member of Hillary Clinton’s re-election team.
Those are the kind of things that should be shared with his readers, don’t you think? Especially when he starts comparing himself to — get ready for it — Murrow and Cronkite.
“Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite were right,” he writes, “sometimes you have to take a stand.”
Yup, just like Jorge G. Ramos is doing now…with a fat conflict of interest to boot.
Time Magazine, of course, is also responsible here. The once-venerable publication doesn’t bother to add a disclaimer anywhere stating Ramos’ connection via his daughter to the current administration or Clinton campaign.
And then there’s the fact that Ramos doesn’t bother to mention scrutinizing Trump’s opponent, who voters see as even more dishonest than him in the form of Hillary Clinton. Most polls show that nearly 7 in 10 Americans see Clinton as untrustworthy, which is actually higher than Trump in this department.
But in applying the Ramos standard, Clinton’s various scandals must be ignored in an effort to concentrate solely on stopping Trump.
“Trump, really, is no laughing matter. But he could be the next president,” Ramos writes before jumping to the real wrath-of-God stuff.
“Judgment day is coming. Will you have peace of mind come November 9th?”
This is journalism today, folks…where an advocacy journalist who has issues with basic transparency has the audacity to condescendingly attempt to shame journalists to change the rules of reporting…all in the name of his own moral superiority.
Concha is a media reporter for The Hill.
The views expressed by Contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.