The Challenge of Covering Donald Trump If You're a Latino Reporter

It's safe to say there has never been much of a honeymoon phase between Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and the Spanish-language news media.

The tone was set last summer.

At a news conference shortly after Trump launched his presidential campaign, Univision TV anchor Jorge Ramos didn’t wait to be called on before challenging Trump’s inflammatory comments about Mexican immigrants.

“Go back to Univision,” Trump growled before Ramos was removed from the room. New York-based Univision is the most watched Spanish-language TV network in the world, and Jorge Ramos is viewed by many as a Latino Walter Cronkite-type newsman.

Ramos, who was born in Mexico and is a U.S. citizen, was later allowed back into the Trump news conference and engaged the candidate in a lively exchange for several minutes over the candidate’s proposals to deport enormous numbers of undocumented immigrants and erect a wall along the Mexican border, although a series of man-made barriers and other security measures already exist along some 600 miles of the United States’ 2,000-mile border with Mexico.

“I have a bigger heart than you do,” Trump quipped to Ramos.

Ramos later told the New York Times that he considers Trump’s coarse rhetoric on Latinos “personal." On Tuesday, Ramos penned a scathing anti-Trump commentary titled “Summer of Hate” for the Univision news and culture outlet Fusion.

“Trump is a hater. I’ve never witnessed such venom in American politics as in his campaign,” writes Ramos. “Undoubtedly many of his followers believe that if their candidate can attack people, they can, too. The result is a poisonous political climate where insults, bullying and racism have become commonplace.”

But not all Spanish-language news reporters who cover Trump agree with such strong sentiment.

"I’m Venezuelan. If someone comes out and says Venezuelans are all rapists, I might be offended," says veteran Los Angeles-based reporter Pilar Marrero. "But as a reporter, I’m not supposed to take it personally. I'm supposed to be a good reporter and do my job."

Marrero is covering the 2016 presidential election for Impremedia, a media company that operates Spanish-language newspapers across the U.S., including La Opinion in Los Angeles. She's in Cleveland this week covering the Republican National Convention.

“In terms of covering Trump, yes, we focus a lot on immigration,” says Marrero. “And a lot on his tone about race, but that’s because that’s the central part of his campaign. It has nothing to do with being subjective or objective.”

A recent survey from the conservative watchdog group Media Research Center concluded that the tone of Spanish-language news coverage paints Donald Trump unfairly as "an enemy of Latinos."

Ken Oliver-Mendez, director of MRC Latino, says Spanish-language news outlets also devote a disproportionate amount of presidential election coverage to the issue of immigration.

"The problem is that legitimate concerns about national security, about law and order, about rule of law are marginalized and not considered fully. And you’ve had a real demonization of the other side, of the Republicans generally as the bad guys. Some very sweeping generalizations we see," says Oliver-Mendez.

The challenge in covering a candidate like Trump, if you’re from a Spanish-language news organization, is that some people may assume you have a built-in bias, says Cal State Northridge journalism professor Jose Luis Benavides.

"Nobody would tell to a reporter who covers Wall Street: Watch out because you are white and most of the people you are covering are white, so maybe you (have) a conflict of interest," says Benavides, who also launched "El Nuevo Sol," a student-operated, Spanish-language online news site.

Benavides adds that there is a tradition in some Spanish-language news media of adopting a crusader reporting style. And that’s an approach that may give an impression of bias.

“We’re all going to have our biases. However, I really do believe in truths,” says OC Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano.

OC Weekly is actually printed in English. But a lot of its readers are young, bilingual and Latino. The newspaper has been very critical of Trump and his policies, frequently satirizing and savagely ridiculing the candidate.

“At the OC Weekly we're not exactly known for liking Donald Trump,” says Arellano. "After all, we put did put him getting sodomized by a donkey on the cover a couple months ago."

Arellano is referring to an infamous OC Weekly cover by cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz that depicts a cartoon Democratic Party donkey mounting a cartoon Donald Trump from behind.

“Check out our Trump Coverage!” exclaims the donkey. “It’s yuuuge!” grunts the cartoon Trump.

But Arellano says OC Weekly also doesn’t shy away from engaging with and spotlighting Trump supporters. Arellano is currently working on an extensive profile of a young Latino who plans to vote for Trump.

“Because it’s a great story,” says Arellano. "If you’re going to let your biases get in the way of a great story, then you're a hack reporter, straight up. Like here at the (OC) Weekly, we're left of left of left. But we always let the other side have a say."

Trump does have his say, but on his own terms, usually taking to social media or conservative-leaning Fox News to get out that day’s message du jour.

His interactions with Spanish-language news media have been limited to a few TV interview appearances and some memorable face-offs with reporters at news conferences and primary debates. But those were in the first months of his presidential run. There’s been a virtual blackout ever since.

Benavides says that, unlike many Republican presidential candidates of the past, Trump pretty much ignores Spanish-language news media. In fact, his campaign has denied press credentials to Univision, Telemundo and La Opinion for past events.

"I mean he loses really a lot in not doing that kind of engagement with Spanish-language media, because that vote is going to be very significant in certain states," says Benavides. "Think about Florida, think about Nevada. Their vote might matter a lot."

Oliver-Mendez of MRC Latino believes the frosty relationship between Trump and Spanish-language news media will begin to thaw as Election Day draws near. It’s likely many of Trump’s supporters are hoping that’s the case.

"He does have Spanish-language supporters among his delegates, among the Republican officials around the country,” says Oliver-Mendez. "And probably it’s smart politics to engage with this great ethnic media of our day in the United States. And remember, Mr. Trump himself told (Univision’s) Jorge Ramos, 'We will be talking.' "

That promise came several months ago, shortly after Trump settled a lawsuit with Univision after it severed a five-year contract to broadcast the Miss USA beauty pageant, which Trump partially owns.

And as Trump prepares for his coronation as the GOP’s presidential nominee and his campaign prepares to roll on after Cleveland, Spanish-language news organizations say they’ll continue to follow closely -- with or without a press pass.