As expected, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has cleared the way for the Soros-backed Latino Media Network’s (LMN) purchase of 18 Televisa Univision radio stations, among them Miami’s Radio Mambí.
Inside Radio reports:
The FCC decision clears the way for the closing of the sale that involves 18 stations including 10 AMs and eight FMs in the largest U.S. markets, including eight of the top 10 Latino markets. Markets included are Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, Chicago, Dallas, San Antonio, McAllen, Fresno, and Las Vegas. LMN, a new company founded by social entrepreneurs Stephanie Valencia and Jess Morales Rocketto with support from a group of investors, says the stations reach nearly one third of the U.S. Latino population.
Announced in June, the sale has been politically charged. Republicans in Congress have asked the FCC to give the sale a thorough review, while Democrats have urged the agency to approve the deal. The worry in Miami’s Cuban exile community is that LMN, whose founders and financiers have ties to the Democratic party, will transform WAQI and WQBA from staunchly conservative outlets that serve Miami’s mostly right-leaning Cuban population into bastions for leftist points of view.
There was nominal opposition to the deal, which the FCC promptly shot down. That is, in part, because the best time to kill this deal was in 2017- when the incoming Republican Congress had the power to do so under the Congressional Review Act. Recall that it was under cover of the Obama-Trump transition that the FCC approved a sweeping rule change that enabled Univision to increase its foreign ownership stake from 25 to 49%. The Republican Congress, caught sleeping, failed to review and repeal the rule when it had a chance. This, in turn, created the precedent that eventually allowed Univision to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Televisa. The result of Congress’ inaction is that a foreign-owned corporation is now in the position, by virtue of this sale of significant assets to a domestic partisan group, of exerting undue influence upon our elections.
During our initial analysis of the transaction, we noted that LMN seeks to rebuild upon the footprint of the failed Univision America network and change the information dynamics for the national Hispanic market ahead of the 2024 election. As we noted then:
…the move appears to be primarily fueled by panic over Democrats’ continued loss of influence over the Hispanic vote ahead of the 2024 presidential election. This is a significant development inasmuch as it lays a marker down, but not one that is permanently transformative or even a game-changer, given the left’s current existing near-monopoly on Spanish-language media.
With the last significant roadblock removed, the Soros-backed Latino Media Network can finalize its purchase of the Univision stations, neuter or kill anti-communist bastion Radio Mambí, and attempt to exert influence upon the 2024 election across the nation’s top Hispanic markets, which include such places as the Rio Grande Valley (McAllen, TX) and Las Vegas.
The establishment of “Radio Soros” as a trusted purveyor of information is critical to the next stage of The Great Spanish-Language Disinformation War we’ve seen unfold over the past few years. As conservative alternatives finally emerge, it remains to be seen whether *this* venture will be successful.
