Today, hundreds of thousands of Latinos and non-Latinos cheer NBC Universal and its parent company Comcast for severing their relationship with Donald Trump for his bigoted, racist, anti-Latino rant. NBC Universal/Comcast, to its credit, moved to disassociate itself from a man who has either failed to realize or to accept that hate speech against any and all communities will no longer be tolerated.
NHMC applauds NBC Universal/Comcast for joining Univision and the two MC's of the Miss U.S.A. Pageant, Roselyn Sanchez and Cristian de la Fuente, for braving Trump's threats of law suits and taking huge monetary losses for their actions rather than continue their relationships with a bigot.
This morning NBC Universal announced that it would not air the Miss U.S.A. nor the Miss Universe pageants, both of which Trump produces. NBC Universal also stated that Trump will no longer host The Apprentice, which has been airing successfully on NBC for over ten years.
This announcement comes on the heels of a Friday meeting between NHMC's President and CEO, Alex Nogales, NBC Entertainment Chairman, Bob Greenblatt, and NBC Entertainment President, Jennifer Salke. At the meeting, Nogales insisted that NBC Universal sever all ties with Trump, noting mounting grassroots pressure from the Latino community, as well as organized efforts from the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda's Media Committee, which NHMC's Jessica J. Gonzalez co-chairs along with Felix Sanchez of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts. The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda is a coalition of thirty-nine of the nation's most prominent Latino advocacy organizations.
"Bravo," applauded Nogales. "It is good to have media partners with a conscience who understand that doing business with people like Trump is not only unconscionable, but also would harm relationships with the Latino community and other fair-minded non-Latinos."
On June 16th, Trump announced his bid for the White House. Among his many infamous comments, was this:
The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else's problems. Thank you. It's true, and these are the best and the finest. When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.
NHMC has a long history of advocating against hate speech in media.