Maria Elena Salinas and Jorge Ramos credited with asking most Substantive Questions during Primaries

September 29, 2008 - Pasadena, CA. – The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC), the country’s foremost American Latino media advocacy organization, congratulates Univision Spanish Television and its renowned news anchors, Maria Elena Salinas and Jorge Ramos, in particular, for their performance during the presidential primary debates. Out of all the U.S. television networks (English and Spanish), Univision ranked second for its debate performance, according to a study by the “Media Matters Action Network.” The study, “Change the Debate: How Gaffes, Games and Gotchas Dominated the 2008 Presidential Primary Debates,” examined those networks who moderated more than one debate during the presidential primaries and Univision was ranked second, behind PBS, as having asked the most substantive questions of the candidates. “At a time when the integrity of the news media is being questioned by certain presidential campaigns,” explained Alex Nogales, NHMC President & CEO, “this particular study is very important to the American people and we congratulate the Media Matters Action Network for undertaking this important study.”

According to the study, the debates hosted by PBS and Univision were the most substantive, with 100 percent and 82 percent substantive questions, respectively. Ms. Salinas and Mr. Ramos, who both appear on Univision’s “Noticiero Univision,” the most influential nightly news program on Spanish television, were lauded for their remarkable performances during the presidential primary debates having asked the most substantive questions (88 percent and 73 percent respectively), beating out national, big name broadcasters like Chris Matthews and Wolf Blitzer.

The Media Matters Action Network analyzed all the debates broadcasted on national television to chart this progression. They categorized the questions as either substantive or non-substantive, with further subcategories for the non-substantive questions. A third category, substantive but flawed, was used for questions that had a substantive basis, but that forced candidates to respond to inflammatory, hypothetical situations or to attack each other. A variety of different types of questions fell into the non-substantive category, including “Gotcha” questions focusing on prior controversial statements; questions in which a candidate was forced to defend someone else, such as a supporter; questions about a candidates political motives for some statement or position; questions revolving around poll results, electability, etc. and questions about personal matters not directly related to the policy or the duties of the president.

For more information on the report or the Media Matters Action Network, please go to www.mediamattersaction.org. And for more information on the National Hispanic Media Coaltion, please visit www.nhmc.org or call (626) 792-6462 .