The newspaper ads running today echo sentiments published last week in an open letter from Henry Cisneros, a former Univision president who served as housing secretary under President Clinton.
The merger will not "limit the range of programming for Latinos -- it will enhance it," Cisneros said in a recent interview. "Univision will be able to play with the big boys."
Cisneros said he felt compelled to speak out to support Univision. Although he has no Univision stock in his name, Cisneros cashed out $10.8 million in stock when he left the company in 2000, and his son's educational trust fund is principally Univision stock, he said.
The public lobbying became necessary, Cisneros and Univision executives say, after opponents attacked Univision's management in advertisements that ran in the Washington Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Among other things, opponents contend that Univision is controlled by Los Angeles billionaire A. Jerrold Perenchio and a coterie of white business executives with little in common with working-class Latinos who watch Univision shows.
In one ad, the National Hispanic Policy Institute said Perenchio supported California's Proposition 187, a 1994 voter-approved initiative aimed at preventing illegal immigrants from receiving government services.
Univision's Rodriguez said those allegations are false, and Univision produced a copy of a $50,000 canceled check that Perenchio sent to a group that fought the initiative. Rodriguez said Univision has a strong record serving Latinos with news and entertainment.
"There's been so much misinformation out there that we felt that we had to straighten the record," he said, noting that he is one of three Latinos who head a Univision division. "Out of 3,300 employees now at Univision, over 80% are Hispanic."
Analysts predict the merger soon will be approved. "Univision is still much smaller than other English-language media conglomerates," said David Joyce, senior media analyst with the Miami-based investment banking firm Guzman & Co.
The FCC is the final regulatory hurdle. The Justice Department signed off on March 26. FCC approval has stalled, Univision executives say, because commissioners have been focused on the debate over loosening media ownership rules.
Powell said as much last week, telling Reuters that the merger "is a big issue, it's here, but nobody has really spent any time on it."
Times staff writer James reported from Los Angeles, Calvo from Houston.
