U.S. Sen Marco Rubio continues to fire off flares about the political implications of a George Soros-connected group acquiring 18 Spanish-language radio stations, including a conservative one in Miami that has been a favorite voice of those critical of Cuba’s communist regime.
In a letter earlier this week to Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, Rubio and several other GOP lawmakers asked that the agency “thoroughly scrutinize” the proposed sale of the stations to the Latino Media Network.
Financed by a company connected to Soros, the group has offered $60 million for the network of stations that includes Radio Mambí, an AM station in Miami, and a prominent outlet for conservative Hispanics.
“We are concerned that LMN, as a newly formed front group led by partisan operatives with zero experience in broadcasting, may work to silence political viewpoints with which its funders disagree,” Rubio’s letter said.
“If successful, LMN could exercise virtually uncontested influence over nearly one-third of all Hispanics across the country.”
“Given the importance of the FCC’s stewardship over the limited AM and FM bandwidth available across the United States,” the letter continued, “we ask that the commission carry out its due diligence and thoughtfully scrutinize the takeover of these stations by a partisan organization only announced last week.”
As The Free Press reported, the LMN is led by Stephanie Valencia and Jess Morales Rocketto, two Democratic operatives with close ties to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The pair have openly advocated many of the positions held by their left-wing billionaire benefactor, including support for open borders, defunding police, and the radical LGBTQ agenda.
“Many of the stations implicated in this sale are pillars of their local community,” Rubio and his supporters wrote. Stations like Radio Mambi are in some cases “among the last media outlets dedicated to, and staffed by, the local community.”
“The hostile takeover by LMN would destroy those long-standing community connections,” the letter noted.
Rubio argued that LMN’s founders have promoted the racial angle of the deal, calling it “one of the largest single acquisitions of stations by a Latino owned and operated company in history.”
Yet, he added, “grave questions remain about the nature of LMN – its precise ownership structure, the potential involvement of foreign funding, how it intends to program a massive network of radio stations given its total lack of experience.”
“Far from benign, the proposed sale is the latest in a series of moves by elite progressives desperate to claw back support from Hispanic voters, who have rightly turned their backs on Democrats and their socialist priorities,” the letter noted.
“But instead of overhauling their own unpopular policies, we are concerned that far-left ideologues are attempting to consolidate and expand their control over the media, so they can flood the airwaves with propaganda with the hopes of fooling listeners so that they can silence effective conservative voices who challenge their progressive propaganda.”
He noted that leftists have been “explicit” about their aims. Last year, said Rubio, when a single AM station in Miami was on the auction block, the all-Democrat Congressional Hispanic Caucus moved to halt the sale, saying, as one of them did, “To win in 2022 this must stop!”
“With the collapse of that sale, Democrats are back on the offensive, now pushing to take over 18 different Spanish-language radio stations around the United States,” the letter continued.
“We believe that this blatant, partisan effort to destroy community-based radio and silence opposing voices provides ample reason for the FCC to act with the due diligence with which it has been tasked.”
“We also believe that any takeover of this scale and speed, especially when critical questions remain about LMN and its lack of operational experience, must be analyzed with extraordinary scrutiny,” Rubio wrote.
Sen. Rubio previously called the deal “part of the leftist plan to wipe out Hispanic conservative voices.”
He has been joined in denouncing the proposed sale to the Soros-backed LMN by Sen. Rick Scott and Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Scott also endorsed the letter Rubio sent to the FCC on Thursday, as did GOP Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and South Florida Republican Reps. Carlos Giménez, María Elvira Salazar, and Mario Díaz-Balart.
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