Showing posts with label #rubio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #rubio. Show all posts

Friday, February 15, 2013

re Marco Rubio: Oh dear! Another predictable Beth Reinhard paint-by-numbers piece on Rubio in The National Journal, full of the usual resume/personality recitals. I'll bet I can guess what Reinhard will say about him before reading it. Yes, and so can you! That's the whole problem -Reinhard writes about Rubio by rote; Where's the plan for positive changes at McClatchy's Miami Herald -still missing!

U.S. Senate longshot candidate Marco Rubio in Hallandale Beach, FL at Southeast Broward Republican Club. June 23, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

The National Journal
POLITICS
Can Marco Rubio Live Up to the Hype?
He's the GOP's Barack Obama, a fresh-faced politician with an immigrant name, a playlist full of rap, and a collection of fawning press clips. The challenge: He's selling the same old party message.
By Beth Reinhard
Updated: February 14, 2013 | 8:50 p.m. 
February 14, 2013 | 8:20 p.m.
The freshman senator from Florida had joined four veteran colleagues to unveil a proposal for the first major overhaul of immigration law in a quarter-century. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., introduced “my friend, Senator [Marco] Rubio, who obviously is a new but incredibly important voice in this whole issue of immigration reform.”
Two weeks earlier, Rubio had laid out a similar set of principles in an exclusive interview with The Wall Street Journal under the headline, “Marco Rubio: Riding to the Immigration Rescue.” The article came as a surprise to McCain and other members of the bipartisan group of senators who had been sketching out an immigration plan with and without Rubio for weeks. The blueprint was inspired by legislation that McCain first spearheaded in 2005.
The dig was subtle, but Rubio didn’t let it go.

Oh dear! Another predictable Beth Reinhard paint-by-numbers piece on Marco Rubio in The National Journal, full of the usual resume/personality recitals.
Bet I can guess what Beth Reinhard will say about Marco Rubio
Yes, and so can you! 

That's the problem -Reinhard writes about Rubio by rote.
Just like her last piece on him.

Even the new anecdotes she drops throughout the column sound just like the old ones she used, since they are almost always cobbled together to create the same old product: Marco the Magnificent.

It would be far better if she spoke to veteran analysts like Charlie Cook, also of the National Journal and someone whose every word I read religiously for meaning and portent, as mentioned many times here in the past, which is why I've linked to so many of his columns here over the years.

Specifically, speak to Cook about the dangers of over-exposure, which he is getting closer to everyday, and the graveyard of presidential candidates that peaked early and never made it to Election Day because they prematurely annoyed or bored America silly, or flat out didn't have the sort of practical experience needed or the ability to articulate a cogent, distinct message that resonated with the public and which could grow even larger with hard work.
Bill Bradley for instance.

Even though I was an early and very confident Senate supporter of Rubio's in 2009, when the entire Florida GOP and business establishment, along with Florida's sycophantic Mainstream Media, plus the East Coast drive-by MSM, practically handed the 2010 Republican Senate nomination to then-Governor Charlie Crist, in my opinion, Rubio needs to actually accomplish a lot more of substance sooner -and be seen LESS in a pop-culture prism- otherwise, everyone in America may be bored silly by the sight of him within two years as the new car smell wears off, just as he's campaigning for House and Senate candidates throughout the country, and actually getting most of the questions, not the candidates he's with.

Yes, just like a once interesting new TV commercial that you have now grown to cringe at within a milli-second of seeing on TV and reach for the remote.

And if and when that happens, the only thing that will be written about him will be the hit pieces by the usual suspects, especially among liberal reporters and columnists in the West, who have no secret of the fact that they resent the collective power of Cubans in the political process compared to Mexicans, who vastly outnumber them.

And Univision, of course, in their creepy stalker-like relationship with Rubio, where they are always looking to see if he's spending too much time with someone else.
Y
es, Univision, the Spanish-language channel that the Miami Herald is always kissing the butt of and overplaying the significance of, but who will, not so curiously, not mention in print that they didn't air President Obama's State of the the Union address, which is why they won Tuesday night in the TV ratings.

Nope, no mention, as you can see for yourself. 

I thought they were the new "It"?
Qué pasa, Herald?

Yes, Univision, the politically-biased TV network that makes it very clear in their so-called news coverage that the only reasonable side of the immigration debate is pro-amnesty, otherwise, you are a racist. 

Oh yeah -and the supposed news network whose employees loves to take public whacks at 
Rubio.

That is, if they, too, aren't already bored silly by Rubio and tired of pointing-out the same deficiencies they saw/see in him, over-and-over.

On the other hand, it's good to remember that Rubio eventually got so bored/irritated with Reinhard asking him the same ol' leading questions over-and-over during his long Senate campaign, that as I wrote here at the time, towards the end, he eventually started freezing her out because he simply couldn't take the routine anymore

You might recall that was back when the Herald's then-Ombudsman took Beth Reinhard (and the Herald) to task in his once-in-a-while Sunday column for having one person perform both reporter and columnist duties, saying that it was a conflict of interest.

The Ombudsman was right, of course, and Reinhard proved why that was true by being whiny publicly in her columns about being frozen out by Rubio, which not only made her less attractive to Rubio as a person to speak with, but for voters and newspaper readers, made her 'articles' about him not at all reliable, since you already knew that she was mad at him enough to say so publicly.
But I guess I'm the only one who remembers that, huh?

Alas, the Herald's then-Ombudsman left in April of 2011 and has never been replaced, with rather predictable results from my perspective: more bias than ever in articles as well as more missing facts and context.

As many of you regular readers know, I've directly asked the Herald's top management why there's been no replacement and no mention made in the paper of what their plan is, if any, for an eventual replacement.
And, what their plan for improvement in print and online was to keep the faith of readers.
That's been met with stony silence. 
Followed by more silence.

A smart and fair-minded person representing the interests of Herald readers and ethics is not in the cards there.

Folks, it's time to face the fact that publisher David Landsberg has no actual plan for the Herald's future that positive for news consumers, because if he did, he'd have already made them public months before they went to a pay wall, and only added the pay wall AFTER getting rid of the problem step-children, adding new and curious columnists and reporters who don't take things for granted -one of the worst daily offenses there!-  and completely re-do the website from top-to-bottom, so the same stories don't appear in three separate places there, as happens now, which is acutely embarrassing for everyone, most of all, them.

That's why in my opinion, with the same people in charge, the Herald's problems are only going to get worse over time.

But if someone with some smarts and money bought the Sun-Sentinel, fired all the dead wood and made it more like some of the Swedish newspapers that I've become increasingly  used to, and read daily while I was in Stockholm last month, newspapers which are very popular, well then, you could well see will see a very interesting dynamic take place here

in South Florida.
But not right now.

Now, each newspaper and its management seem locked in a battle of lethargy to do the least amount of original enterprise reporting possible.
  
------
TheWrap
Ratings: Univision Wins Night By Skipping State of the Union
By Tim Kenneally
Published: February 13, 2013 @ 10:03 am

November 1, 2010
Hallandale Beach Blog endorses Beth Reinhard & Charlie Crist's departure - asks they get escort to airport so they don't miss their flights out of FL

September 3, 2010

Addition by subtraction: Beth Reinhard leaving Miami Herald, heading to D.C. and The National Journal. Herald readers finally win one!


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Univision staffer attacks Sen. Marco Rubio on Facebook

No doubt after the Castro Brothers finally go adios for good, many of the Univision employees will try to move to Cuba and try to suddenly reinvent themselves as real journalists, after years of being celebrity hand-holdres, political suck-ups and amateur political science professors based in LA, NYC and Miami, forever intent on lecturing us on how important Latin America is, despite the fact that we mostly don't care about it for perfectly valid reasons, no matter how much they insist it's important.



But it's not, even with changing demographics and population changes, Americans aren't going to suddenly care about Honduras or Uruguay or Brazil if they never did before, and they can't let on that the whole thing has been a journalistic con for years to fleece advertising dollars.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Even more on the dueling Marco Rubio biographies: this time, multiple videos of Rubio discussing his autobiography, "An American Son"; #MarcoRubio


MarcoRubio video: Senator Marco Rubio of Florida on NBC News' "Meet the Press"  speaks with host David Gregory regarding his new autobiography, "An American Son," and his current stance on immigration, one day before the Supreme Court's ruling on Arizona's laws re illegal immigration. June 24, 2012. 

MarcoRubio video: Senator Marco Rubio of Florida on CBS' "This Morning" speaks with hosts Charlie Rose and Erica Hill regarding his new autobiography, "An American Son," his being considered as Mitt Romney's VP choice, and his current stance on immigration. June 21, 2012.

MarcoRubio video: Senator Marco Rubio of Florida on ABC-TV's The View, regarding his new autobiography, "An American Son."June 25, 2012 

Marco Rubio's YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarcoRubio





Sunday, June 24, 2012

More on the dueling Marco Rubio biographies: Washington Post reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia, author of "The Rise Of Marco Rubio"; #MarcoRubio



WFOR-TV/Miami -Facing South Florida with Jim DeFede: Washington Post reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia, author of "The Rise Of Marco Rubio," June 24, 2012.


Fox News Latino
FNL Exclusive: Rubio's Unauthorized Biography Mixes Questions and Praise for the GOP's Rising Star. Juan Williams interviews Washington Post reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia, author of "The Rise Of Marco Rubio," June 23, 2012.

The Washington Post
Book review: ‘The Rise of Marco Rubio’ by Manuel Roig-Franzia
By Andrew Ferguson, Published: June 21
By the look of him, you’d never guess that Marco Rubio played defensive back on his college football team — even if the school was the now-defunct Tarkio College, folded deep into the remotest cornfields of northwest Missouri. But he did, and on the gridiron he showed the same gift that has guided his path from downy-cheeked member of the West Miami City Commission at age 26 to the highest reaches of American politics: an unerring ability to be in the right place at the right time. No matter the play, “he was never out of position,” one still-impressed teammate told Manuel Roig-Franzia for his new book, “The Rise of Marco Rubio.”
Read the rest of the review at:




© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
Above, one of my Marco Rubio photos from his June 23, 2009 appearance in Hallandale Beach at the Southeast Broward Republican Club meeting, which you can see more of at
my February 26, 2011 blog post titled, The show is Jeopardy! and the question is: "Can I have 'Midterms' for $2,000"http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/show-is-jeopardy-and-question-is-can-i.html.

As most of you regular readers of the blog know, I've been a Marco Rubio supporter since before he ran for U.S. Senate in 2009, but I also don't think he's qualified to be president and say as much.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Sen. Marco Rubio's thoughtful speech on the future of U.S. foreign policy before The Brookings Institution -more muscle, less 'realism' dithering! #rubio


Sen. Marco Rubio video: Sen. Marco Rubio's speech on the future of U.S. foreign policy before The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. April 25, 2012.
http://youtu.be/9Hb31bEa0mg


Sen. Marco Rubio's thoughtful speech on the future of U.S. foreign policy before The Brookings Institution -more muscle, less 'realism' dithering!


See summary of remarks at http://www.brookings.edu/events/2012/0425_rubio.aspx 
or the full transcript at http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/events/2012/0425_rubio/20120425_rubio.pdf



The Washington Post
Marco Rubio’s foreign policy speech stakes out a middle ground in GOP
By Karen DeYoung
Published: April 25, 2012
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) took another step onto the national stage Wednesday with a foreign policy speech that positioned him squarely in the middle between a dying breed of GOP moderates and his partisan brethren who have condemned President Obama as an international weakling.
“The easiest thing for me to do here today is to give a speech on my disagreement with this administration on foreign policy,” Rubio told a packed auditorium at the Brookings Institution. “I have many.”


The Washington Post

PostPartisan blog
Marco Rubio’s foreign policy message for the GOP
By Michael Gerson
Posted at 03:32 PM ET, 04/26/2012
Sen. Marco Rubio’s speech on foreign policy at the Brookings Institution was not oversold. It deserved the designation “major” for its courage, skill and moral seriousness. 
The courage came in criticizing a drift toward isolationism within the Republican Party.
Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/marco-rubios-foreign-policy-message-for-the-gop/2012/04/26/gIQANTAcjT_blog.html


----
http://www.brookings.edu/


http://www.foreignpolicy.com/


http://www.foreignaffairs.com/


http://www.youtube.com/user/SenatorMarcoRubio


http://www.heritage.org/

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Sen. Marco Rubio discusses Obamacare before SCOTUS -interview on CNBC's 'Squawk Box' with Becky Quick, Joe Kernen & Andrew Ross Sorkin; with Dennis Miller on his talk radio show


Sen. Marco Rubio discusses Obamacare on CNBC-TV's Squawk Box with Becky Quick,  Joe Kernen & Andrew Ross Sorkin. April 4, 2012.
http://youtu.be/VsrF-h8Dtj0





Audio of Senator Rubio discussing the Supreme Court's review of Obamacare with actor and radio show talk host Dennis Miller. March 28, 2012.
http://youtu.be/LmGDNpjapoo


-----


Dennis Miller Show's homepage: http://www.dennismillerradio.com/


CNBC-TV's Squawk Box homepage: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15838368/


http://www.cnbc.com/


Florida Senator Marco Rubio's YouTube Channel: 
http://www.youtube.com/user/SenatorMarcoRubio


His other one is: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarcoRubio


Reclaim America PAC: http://www.reclaimamericapac.com/

Monday, October 3, 2011

Marco Rubio vs. Univision - An attempted political smear FINALLY awakens the Miami Herald to Univision's thread-bare claim to journalism. Finalmente!


Below are some excerpts from an email that I wrote on Sunday morning and distributed to all points of the compass across the country to let people know that some semblance of real enterprise reporting was observed in the Miami Herald on Sunday, albeit, incredibly, below- the-fold.
Don't hold your breath waiting for more soon, though.
That may well be it for the whole year...
They may go in-the-tank -just like the Dolphins...

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Marco Rubio vs. Univision - An attempted political smear FINALLY awakens the Miami Herald to Univision's thread-bare claim to journalism. Finalmente!


Since I returned to South Florida from the Washington, D.C. area almost eight years ago, this is the FIRST time that the Miami Herald has even remotely criticized Spanish-language TV giant Univision, which they usually promote like street-corner pimps, and have treated almost like a Latin deity or royalty, much to the chagrin of media observers like me who were paying close attention.

As I've stated previously, with apt examples when appropriate, the Herald's bias is incredible on even minor parochial issues, but when it comes to stories on immigration policy or trade with Latin America, where they are unapologetic corporate butt-kissers for anything involving imports and exports between South Florida and South America, it's completely off-the-charts.

While other news media in the rest of the country are writing about Univision's various ups-and-downs over the years as if they were a regular company, in the Herald, the editorial tone in stories about Univision always read more like the worst sort of corporate press releases, extolling Univision for their insight, their vision, their bravery, etc., when it has been anything but.

It's a typical preening, self-serving manipulative media company, nothing more.
And in its particular case, it's a Mexican company that operates as the voice of the establishment, representing Mexican business, cultural and political interests, NOT American.
¿Comprende?


Having watched it off and on for years since I was a kid growing-up down here, even before Channel 23 was a Spanish-language station -and more closely since returning to South Florida- it's by no stretch of the imagination a Mexican version of the BBC -even given the BBC's clear political news bias now- as the partisan political comments of Jorge Ramos make abundantly clear.

In that sense, it's much more like a European newspaper that attracts like-minded readers and dismissive of political non-believers or agnostics.

For my personal feelings about the relentless self-promotion, political bias and shoddy journalism of Univision and Jorge Ramos, see this three-year old story:

Broadcasting & Cable magazine
Ramos: Road to White House Runs Through Univision
Univision anchor Jorge Ramos characterizes Barack Obama as "almost spiritual" and "calm," and John McCain as "experienced" and "warrior-like."
By Mariel Bird -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/23/2008 6:11:00 PM


This bias I speak of at the Herald was so self-evident as to actually be embarrassing at times to other Herald reporters, something I know about for a fact from actually talking in-person to Herald reporters I know, when we've run into each other and nobody could eavesdrop on us.

This was esp. the case with anything related to their advertising dollars or ratings or anything that suggested or implied Univision had a special role in American politics -so over-the-top!

For years the Herald has routinely quoted Univision advertising execs -or even anchor Jorge Ramos- about how much U.S. companies were spending there and what that symbolized culturally and politically, and then in the same article, having people from those very consumer products companies being quoted about 'what it all means.'
Not surprisingly...

It was jaw-dropping how much log-rolling could appear in one story, and when you talk about columns, well, Herald editorial page editor and columnist Myriam Marquez may NEVER write about anything of particular interest to Herald readers living in Broward County -and she hasn't!- but give her a chance to smooch someone's butt who is here visiting from a Latin country and get out of her way, pronto!

For instance, her September 18th column titled, U.S. Hispanic chamber means business, is the best example I could give a stranger about how image conscious the Herald truly is.
It's positively cringe-worthy in large parts when it traffics heavily in cliches, stereotypes and name-dropping.

You don't have to live near a forest to appreciate her logrolling technique, which is far from subtle.

Returning to what I was speaking about before with the sometimes complete lack of a Chinese Wall between advertisers and editorial in Herald articles about Univision, you won't be surprised to discover that consumer product/service company PR reps inevitably have very high-minded thoughts, instead of leveling and saying, "Listen, we want their viewers to buy our detergent. A lot of it. Period."

Nothing wrong with that.
Nothing at all -it's sales.
Nothing wrong with sales.
But don't act like you're Martin Luther leading the Reformation or the head of cardiac surgery at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.
Instead though, in the Herald, the consumer narrative involving Spanish-language media companies is all about aspirations and Hispanic heritage and customs and... cue the waterworks.

To me, the best metaphor for the industry town-like kids-glove treatment would be not unlike how many people outside of California thought the LA Times dealt with the excesses of the film studios until the early 1960's -swallowing whole their absurd claims about their stars and execs, regardless of what you could clearly see for yourself.
<span class=
That's a point that was made clear in various issues of Vanity Fair magazine over the years as well as the excellent PBS documentary by Peter Jones on the LA Times and the Chandler family that ran last year, which I watched a few times - Inventing LA: The Chandlers and Their Times. http://www.pbs.org/kcet/inventing-la/

(Yes, as in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, where the Oscar telecasts have taken place in LA about two-dozen times over the years.)

You can watch that film online at:

For most of the 20th century, the Times and the film studios and the affiliated entertainment industry were in the business of creating illusions, the Times about the business climate of the Southland and the other two about the real world and the world of fiction and fantasy, so scratching each other's backs, not finding facts that made ether's lives more difficult, was easier than being adversarial or territorial.

For the record, this is one of the few decent Miami Herald-originated stories they've run all year that show any genuine enterprise.
They're now so few and far between...

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Miami Herald


POLITICS
The inside story: Univision’s war with Rubio over immigration, drug report
The senator’s staff and Univision insiders say the network tried to pressure him into appearing on a show by offering to soften a story about his brother-in-law.
By Marc Caputo and Manny Garcia

Posted on Saturday, October 1, 2011

Days before Univision aired a controversial story this summer about the decades-old drug bust of Marco Rubio’s brother-in-law, top staff with the Spanish-language media powerhouse offered what sounded like a deal to the U.S. senator’s staff.

If Rubio appeared on Al Punto —Univision’s national television show where the topic of immigration would likely be discussed — then the story of his brother-in-law’s troubles would be softened or might not run at all, according to Univision insiders and the Republican senator’s staff. They say the offer was made by Univision’s president of news, Isaac Lee.

But Lee said in an email to The Miami Herald that any insinuation that he offered a quid pro quo was “incorrect” and “defamatory.”

In a written statement Friday, Lee said: “With respect to Senator Rubio, Univision covered the story in the same objective, fair manner we cover every significant story. Univision did not offer to soften or spike a story...we would not make such an offer to any other subject of a news story and did not offer it in this case.”

Rubio never appeared on Al Punto, a national political affairs program broadcast on Sundays. Univision aired the story about Rubio’s brother-in-law, a lower-level player in a 1987 coke-and-pot ring, on July 11.

"I always knew Univision to be a professional organization until this happened," said Rubio, who won’t comment specifically on the case.

POL VS. PRESS

The conflict provides a rarely seen view of a politician warring with the press, and it also underscores the highly charged issue of immigration in the Hispanic community.

Al Punto’s host, Jorge Ramos, is one of Univision’s most-recognized personalities and has advocated for the so-called “DREAM Act,” which Rubio has opposed on the grounds that it gives “amnesty” to illegal immigrants. The long-debated proposal would allow certain children of undocumented immigrants to become legalized U.S. residents.

Univision, headquartered in Doral, is a top-rated network, reaching 95 percent of the 13.3 million Hispanic households in the United States. Its ratings are tops in prime-time in such cities as Los Angeles, San Antonio and Miami — regardless of language. It recently created an investigative team.

The Rubio brother-in-law story was its first investigation. The story about Rubio and his brother-in-law was broadcast in English and Spanish on television and the web over two days.

Univision also pointed the story out to the governor, and emailed reporters from Washington to Miami to highlight “Rubio’s families ties to narco-trafficking.” Univision hyped it on Twitter with the hashtag code "#rubio, # drugs."

Mainstream media sources and bloggers barely gave it play due to the quarter century-old nature of the case and the fact it had no apparent peg to current news.

Rubio found the story — and the resources devoted to it — especially shocking. He had actually worked for Univision as a paid commentator before he ran for Senate. He announced his candidacy for Senate on Univision’s Miami affiliate.

CALL FROM HIS SISTER

Earlier in the year, Rubio’s office had planned to have a Miami Univision reporter follow him around Washington, D.C. — but Univision’s higher-ups scotched the idea as they tried to persuade Rubio to appear on Al Punto.

On the night of July 5, Rubio received a call from his sister, Barbara Cicilia. She was distraught. A Univision reporter had called her about the arrest and incarceration of her husband, Orlando Cicilia, in the 1987 federal bust called “Operation Cobra.” Rubio was 16 at the time. Before Rubio was elected to his first legislative seat, in 2000, Cicilia was cleared for early release.

Mrs. Cicilia refused comment. Univision then sent a news truck to sit outside their West Miami home.

On July 7, Alex Burgos, Rubio’s communications director, and Rubio’s political advisor, Todd Harris, held a 45-minute conference call with a handful of top Univision editorial staffers, including Lee, the news chief who handled most of the discussions for Univision. Harris represented Rubio as Burgos took notes. Rubio was not on the call.

Toward the end of the conversation, Lee brought up Ramos’ show and suggested the drug-bust story could change — or not run at all, according to Harris and Burgos’ notes.

Said Harris: “You’re saying that if Marco does an interview with Ramos, that you will drop this investigation into his family and the story will never air?"

Lee, they say, responded with this statement: "While there are no guarantees, your understanding of the proposal is fair.”

In his statement to The Herald, Lee disputes that. He said “various” people were on the call with Rubio’s staff for what he said was an “off-the-record discussion” about the story, including two of the network’s “top internal legal counsels.”

Rubio and his office initially refused to discuss any aspect of the story with The Herald. But after Univision insiders spoke about the story, Rubio and his staff agreed to speak on the record.

The Herald obtained letters from Rubio’s office to Univision in which Burgos denounced the story and reporting as “outrageous” and “tabloid journalism.” Rubio’s office confirmed their authenticity and later furnished a follow-up letter from Lee in which he again mentioned Al Punto and another show, Aqui y Ahora.

But the Univision sources, with knowledge of the discussions, affirmed Harris’ version of events.

"We were stunned,’’ one Univision executive said. "Can you imagine how embarrassing it is?"

THE GO-BETWEENS

It was also dispiriting. The employees said the story cast a pall over the Doral newsroom because this was its first investigative project, and many questioned the story’s news value.

After he learned of the story, Rubio reached out to friends for advice and numerous go-betweens at Univision.

Republican fundraiser and consultant Ana Navarro said she spoke to Univision higher-ups in hopes of killing the story. She said Rubio’s failure to appear on Ramos’ show was a deciding factor in the drug story.

Navarro was later interviewed on air by Univision, and she discounted the story along with nearly everyone else the station interviewed for reaction.

At one point, she told Rubio to see the positive political aspects of the story: It would make him look good and Univision look bad.

“Don’t you get it,” she says he told her. “This isn’t about me. It’s about the pain this causes my mother and my sister.”

Harris, Rubio’s advisor, has worked for politicians from Gov. Jeb Bush to Sen. John McCain to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on major campaigns.

He said he was so surprised by Univision’s tactics that, at one point, he confessed to Rubio that he might not be able to help.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time, but the new leadership in this newsroom doesn’t play by any of the rules I’m used to,” he said. “I’m used to going to war with the media from time to time, but this new team doesn’t follow the Geneva Convention.’”

When the first story about the drug-bust broke, bloggers dismissed it as a non-story. Neither The Miami Herald nor El Nuevo Herald published the story. A New Times reporter called it “completely irrelevant.”

“Here’s a tip,” reporter Matthew Hendley blogged. “If you’re digging up dirt on a politician, try to find something a little filthier than Sen. Marco Rubio’s brother-in-law being convicted of drug-trafficking charges when the senator was a 16-year-old kid.”

Univision did find support for its report —in Scottsdale, Ariz., where an immigration-reform group called Somos Republicans took Rubio to task for saying Mexican drug-war violence had spilled into the United States.

Univision’s Maria Elena Salinas, co-host of the Aqui y Ahora show that Rubio had also rebuffed, highlighted Somos Republicans by linking to a press release via a Tweet that read: “Marco Rubio knows from experience that Mexico and undocumented are not the only source of drug activity.”

On yet another show, a Univision reporter brought up the case of Rubio’s brother-in-law during an interview with Gov. Rick Scott.

“If something happened or if they discovered something about your brother in law — this is a hypothetical case — would you resign?” a reporter asked.

“Look, I got elected because of who I am,” Scott said.

“Do you agree the public has the right to know?” she asked.