Hispanic Americans will have as significant of a role in the outcome of the next presidential election as ever before, and Noticias Telemundo wants to ensure that its viewers have all the facts at their fingertips in order to make the most informed decisions possible.
Enter PolitiFact.
Noticias Telemundo and Poynter Institute announced a partnership today between The Poynter Institute’s fact-checking news organization, PolitiFact, and Noticias Telemundo.
PolitiFact reporters and editors will be made available to Noticias Telemundo for on-air interviews for Telemundo programming, including the daily newscast Noticias Telemundo with José Díaz Balart, Noticias Telemundo Fin de Semana with Julio Vaqueiro, Noticias Telemundo Mediodía with Felicidad Aveleyra, the Un Nuevo Día news segment with Paulina Sodi, and the Sunday current affairs show Enfoque con José Díaz-Balart.
Noticias Telemundo will be able to send statements for PolitiFact to fact-check for Spanish-language audiences. The two organizations also will collaborate to translate PolitiFact fact-checks into Spanish for use both online and on TV, including Noticias Telemundo.
“Hispanic issues are at the center of the political conversation, which is becoming increasingly polarized,” said Noticias Telemundo evp Luis Fernández. “Offering PolitiFact’s unique form of accountability journalism to our audience helps strengthen political discourse by centering it on the facts and adding context for the decisions people make every day. The stakes are incredibly high going into the next electoral cycle and we want to make sure our audience has the right information.”
“When politicians are making statements about critical issues like healthcare, education, immigration and the economy, especially ahead of major elections, the voting public needs a trusted place they can go to find the truth,” said Neil Brown, president of the Poynter Institute, which acquired the nonprofit PolitiFact in 2018. “For millions of Spanish-language news consumers, that place is Telemundo. Our collaboration means that a huge contingent of the U.S. population can now determine the accuracy of information in their native language.”
This is a significant year for Telelmundo. This coming June, the Spanish-language broadcaster will co-host the first Democratic primary debate for 2020 with fellow NBCU networks NBC News and MSNBC. This will be Telemundo’s first time hosting a U.S. presidential debate.