Univision to host candidate forums in response to “debategate”

Univision News announced on Thursday that it partnered with Facebook to host “Meet the Candidate” forums with President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Both candidates agreed to participate, but in separate events.

Jorge Ramos and María Elena Salinas will lead the conversations with both candidates. The Univision anchors were rejected by the Commission on Presidential Debates to moderate the upcoming presidential debates, prompting network President Randy Falco to call for an additional debate to address issues of importance to the Hispanic community. The CPB rejected the request.

The events will take place in front of a live audience. Univision will also engage with the public via Facebook in advance of these events “to generate a meaningful discussion about issues facing the Latino community and its future.”

Details of the Univision presidential forums will be announced in upcoming weeks.

The CPB’s omission in selecting a Hispanic moderator for this year’s presidential debate has generated a wave of criticism from several groups, including the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. The organization’s president, Hugo Balta, met with the CPD’s co-chairman, who promised to submit to the moderators a list of questions compiled by NAHJ along with the Unity Alliance (AAJA, NAJA, and NLGJA) and NABJ.