Soros-backed group’s takeover of Miami’s conservative Radio Mambi ‘is about power,’ Jorge Bonilla says
Director of MRC Latino feels only equivalent is if ‘a Clintonite group’ controlled Rush Limbaugh’s flagship affiliate.
Miami’s iconic, Spanish-language conservative talk radio station Radio Mambi could soon be controlled by political strategists who worked for President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. The pending sale to a George Soros-linked group has caused outrage inside the station, throughout Miami’s Cuban-American community and among conservative media watchdogs.
Radio Mambi, which is historically linked to the Cuban exile community and offers an anti-communism view, would be controlled by a group of liberals partially funded by Soros, a far-left billionaire, if the $60 million deal is approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Media Research Center director of MRC Latino Jorge Bonilla blasted the move as a power grab by the left.
"This is about power, this is about control. This is not about free speech. This is not about this misinformation. This is about controlling the flow of information to a specific community for political purposes, and that is what makes this deal, I think, so controversial," Bonilla told Fox News Digital.
A group bankrolled by liberal billionaire George Soros is set to purchase 18 Hispanic radio stations across 10 different markets in the United States. (Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"You're looking at the shutdown or the radical restructuring or the reformatting… of an iconic radio station, a station that for decades has been a beacon to Miami's Cuban-American community," Bonilla continued. "[Radio Mambi] has been really the community's voice politically and culturally. It's a beacon of anti-communism, and so these are the concerns that emerged as a result of this transaction."
Bonilla believes the looming takeover has a specific, strategic purpose as influential liberals are set to control Miami's "mainstay of the right" in addition to Spanish-language stations in other major markets, including New York, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Antonio.
The formation of the Latino Media Network, a new network set to be made up of 18 Hispanic radio stations including Radio Mambi, was partially financed by Lakestar Finance, an investment group affiliated with Soros Fund Management. The stations, currently owned by Univision, would be controlled by Jess Morales Rocketto, a former Hillary for America and AFL-CIO employee, and Stephanie Valencia, a former Obama White House staffer, if the venture receives FCC approval.
Bonilla believes it’s an "unprecedented" situation, and he had a hard time coming up with a comparison until conservative radio legend Rush Limbaugh came to mind.
"I guess the closest equivalent would be to imagine Rush Limbaugh's affiliate in New York City. His flagship in New York City at the height of when he first came out and made a ruckus in the '90s," Bonilla said. "Imagine a Clintonite group coming in and buying that station out and basically setting up [former left-wing radio network] Air America in its place and knocking Rush Limbaugh off the air."
Jorge Bonilla feels the only comparison to Radio Mambi being controlled by the liberal Latino Media Network would be if "a Clintonite group" took over Rush Limbaugh’s flagship affiliate in the 1990s. ((Photo by mark peterson/Corbis via Getty Images))
There have been protests throughout the Miami area, local South Florida politicians have spoken out and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has criticized the deal. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tweeted, "The Soros-funded radical Left is running a scheme to manipulate local media in Florida to push their Marxist agenda on voters."
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Radio Mambi staffers are furious, and some popular on-air personalities have been offered retention bonuses simply to stick around, according to both station insiders and Bonilla’s own reporting.
"Some of the talents have gone on the air saying that they're going to reject this money, that they don't want a dime of Soros money. There is an ongoing sense of revolt, of unease at the station," Bonilla said.
Bonilla learned of an all-hands meeting last Thursday in which Valencia traveled to Miami to help ease tensions inside the station. Fox News Digital has confirmed the meeting took place, and that Valencia was accompanied by Cuban-born, anti-Trump conservative Al Cardenas in an attempt to calm panicked staffers. Cardenas is married to liberal CNN political commentator Ana Navarro, who remains a Republican but worked in Florida to elect Joe Biden in 2020 and openly supports Democrats.
During the meeting, the former Obama aide claimed "nothing will change" at Radio Mambi, but employees don’t buy it.
"Nobody believes her," a Radio Mambi insider who attended the meeting told Fox News Digital. "Honestly, they really believe we are stupid."
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Far-left billionaire George Soros is best known for pumping large amounts of cash to Democratic candidates. (Reuters)
The insider said that Valencia claimed Soros was simply a "lender," not an investor. According to the insider, Valencia then told the group she didn’t have a plan for the station yet, so someone asked why Soros would lend $60 million to a group that doesn’t have a plan. "They like what we want to do," Valencia responded, according to the insider.
"There's already this sort of backpedal, this attempt to do crisis comms as the deal finishes gelling," Bonilla said. "But as far as I've heard, there's advertisers already looking ahead to the exits. There's employees already looking ahead to the exits."
Bonilla noted that many Radio Mambi staffers are the children of Cuban exiles and there is a great sense of pressure at home not to partake in any sort of left-of-center format. One prominent employee even admitted that his own mother expects him to walk away from his job if the deal is approved, according to Bonilla.
"There's a lot of turmoil going on and a lot of unease in Radio Mambi right now," he said.
Bonilla feels that liberals controlling Radio Mambi would be a significant factor in the 2024 presidential election, as the Hispanic community doesn’t have many well-established conservative media options. Florida's shift to the right in the past two presidential elections has mirrored an increase in Latino support for Republicans – former President Trump comfortably carried Florida in 2020 over Biden, in part by making major gains in Miami-Dade County with increased support from Cuban-Americans.
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"So Miami, because of its ecosystem, where it's a city populated on the Hispanic side, mostly by victims of communism and their descendants, that makes Miami and that Miami market very unique in the nation," Bonilla said. "I think that this is an effort to sort of consolidate control of the message Hispanics receive."
The Soros-backed group would take control of the station in 2023 if the FCC approves the deal.
Valencia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fox News’ Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report.
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