# Trump threatens to sue Univision and NBC: Case can haz legs? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 1, 2015, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940 "2015-07-01T05:15:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/61 "2015-07-02T00:56:28Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaa. > > Start your own Message Board and set the rules as you see fit. > > Funny, that. It’s 2015. Broadcast at least once could easily mean that NBC/Universal ( just to be clear, when people refer to the parent company as “NBC/UNI”, they are not referring to it as “NBC/ Univision”. ) could easily stream it from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. once on a Sunday morning. Voila. It has been broadcast once. Paragraph 15 of the complaint specifically says that the agreement is to broadcast it **live via the Univision or Unimas networks** at least once. Paragraph 13 claims that the contract says that the parties agreed to broadcast it during Primetime Eastern Time and that the Miss Universe Organization will use reasonable efforts to stage the contests on a Sunday night. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/62 "2015-07-02T00:57:20Z")
Do you have a link to the complaint? ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/63 "2015-07-02T01:00:46Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > Paragraph 15 of the complaint specifically says that the agreement is to broadcast it **live via the Univision or Unimas networks** at least once. Paragraph 13 claims that the contract says that the parties agreed to broadcast it during Primetime Eastern Time and that the Miss Universe Organization will use reasonable efforts to stage the contests on a Sunday night. Thank you for that clarification. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/64 "2015-07-02T01:03:06Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > NBC/U will point to any number of breach suits filed by producers, stars, studios, etc. that show that indirect damages caused by the cancellation of a program aren’t its problem as long as the network paid off the contract and didn’t actually defame Trump (which would be a separate lawsuit anyway.) Paragraph 29 of the complaint says that Mr Ciurana, Univison’s President of Content and Programming posted a picture comparing Mr Trump to the Charleston South Carolina church killer on the official Univision Instagram page. That picture has since been removed. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/65 "2015-07-02T01:06:19Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Do you have a link to the complaint? [Here ya go.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=18483539&postcount=39) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/66 "2015-07-02T01:30:40Z")
Aren’t legal complaints usually fairly dry? That thing sounds like it was written, in part, to stroke his ego. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/67 "2015-07-02T02:00:34Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Aren’t legal complaints usually fairly dry? That thing sounds like it was written, in part, to stroke his ego. Ya think??? Not a lawyer and no comment about the merits or lack thereof but I disagree with you … there is no part of this that is not about his ego. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/68 "2015-07-02T02:54:15Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Funny, that. It’s 2015. Broadcast at least once could easily mean that NBC/Universal ( just to be clear, when people refer to the parent company as “NBC/UNI”, they are not referring to it as “NBC/ Univision”. ) could easily stream it from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. once on a Sunday morning. Voila. It has been broadcast once. Even if the contract says they have to broadcast it once and they don’t do that, and Trump makes that a basis for his suit, doesn’t he still have to show how it damaged him? Maybe they could also nitpick what “broadcast” means. Compare the meaning of “publish”, as used in slander and libel suits: You don’t have to put it on the front page of the London Times. If you just tell _one_ other person who didn’t need to know and had no business knowing, you’ve “published”. (This was the case with that anesthetist last week who trash-talked the patient with three “outsiders” in the room.) Maybe if the Univision execs invite one homeless hobo into their auditorium for a private showing, then it’s “broadcast”? ETA: > [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > Paragraph 15 of the complaint specifically says that the agreement is to broadcast it **live via the Univision or Unimas networks** at least once. Paragraph 13 claims that the contract says that the parties agreed to broadcast it during Primetime Eastern Time and that the Miss Universe Organization will use reasonable efforts to stage the contests on a Sunday night. Okay, that then. I still wonder if Trump still has to prove how he is damaged if they don’t broadcast. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/69 "2015-07-02T03:24:39Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > Paragraph 15 of the complaint specifically says that the agreement is to broadcast it **live via the Univision or Unimas networks** at least once. Paragraph 13 claims that the contract says that the parties agreed to broadcast it during Primetime Eastern Time and that the Miss Universe Organization will use reasonable efforts to stage the contests on a Sunday night. I look forward to reading NBC’s response. I doubt there’s any network TV contract in existence that doesn’t have an out when it comes to a live, primetime broadcast, particularly one which holds a network to an iron-clad clause while stating that the producer only has to make “reasonable efforts” to provide the program. > [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > Paragraph 29 of the complaint says that Mr Ciurana, Univison’s President of Content and Programming posted a picture comparing Mr Trump to the Charleston South Carolina church killer on the official Univision Instagram page. That picture has since been removed. Tacky, perhaps, but Donald Trump is an announced candidate for President, and he of all people should understand that you can say [almost anything](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/30/donald-trump-twitter-obama-iran_n_1121431.html) about someone [when they’re running for President.](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/31/donald-trump-obama-birth-_n_843056.html) ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/70 "2015-07-02T04:35:17Z")
> [@Grotonian](#): > > This hyperbole makes sense with black people, they are a race. Mexicans are not. Well I am looking at it through the lens of discrimination, how that is mostly the province of the Right, and parsing what Trump’s behavior means in that vein. Look, I’ve been reading The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. They have a caveat: > [@](#): > > This book paints with a broad brush, and as a result, many important issues have not received the attention they deserve. For example, relatively little is said here about the unique experiences of women, Latinos, and immigrants in the criminal justice system, though these groups are particularly vulnerable to the worst abuses and suffer in ways that are important and distinct. The subject of the book is more or less summed up with this: > [@](#): > > Studies show that people ofall colors use and sell illegal drugs at remarkably similar rates. If there are significant differences in the surveys to be found, they frequently suggest that whites, particularly white youth, are more likely to engage in drug crime than people of color. That is not what one would guess, however, when entering our nation’s prisons and jails, which are overflowing with black and brown drug offenders. In some states, black men have been admitted to prison on drug charges at rates twenty to fifty times greater than those of white men. And in major cities wracked by the drug war, as many as 80 percent of young African American men now have criminal records and are thus subject to legalized discrimination for the rest of their lives. These young men are part of a growing undercaste, permanently locked up and locked out of mainstream society. So when I am talking about black people and Mexicans/Latinos/Hispanics (“people of color”) in the same breath in this conversation, regrettably it is from the point of view of those who discriminate against ‘racial’ minorities, basically by looking at them. That’s how ‘black and brown’ people end up in prison in disproportionate numbers, isn’t it? Some asshole cop looking for a minority-looking guy to harass? It doesn’t matter if Mexicans are a race or not, it matters that Latinos are getting locked up along with black people at sometimes wildly disproportionate rates compared to white people. Trump’s comments, in my parsing, tell me that he is sending the signal that he is A-OK with all of this, and will in fact do it even more, to the delight of his worthless target audience. Because portraying minority-looking people as criminals plays well to certain poor, uneducated white people, and generally distracts everyone from the incredible discrimination evident in our criminal ‘justice’ system. > [@](#): > > Right. That made no sense either, except in the sense that ALL non-Americans are minorities in this country. Canadians are just as much minorities as Mexicans, but I never hear them referred to that way. Why do you think Mexicans are minorities? Because they aren’t the majority? Anyway, see above. Understand how stupid America can be. ‘Mexicans’ is common parlance for all those Hispanic-looking people you see, regardless of where they are really from. Don’t you have an old, racist uncle? Well, hopefully not. I did. And so did an awful lot of other Americans. The ‘race war tactics’ are behaviors that further the ends of some apparently racist (or maybe just profiteering) interests. Portraying black people as criminals in the media is one of those tactics. Trump is using the same technique by branding Mexicans as rapists and drug dealers. Do you think he cares if they are a race, nationality, ethnicity, minority, or what? No, he is trying to get elected POTUS, and he is signalling to voters of a certain stripe that… …well, there are Mexican-Americans, and then there are millions of Latino immigrants in the country without documentation. Trump intends to keep down the undocumented, certainly not give them a chance at citizenship, maybe deport them en masse, certainly disparage them as criminals to be suspicious of and discriminate against. If Mexican-Americans take rough treatment as a result, hey, who cares, if God didn’t intend America to be a country by and for white people, how could a half-wit like Trump ever be so wealthy and influential? I hope you can detect my sarcasm. For someone in Trump’s position to behave the way he is means more than if it were coming from some confederate flag-waving yahoo. I think he is trying to stir up big trouble and, taking everything into account, I am not sure that Univision/NBC/anybody really needs to be bound to give him a platform. But I do get it that contracts are sticky business. See why this is an interesting questions to me? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/71 "2015-07-03T00:42:23Z")
[The Reelz channel announced it will carry the Miss USA Pageant.](http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/television/reelz-rescues-miss-usa-pageant-dropped-by-nbc-in-trump/article_ddd3ad7b-0ad4-5b2c-8897-5392c70e2358.html) They say they got a bargain deal. > [@](#): > > Hubbard said the license fee negotiated with the pageant was well below market value for such events and so small that it “won’t put even a dent in the production costs” shouldered by the pageant. He declined to specify the amount. > > “The point is that people who were offended want to make sure he’s (Trump) not going to profit from our decision,” and that won’t happen, Hubbard said. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/72 "2015-07-03T02:38:03Z")
If Trump was serious he’d just buy NBC. In a couple of months it will be forgotten in the news and the suite quietly dropped. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/73 "2015-07-03T08:03:30Z")
NBC is worth more than even Trump’s inflated claim of how much he’s worth, and Trump is worth much less than what he claims to be worth, so he couldn’t possibly buy NBC: > **[NBCUniversal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBCUniversal)** > > NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast and is headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. > NBCUniversal is primarily involved in the media and entertainment industry. The company is named for its two most significant divisions, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) – one of the United States' Big Three television networks – and the major Hollywood f... > **[Donald Trump](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump)** > > Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. > Trump graduated from the Wharton School with a bachelor's degree in 1968. He became president of his father's real estate business in 1971 and renamed it the Trump Organization. He expanded its operations to building and renovating skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses and later started side ventures, mostly by... ---
**Author:** ![Grotonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c2a13f/32.png) [@Grotonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grotonian)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/74 "2015-07-03T12:10:11Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > So when I am talking about black people and Mexicans/Latinos/Hispanics (“people of color”) in the same breath in this conversation, regrettably it is from the point of view of those who discriminate against ‘racial’ minorities, basically by looking at them. “Mexican/Latino/Hispanic” is not a racial classification. Those are nationalities/ethnic groups. I get it, you’re a white American so you see someone with brown skin, brown eyes, and black hair, and you say, “there’s a Mexican/Hispanic/Latino.” There are tens of millions of Caucasian Mexican/Hispanic/Latinos. Saying someone is racist against Mexicans is as idiotic as saying someone is racist against Canadians; neither is a race. The “race” for people of mixed Amer-Indian heritage is mestizo. The fact that someone is a citizen of Mexico, or is descended from Spaniards or Portuguese, has nothing to do with brown skin. The fact that you and your friends call all brown people in the U.S. “Mexicans” (common parlance) doesn’t make it accurate. Moreover, those brown people have a lot of European blood, and going out of your way to classify them as non-white irritates me. If you must classify them as non-white, go ahead. But if you are going to run around making racial distinctions when none are necessary, at least get it right. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/75 "2015-07-03T15:08:42Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > NBC is worth more than even Trump’s inflated claim of how much he’s worth, and Trump is worth much less than what he claims to be worth, so he couldn’t possibly buy NBC: > > [NBCUniversal - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBCUniversal) > > [Donald Trump - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump) First rule of business is to use someone else’s money. He just needs to put up earnest money to prove he’s serious. It was of course, a joke, as is the lawsuit. All NBC has to do is prove his actions harmed them financially and any connection to him drags that out over time. And time is money. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/76 "2015-07-03T16:32:20Z")
“It was, of course, a joke” is what many posters say on the SDMB when they post something incorrect and then want to explain it away. The claim that Trump actually has any financial sway over any major corporation is absurd. His financial worth is less than that of any major corporation, and most of that worth is tied up in so many complicated deals that he couldn’t free any of it to purchase anything of significance. The only kind of influence he holds is his reputation. No corporation of any significant size thinks that Trump has financial influence that would allow him to affect their business. Trump has been getting by for decades because he’s been able to persuade a sufficiently large enough number of people that he has money, power, and business acumen. The statements he made about Mexican immigrants annoyed a large proportion of people. This made the various corporations that had been willing to work with Trump before (NBC, Univision, Televisa, Ora, Macy’s) concerned enough about the loss of his reputation this caused that they dropped any association with him. ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/77 "2015-07-03T16:57:36Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > NBC is worth more than even Trump’s inflated claim of how much he’s worth, and Trump is worth much less than what he claims to be worth, so he couldn’t possibly buy NBC: > > [NBCUniversal - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBCUniversal) > > [Donald Trump - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump) Especially since this would require the cooperation of NBC’s parent company, Comcast, whose total assets have been hovering around $160 billion for the past few years. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2015, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/78 "2015-07-04T17:39:04Z")
> [@Grotonian](#): > > “Mexican/Latino/Hispanic” is not a racial classification. Those are nationalities/ethnic groups. I get it, you’re a white American so you see someone with brown skin, brown eyes, and black hair, and you say, “there’s a Mexican/Hispanic/Latino.” There are tens of millions of Caucasian Mexican/Hispanic/Latinos. > > Saying someone is racist against Mexicans is as idiotic as saying someone is racist against Canadians; neither is a race. If you really want to be specific, human genetic diversity is not sufficient to support the zoological classification ‘race’ for any group. There is only one human race, but colloquial language still refers to people of different ‘races’. You need to quit looking at this in such an academic way. I am talking about who gets locked up disproportionately in this country. I am talking about who has been historically discriminated against in this country- back in the lynching days, Hispanics were lynched almost as often as black people. If you want to say the popular animus against Hispanics isn’t ‘racism’ _per se_, fine, but in practice, racist people discriminate against Hispanics the same way they do against black people. One of those ways is to portray black people as criminals. Trump (and others if you pay attention) are doing that to Mexicans, misnomer or not. > [@](#): > > The “race” for people of mixed Amer-Indian heritage is mestizo. The fact that someone is a citizen of Mexico, or is descended from Spaniards or Portuguese, has nothing to do with brown skin. > > The fact that you and your friends call all brown people in the U.S. “Mexicans” (common parlance) doesn’t make it accurate. Moreover, those brown people have a lot of European blood, and going out of your way to classify them as non-white irritates me. I don’t think you understand what I am saying. I don’t talk like this, neither do my friends. It is the justice system that singles them out way out of proportion to white people, and I think it is a colossal, shameful injustice. Trump is an arch-prick for promoting the idea that Mexicans are rapists and drug dealers, because it only serves to perpetuate discrimination in our justice system. The ignorant target audience of such race war tactics doesn’t make the distinctions you point out. You should be irritated with them. > [@](#): > > If you must classify them as non-white, go ahead. But if you are going to run around making racial distinctions when none are necessary, at least get it right. No offense, but you are barking up the wrong tree. We are pretty much on the same side I think. But a lot of America is apparently fine with locking up Hispanic people at a disproportionate rate compared to white people, and Trump is signalling that he would continue the practice (I think pretty much every conservative big wig is on the same page, but with less bombast and more discretion than Trump). I’m sorry if my labeling of this phenomenon as ‘racism’ bothers you. I concede Mexicans are not a race. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/79 "2015-07-10T03:04:21Z")
I owe an attempt to re-rail the thread. Check out this section from “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”: > [@](#): > > The rhetoric of “law and order” was first mobilized in the late 1950’s as Southern governors and law enforcement officials attempted to generate and mobilize white opposition to the Civil Rights Movement. In the years following _Brown vs. Board of Education_, civil rights activists used direct-action tactics in an effort to force reluctant Southern states to desegregate public facilities. Southern governors and law enforcement officials often characterized these tactics as criminal and argued that the rise of the Civil Rights Movement was indicative of a breakdown of law and order. Support of civil rights legislation was derided by Southern conservatives as merely “rewarding lawbreakers.” > > For more than a decade, from the mid-1950’s until the late 1960’s- conservatives systematically and strategically linked opposition to civil rights legislation to calls for law and order, arguing that Martin Luther King Jr.'s philosophy of civil disobedience was a leading cause of crime. Civil rights protests were frequently depicted as criminal rather than political in nature, and federal courts were accused of excessive “lenience” toward lawlessness, thereby contributing to the spread of crime. In the words of then-vice president Richard Nixon, the increasing crime rate “can be traced directly to the spread of the corrosive doctrine that every citizen possesses an inherent right to decide for himself which laws to obey and when to disobey them.” Some segregationists went further, insisting that integration causes crime, citing lower crime rates in Southern states as evidence that segregation was necessary. In the words of Representative John Bell Williams, “The exodus of Negroes from the South, and their influx into the great metropolitan centers of other areas of the Nation, has been accompanied by a wave of crime… What has civil rights accomplished for these areas? … Segregation is the only answer as most Americans- not the politicians- have realized for hundreds of years.” I hope everyone can see the connection between the segregationists’ race war tactic and Trump’s behavior in the context of his political campaign. What argument would legally permit Univision to not honor a media contract with a party that clearly intends to use media platforms in an effort towards depriving targeted groups of their civil rights? Maybe there is a way, IANAL, but consider, for example, there is a contract with a rancher to rent out a bunch of horses, and the rancher later learns that his customer intends to use the horses to rob a train, the rancher could legally fail to honor the contract to prevent the commission of a crime. If The Donald’s behavior can be characterized as criminal, maybe Univision can be legally allowed to not cooperate with his criminal goals, contract notwithstanding. Sans criminalizing The Donald, maybe Univision isn’t obligated to undermine their own target audience and harm themselves… meh, contract protocol may very well trump these considerations. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940/80 "2015-07-10T03:17:30Z")
I’m not sure that anything Trump has said is criminal, or portends anything criminal that he might do. If he really does any kind of _actual_ civil rights violations, that’s all civil law rather than criminal law, isn’t it? And he hasn’t even really threatened that. He’s just pushing a nasty xenophobic political position, implying the kind of acts he’s like to see if he gets to be Prez (like building The Great Wall of Texas). I can’t see anything illegal about his advocacy, disgusting though it may be. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-threatens-to-sue-univision-and-nbc-case-can-haz-legs/723940.md?page=5)