El Universal (Mexico City)

The publication has been accused by the political left in Mexico of having a cozy relationship with past governments during key periods in the nation's fraught history. The day after the on October 3, 1968, at the height of the Mexican Dirty War, El Universal published misleading headlines such as, «Terrorists and Soldiers Sustain Harsh Combat During Several Hours» and «Tlatelolco: Battle Camp». Under pressure, the editorial board gave a statement saying, "With pride, we can say that 'El Universal' adequately covered the facts during those days. Perhaps, like many of the publications of our era, we had too much confidence in the word of our government, but we've been honest."^[4]

Tlatelolco massacre

On December 3, 2012, political expert and city planner wrote a column in Animal Político justifying his exit from El Universal as the editorial board had modified the title of his column titled, «El robo de vehículos durante el gobierno de Peña Nieto» (the theft of cars during the government of Peña Nieto)",^[5] referencing President Enrique Peña Nieto when he was the governor of the State of Mexico and his ties to the theft of vehicles. The column was published on April 13, 2012.^[6] In his article, Lajous Loaza argues that when he tried to summon a response from the editors for the headline change, he was told that, "the decision was last minute and comes from the highers ups." He stated that he was promised a new headline, but that nothing ever came. Because of this incident, Lajous Loaeza resigned shortly thereafter as he felt he was not guaranteed the freedom to write critical pieces about the government without editorial interference.^[7]

Andrés Lajous

On December 25, 2017, published an article titled, «Using Billions in Government Cash, Mexico Controls News Media»^[8] signaling El Universal as the largest beneficiary of government funds in the form of publicity and, consequently, transforming the newspaper into an attack dog for the government in power during the elections of 2018 against its adversaries.^[8] In response, the Mexican publication ran a story on December 26, 2017^[9] in which they accuse the information obtained by The New York Times as false and biased.

The New York Times

La Jornada

Reforma

– A joint venture between El Universal and The Miami Herald.

The Herald Mexico

List of newspapers in Mexico

Ella McPherson (2012). . International Journal of Communication. 6.

"Spot News Versus Reportage: Newspaper Models, the Distribution of Newsroom Credibility, and Implications for Democratic Journalism in Mexico"

(in Spanish)

Official website