CBS Hires Univision Anchor After Being Urged To Diversify

Maria Elena Salinas

Award-winning journalist, anchor and author Maria Elena Salinas is joining CBS News as a contributor, it was announced  by Susan Zirinsky, CBS News President and Senior Executive Producer. Salinas, one of the most recognizable and respected journalists in the country, most notably served as co-anchor of Univision's evening news program for more than 30 years.

Salinas will contribute reports across CBS News broadcasts and platforms and will frequently appear on coverage of the run-up to the 2020 election.

"It is an honor to welcome Maria Elena Salinas to the CBS News team," said Zirinsky. "We look forward to sharing her important voice and journalistic credentials with our audience in a critical time for this country."

In a career that spans nearly four decades, Salinas has interviewed world leaders and covered virtually every major national and international news event of our time. Her work has earned the top awards presented in broadcasting, including multiple Emmys, a Peabody, Gracie Awards, the Edward R. Murrow Award and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism.

A Los Angeles native, Salinas spent 35 years with Univision and was one of its best-known anchors. Before leaving the network in 2017, she served as co-host of “Noticiero Univision” and the newsmagazine “Aquí y Ahora.” She has interviewed world leaders, including every U.S. president since Jimmy Carter.

Her hiring comes less than two months after the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) called for a boycott of CBS This Morning and the CBS Evening News over what the Hollywood advocacy group described as “Latino exclusion” from the network’s flagship news programs.

In a statement issued on May 29, the NHMC said Latino anchors and correspondents were absent following the latest revamp of the CBS News broadcasts.  The NHMC asked why no Latino anchors or reporters were included in the changes.

“Latinos make up 18.9% of the U.S. population and are the largest and fastest growing minority in the nation,” NHMC President and CEO Alex Nogales said at the time. “Yet, here we are again — absent on screen, but this time not on an entertainment program or in a film, but on a major news network.”

Nogales urged CBS to “fully” embrace diversity.