$10,000,000 Says Hillary Wins

Haim Saban wants to put Clinton in the White House and take public

BY DEVIN LEONARD PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFF MINTON Saban, the billionaire chairman of Univision some of whom he said were rapists, Univision has taken an a garbage man and a disciplinarian. “I of the company’s affiliates that followed Communications, America’s largest Spanish-language adversarial stance. Nine days after Trump’s comments, the know,” he says, sitting in front of a large because so many were watching. media company, flew to Jerusalem in his private jet network canceled its plans to broadcast his Miss USA pageant. picture window through which you can Afterward, Saban says, News Corp. H on Sept. 29 to attend the funeral of his friend Shimon Trump filed a $500 million breach of contract lawsuit, alleg- see the late afternoon sun reddening the Chairman Rupert Murdoch wanted to buy Peres, ’s former prime minister. It was an event attended by ing Saban was interfering to benefit Clinton. (The suit was lush grounds outside. “You’re looking at his production company. “I said, ‘Bubbie, numerous world leaders. Saban gave one of them a lift: former settled confidentially.) The next month, Trump had Jorge me and thinking, ‘You were in charge of forget about it, I don’t need your money. U.S. President Bill Clinton. In Saban’s telling, it wasn’t a big deal. Ramos, Univision’s leading news anchor, tossed out of a news discipline?’ Yes, I was.” (It’s so not hard Let’s create a partnership. You put in the “I called and asked, ‘Are you going to go?’ ” he says, recalling his conference in Iowa when Ramos questioned his immigration to believe.) network. I put in my content.’ ” Murdoch, conversation with Clinton. “He said, ‘Yeah, I’m going.’ I said, ‘I’m policies and ignored Trump’s command to “sit down” and While still in the military, Saban Saban says, told him he was out of his going, too. Do you need a ride?’ ” So Saban picked up Clinton “go back to Univision.” If many English-speaking Americans entered the music business. He talked mind—but eventually came to see the and his entourage at a small airport in Teterboro, N.J. had until that point been only vaguely aware of Univision, a local band into jettisoning its bass appeal. Together they formed After the funeral, Saban would have been happy to fly they were now paying attention. player and took the position himself, Worldwide, a company they hoped would Clinton home, but his passenger got a better offer. President Since then, Univision has co-hosted a Democratic primary even though he couldn’t really play. “DERANGED”: compete with Viacom’s and Barack Obama invited Clinton to ride back on Air Force One, debate, sought to register 3 million Latino voters, and promoted Saban sometimes performed with his Time Warner’s . which idled on the same tarmac as Saban’s jet. Saban chan- a mid-October concert along the U.S.-Mexican border called amp turned off until his musician- The quickest way to get the network nels Clinton looking back and forth between the two planes: “RiseUp As One.” The network’s growing influence comes as ship improved. In time, Saban became into a lot of homes would be to rebrand “It was like, ‘Air Force One, Saban Air, Air Force One, Saban Saban waits for the right moment to do the initial public offer- the band’s manager, taking them an existing channel. Saban targeted Air? OK, I’ll go with Air Force One!’ ” Saban says he understood. ing—a process that has dragged on longer than expected and to , where they signed with televangelist Pat Robertson’s Family Gossip about powerful friends, a lot of uncheckable dia- might play out more favorably under President-elect Clinton than PolyGram Records. He bounced from Channel, the home of . logue, and a punchline—that’s typical Saban. The 72-year-old under Trump. Saban says he has nothing to do with Univision’s Israel, where he managed more bands Mel Woods, Saban’s chief operating Israeli-American speaks five languages and is a gifted storyteller news coverage, but some Republicans find this hard to believe. and learned about promotion, to Paris officer at the time, recalls what trans- whose ability to entertain has helped him become an almost “He has been quoted as saying he will do everything in his and then the U.S., where music produc- pired next. “Rupert Murdoch had a con- royal personage in Hollywood. “He’s one of the most charming power to get Hillary Clinton elected,” says Sean Spicer, a spokes- tion led him into the cartoon business. versation with Pat Robertson,” Woods people I have ever met in my whole life, and he’s really funny,” man for the Republican National Committee. “I take him at his During a visit to Japan in 1984, he saw says. “The message came back to Haim: says reality TV star and entrepreneur Simon Cowell, with word.” On Oct. 10, WikiLeaks published hacked 2015 e-mails that a spasmodic TV show featuring teen ‘They’re not interested.’ Chase Carey whom Saban developed Univision’s La Banda, an unscripted show Saban persuading the Clinton campaign to make more superheroes in candy-colored outfits. [then News Corp.’s co-COO] had a con- show about the search for the “ultimate” boy band and, more of Trump’s ­anti-Hispanic rhetoric. In another message, on the To American eyes, it might have looked ANCHOR—AND TRUMP ANTAGONIST—RAMOS versation—came back to Haim and recently, girl band. Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger, subject of Univision’s perceived Clinton “boosterism,” Saban at best like trash and at worst a seizure said, ‘No, I don’t think they’re inter- another of Saban’s friends, says, “He’s perceptive and perse- wrote: “i NEVER tell our news dep. what to cover.,,,unlike some risk. “I thought it was brilliant,” Saban ested.’ Haim said, ‘Is it OK if I ask?’ ” verant. All that wealth that he created for himself, he did on of my peers.” says. “Kids in Spandex battling rubber Saban and Carey went to dinner with his own.” Jeffrey Katzenberg, the former CEO of DreamWorks monsters? It sounds beautiful. It does. I Tim Robertson, the televangelist’s son. 46 Animation, pays Saban the ultimate Hollywood compliment: aban lives in one of the Los Angeles area’s exclusive mean, I loved it. What can I say? I don’t “During that dinner, I spoke as a member 47 “It’s easy to be charmed by Haim. But underneath that, there gated communities, high in Beverly Hills, in a compound know why.” of the top Fox management, even though is just a laser-focused, razor-sharp, take-no-prisoners­ killer.” with a winding, pebbled driveway, sculpted shrubbery, He wanted to bring a version of the I wasn’t,” Saban says. “I said, ‘We’ll give Saban, who’s worth $3.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg S fountains, and his baronial residence. On a recent after- show to the U.S. It would come to be you movies. We’ll give you television Billionaires Index, has two targets at the moment. He wants to noon, he sits at a long table in his home office sipping cappuccino titled Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. But shows. We’ll open the vaults. And Chase take Univision public. He and a group of private equity investors and munching on a salty Middle Eastern pastry. Saban wears a when he showed it to the executives at Carey is sitting there thinking, ‘What the bought the network for $12.3 billion in 2007, when it was a solely slim-fitting black shirt, black pants, no socks, and black slip-on his production company, they told him heck is he saying?’ ” Spanish-language operation, and have transformed it into a bilin- shoes with a vaguely aquatic look. His dark hair is slicked back he was “deranged,” he recalls. “No, seri- SABAN AND COWELL’S BAND QUEST In the end, the Robertsons sold the gual platform aimed increasingly at young, multiethnic­ viewers. and falls over his collar. The ­cream-colored walls are decorated ously,” he says. “They said, ‘Look, I mean, Family Channel to Saban and Murdoch His other goal is to elect Hillary Clinton president. It’s with pictures of Saban with various world leaders. There’s also you’re doing so well. Why in the world for $1.9 billion. “I said, ‘Hallelujah, something that Saban, a longtime defender of Israel whom a poster from the classic Mel Brooks movie The Producers, with would you take a risk of spoiling your rep- praise the Lord,’ ” Saban recalls. the Jerusalem Post recently named the world’s No. 1 “most influ- the quote “If you got it … flaunt it!” utation with this piece of crap?’ ” The new owners renamed their ential Jew,” has been pushing since 2004. Last summer he Like so many of Univision’s viewers, Saban, who speaks Saban shopped the show around prize the Fox Family Channel. It never told Bloomberg TV that he would give “as much as needed” English with a heavy accent, has his own immigrant story. He Hollywood for years until one day he caught up to Nickelodeon, and in 2001, to ensure her victory, and so far this election cycle he and his was born in in 1944. When he was 12 years old, his family hosted a meeting at his office with Saban and Murdoch decided to sell wife have donated $10 million to Clinton’s super PAC, according was forced to leave after President Gamal Abdel Nasser sought Margaret Loesch, then head of Fox Kids. the network. Murdoch, a dealmaker to the Center for Responsive Politics. Saban gives Clinton his to rid the country of Jews. Saban and his family ended up living She told Saban she needed a weekday of the first order, and his executives unsolicited advice, too. Recently, he told her to stop shouting in one room next to a bus station in Tel Aviv. He served in the morning show that would appeal to scoffed when Saban said it could sell on the stump. “I think that she has gotten the message from a Israeli army, where he says he fought in two wars and was young boys. Loesch remembers Saban for $5 billion. “They were kind of like, couple of people,” he says. “You can see in the last few weeks saying, “Just a moment, dalink.” Then, ‘Yeah, really? Good luck,’ ” says former that the shouting is gone.” Saban says he doesn’t see Clinton “he ran down the hall and came back PRIME TIME: EL HOTEL DE LOS SECRETOS News Corp. President . But much these days, but on the occasions that they’re pho- “Hipsters and waving a Power Rangers videocassette.” the following year, at the annual Allen & tographed together, they look like confidants. Loesch told Saban it was perfect. Co. retreat in Sun Valley, Idaho, Saban persuaded then-Disney­ Saban’s two crusades are converging in a way that recalls Saban and Loesch split the $100,000 cost of an 18-minute CEO Michael Eisner to make a bid. ­ previous windfalls in his career, when he made big, early Hispanics. Two of pilot, which they tested in Burbank with a group of children, As Saban tells it, he brought Murdoch to the meeting and bets that paid off in both money and clout. The conventional each of whom was furnished with a dial. If the kids liked the told him to sit quietly while Eisner made his offer. Instead, wisdom has been that Clinton can’t win without strong turnout show, they were supposed to turn the dial to the right. Turning Murdoch started to laugh when Eisner said he was willing to from Hispanic voters, who helped Obama reach the White the fastest-grow- the dial left would mean they hated it. “Guess what?” Saban pay $5.3 billion. Saban called for a break and took Murdoch House twice. Saban’s company boasts that it is “the gateway to says. “It was to the right the whole show.” He says Loesch told aside. “I said, ‘What’s so funny about this?’ Rupert said, ‘He’s Hispanic America” in the U.S., reaching 40 million people in ing demograph- him she’d never seen anything like it in her 20-year career. crazy. It’s not worth that.’ I said, ‘But you’re on the receiving the demographic each month. Since June 2015, when Donald Power Rangers became a hit when the show made its debut in end, so it’s not crazy.’ ” Murdoch declined an interview request Trump announced his campaign with a pledge to build a wall 1993. Saban says Fox soon moved Power Rangers to the after- for this story. So did Eisner, who was widely thought to

along the Mexican border and deport millions of immigrants, ics in the U.S. ” VALENTIN/POLARIS ANGEL RAMOS: ALAMY; RANGERS: POWER noons, where it boosted the ratings for the local news shows have overpaid for the network, which became ABC Family. s a billionaire, Saban has lavished money on causes and high school,” Saban said, adding that he was in the process of tumbled from 3.6 million people in the 2012-13 season to 2 million candidates, reaping the resulting friendships. Politically, settling up with the IRS. three years later, according to Nielsen, as its audience tired of “It is very evident he’s for Israel, abortion rights, and universal health care. Soon after, he and some of the same partners bought Televisa’s pastoral fare. “I don’t want to see a novela with a haci- A In 2002 he and his wife, Cheryl, attended a presentation Univision. It was the most popular TV network among American enda,” says Lisa Torres, head of ad agency Publicis Media’s mul- by Terry McAuliffe, then chairman of the Democratic National Hispanics, the country’s fastest-growing ethnic group, who ticultural division. “I don’t know what a hacienda is. I have never that the network Committee, at the Clintons’ home in Washington. McAuliffe devoured the network’s prime-time telenovelas, soapy dramas been on a hacienda. I don’t know how to raise horses. That’s lamented that the Republican National Committee had much often about life in rural Mexico. The shows were produced south not my lifestyle.” Spokespeople for Univision and Televisa say nicer headquarters than his organization’s. Saban says, “Cheryl of the border by Televisa, Mexico’s largest TV company. It was their top executives met in Mexico City on Oct. 4 to discuss how is ­committed to bent over to me and said, ‘We’ve got to do something, and we’ve lucrative for Univision, which was buying content produced for to make better shows. got to do it big.’ ” Saban gave $7 million to fund a new building. pesos and collecting ad revenue in dollars. Saban has used acquisitions to bolster the Internet audi- (McAuliffe didn’t respond to an interview request.) Univision also had a genuine bond with its audience, many ence of the , recently formed to run the the ­election of The same year, Saban contacted , the U.S. of whom were new immigrants. Unlike many English-speaking company’s newer TV and web ventures. Last year, Univision ambassador to Israel under Bill Clinton, and told him he wanted viewers, who DVR’ed shows and bypassed ads, Hispanics purchased The Root, a website aimed at African American audi- to start a devoted to the . Indyk remem- tended to watch live. They also seemed to trust Univision more ences co-founded by Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates. In Hillary Clinton” bers the conversation well. “I said, ‘Well, you know, I already than the U.S. government. “They call us to find out where to January it bought ’s satirical empire. And in August did that. I set up the Washington Institute for Near East Policy send their kids to school, what the best hospitals are to send it won an auction for Media, whose flagship website crusader on matters like immigration. “If you have a candidate before I went into government, so why don’t you just give your their kids if they get sick,” says , Univision’s CEO. was known for scabrous takedowns, one of which led to a like who made racist remarks about Mexican money to them?’ ” Indyk says. “Haim said, ‘No, you don’t under- “They’ve actually called us when their houses are on fire.” courtroom loss and bankruptcy. Gawker founder Nick Denton immigrants, we cannot stay silent, impassive as journalists,” stand. I want my own.’ ” Indyk suggested that Saban establish his says he’s pleased Univision has picked up the remnants of he says. “We saw a couple of weeks ago that the L.A. Times, think tank at the , a D.C. fixture for almost f the value of a Latino-focused media company seems his company. “Hipsters and Hispanics,” he says. “Two of , New York Times, and Politico decided to call 90 years. Indyk recalls that Saban asked: “What’s Brookings?” obvious now, Saban gets credit for realizing it a decade ago. ­fastest-growing demographics in the U.S.” Donald Trump a liar,” he says. “But we did it in August of 2015.” That’s true, Saban says now, mocking himself. “Yeah, I didn’t He was similarly ahead of the curve on the presidential pros- Lee says Univision plans to create TV shows around its In a recent column in Time, Ramos warned that anybody who know what Brookings was. Are you guys to the left? Are you to I pects of Hillary Clinton, whom he encouraged to run in 2004. recently acquired websites. “At the end, it’ll be all of them, but doesn’t take a strong stand against Trump’s transgressions will be the right? Are you in the center? What are you? What do you do? She demurred and then lost the Democratic primary in 2008 we have to start with the most important,” he says. “There’s a judged in the future for being on the wrong side of history. But I don’t know nothing.” He endowed Brookings’s Saban Center for to Obama. Saban was devastated, refusing to write Obama Gawker property called . It’s about gaming. The fandom what Ramos sees as principle, others see as evidence that he can Middle East Policy in May 2002. Its annual forum let its namesake checks for the general election. “It took me a couple of years in the Hispanic community about gaming is crazy.” He says no longer report the news objectively. “The problem with him is rub shoulders with heads of state from America, Israel, and the to heal, because I was so passionate about Hillary,” he says. the more Fusion can deliver an audience of young African that he doesn’t realize that if you’re a hard news reporter, you Arab world. (It’s now called the Center for Middle East Policy.) Things weren’t going much better at Univision. When the Americans, Hispanics, and other groups, the better chance it cannot give opinion,” says Alfonso Aguilar, head of the Latino Saban could easily afford it. In 2003 he and a group of inves- financial crisis struck in 2008, advertising revenue plum- has of pressuring Comcast into carrying Fusion. Partnership for Conservative Principles in Washington and a tors won the bidding for ProSiebenSat.1 Media, a German TV meted, and Univision took a $3.7 billion write-down that year. Not everybody believes Univision’s strategy to court millen- political analyst for Univision’s chief rival, Telemundo. “He has company that Saban describes as the equivalent of a combined Meanwhile, Televisa, its main programming supplier, believed nials regardless of language will pay off. Some analysts suspect a right to give us his opinion, but he can’t be the anchor and 48 ABC, CBS, and CNN. Saban learned the deal had gone through it had been historically underpaid by Univision and had gone that Saban is just trying to pretty up the profitable but heavily provide hard news. Because you are biased.” 49 while he and his family were touring Dachau, the Nazi death to court to sever ties. Saban persuaded Televisa CEO Emilio indebted Univision for the IPO. “They did it to get a higher Jorge Bonilla, a contributing writer at MRC Latino, a conser- camp in . “I’m standing in the crematorium, and the Azcárraga Jean not only to extend his company’s programming [price] multiple,” says Harold Vogel, a New York-based media vative watchdog group that tracks what it perceives to be liberal phone vibrates in my pocket,” he says. He stepped outside to agreement with Univision until 2020, he also got Televisa to con- analyst. “It was going to make them cool and sassy and, you leanings in Spanish-language media, says he considers Ramos take the call. Saban and his partners bought control of the tribute a much needed $1.2 billion in exchange for 5 percent know, attractive to the market. And I’m saying, wait a minute, just one part of a broader problem at Univision. “When you company in a deal that valued it at $3 billion. Four years later, of the company. “Haim Saban is one of the toughest and most there’s nothing there.” look at the softball interviews that have been given to Hillary they flipped it in one worth $8 billion. persistent negotiators I have met,” Azcárraga said in a state- If Saban and his partners do take Univision public—the Clinton over the last couple of years and Haim Saban’s public In 2006, Saban testified before the U.S. Senate about how ment. And like so many others, he came away smitten, extol- company notified the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission statements, it is very evident that the network is committed he, along with several other wealthy businessmen, used an off- ling Saban’s charisma and “great sense of humor. … We not only of its intent a year ago but hasn’t yet set a date—they may already to the election of Hillary Clinton,” Bonilla says. shore shelter to lower his taxes. He handled it as smoothly as became partners, but also great friends,” he said. have a buyer for a significant block of shares. Last year, Univision That’s not true, says Saban. He notes that he was in the everything else, pleading ignorance. “I am neither a lawyer nor Saban spent the next few years overseeing his company’s disclosed that it had a plan to enable Televisa, which now owns front row at a Democratic primary debate in March that Ramos a tax expert, in fact my formal education ended when I finished expansion. Univision created cable stations such as Univision almost 10 percent of the company, to increase its position to as moderated. The anchor’s first question to Clinton: “Would you Deportes (sports) and (all- much as 40 percent. But that would require the approval of the drop out of the race if you get indicted?” Saban winces at the telenovelas-all-the-time). In 2013, Univision Federal Communications Commission, which must review any memory. “I’m thinking to myself, Could it be the second ques- announced a venture with Disney to create proposal to raise foreign ownership of a U.S. broadcast company tion, the third question? Why the first question?” he says. “For Fusion, a cable network for young English- beyond 25 percent. To pull this off, Saban needs a supportive crying out loud! I had a friend with me. He said, ‘I thought you speaking Hispanics. Univision would provide administration in Washington. “Hillary is more likely to bless any were supportive of Hillary.’ I said, ‘I am supportive of Hillary, the programs, and Disney would handle ad sales expansion of foreign ownership between the two than Trump but I don’t tell this guy [Ramos] what to say. You know, he says and get the network into major cable compa- is,” says veteran media analyst Porter Bibb. “If Trump should what he wants to say.’ ” nies’ listings. But Fusion’s premise was flawed. In win, Jorge Ramos really is dead in the water. I think Trump Election forecasting models give Clinton more than an focus groups, young Hispanics said they “didn’t would probably figure out a way to ban him from the airwaves.” 80 percent chance of winning the White House. It might be want to be treated as a tribe,” says Isaac Lee, the right time for Unvision to go public, too. “The stock market Univision’s chief news, entertainment, and digital t’s hard to overstate the influence of Univision’s top news is very buoyant, and the prognosis for the next 12 months is officer who oversees Fusion. “They also didn’t anchor in the Hispanic community. Years ago, English- pretty strong,” says media analyst Bibb. “If I was Saban, I’d want to consume content that was only about language networks had iconic news anchors such as Walter pop that thing right now.” Hispanic things.” Univision shifted Fusion’s target I Cronkite and David Brinkley, whose Olympian utterances At his Beverly Hills home, Saban says he’s not looking for audience to what it describes as “multicultural swayed millions. Their modern counterparts aren’t nearly as anything if Clinton is elected—not even a chance to be a back ­millennials.” Disney pulled out of the venture last powerful, but in the world of Hispanic media where so many channel between the White House and the Israeli government, year. Fusion, which lost $64 million in its first people still watch broadcast television, it’s different. “Jorge as some have speculated. “I will tell you exactly what I want,” three years, has yet to be picked up by Comcast, Ramos is one of our most beloved journalists,” says Torres of he says. “And no one in the world, be it the president of the America’s largest cable operator. Publicis Media. “I mean, he is our Walter Cronkite.” or the prime minister of Israel or whomever, can Univision was also losing its own touch with Ramos, whose daughter works for the Clinton campaign, give me that. Only I can give me that. I just want to be Haim

BANTERING WITH CLINTON AT THE SABAN FORUM IN 2015 programming. Its average prime-time viewership SABAN HAIM COURTESY says he’s just a journalist asking tough questions, but he’s a Saban. That’s all. I don’t want to change anything in my life.”