Univison taps Clinton administration official in merger fight. (Media & Technology).

Univision Communications Inc., the biggest U.S. owner of Spanish-language television stations, is running ads featuring a former Clinton administration official to defend its $2.3 billion buyout of Hispanic Broadcasting Corp.

The ads, including an "open letter" by former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros, appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and Spanish-language papers to counter charges that Univision's purchase of the No. 1 Spanish-language radio broadcaster would reduce program diversity and result in pro-Republican bias.

Univision is awaiting Federal Communications Commission approval to obtain Hispanic Broadcasting's 55 radio stations in Los Angeles, Miami, New York and other cities so it can sell advertising in all broadcast media to U.S. Hispanics. The campaign reflects anxiety that the merger will get caught in the political debate over the FCC's plan to relax rules that limit the number of radio and TV stations a single company may own.

"This is yet one more manifestation that media ownership is a highly political issue," said Rudy Baca, a former FCC official who is an analyst with the Precursor Group, a Washington-based research firm for institutional investors. Democrats fear that Univision Chairman Jerrold Perenchio "will to do Univision and Hispanic Broadcasting what Rupert Murdoch did to Fox:' Baca said.

Democratic lawmakers including Sens. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Dick Durbin of Illinois and Rep. Maxine Waters of Los Angeles wrote the FCC to argue that the merger would reduce diversity of Hispanicmedia viewpoints and "exacerbate an already serious problem: the growing non-Hispanic control of Spanish-language media:'

To respond to the lawmakers and the National Hispanic Policy Institute, an advocacy group that has run its own ad campaign, Los Angeles-based Univision recruited Cisneros, a prominent Democrat and the company's former president, to write a letter to "congressional leaders" that was published in major newspapers last week.

Cisneros, who also served as the mayor of San Antonio, said that while Perenchio is a registered Republican "whose politics have been called 'conservative," the Univision chairman "also contributes to many Democratic candidates and causes."

Cisneros noted that "half the board of directors of Univision is composed of Hispanics" and "Hispanics fill the vast majority of key management positions."

Univision recruited Cisneros as a spokesman because the takeover "has become a very, very political issue:' Baca said. In the face of opposition by "the leading lights" of the Democratic Party "you pull out the big guns. You pull out Henry Cisneros, he is about as Democratic as you can get:'

An earlier ad entitled "The Hispanic Community Deserves the Truth" said the National Hispanic Policy Institute was a "front group" using "smear attacks" to "advance the commercial interests of its undisclosed backer."

Univision launched the ad campaign because "we've been lax in responding to these falsehoods and we're starting to fight back now to set the record straight," said spokeswoman Stephanie Pillersdorf.

The FCC review is continuing more than two months after the Justice Department cleared the transaction when Univision agreed to reduce its stake in Santa Monica-based Entravision Communications Corp. from 27 percent to 10 percent over six years to ease concerns the combination would hurt competition for advertising on Hispanic radio stations.