Fear and Loathing in Prime Time: Immigration Myths and Cable News

Fear and Loathing in Prime Time: Immigration Myths and Cable News: A Media Matters Action Network Report - May 21, 2008 (En Español)

There are many problems facing the United States today -- a faltering economy, a health-care crisis, and the continuing war in Iraq, to name a few. But viewers of some of the most prominent cable news programs are presented a different reality in which one issue stands above all others: illegal immigration.

While hosts on other cable programs regularly discuss illegal immigration, Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly, and Glenn Beck serve up a steady diet of fear, anger, and resentment on the topic of illegal immigration.

Media Matters Action Network

Outright Barbarous: How the Violent Language of the Right Poisons American Democracy

Since September 11, 2001, most attempts at reasoned political debate in America have been severely limited by the violent language of the Right.

In books and on television, it has become a regular ritual for conservative pundits and intellectuals to infuse violence—particularly against Democrats or liberals—into discussions of the major issues of the day, such as terrorism, immigration and gun violence.

The result is the creation of a shrill discourse that silences opposition and destroys any chance for serious, civil debate.

In Outright Barbarous: How the Violent Language of the Right is Poisoning American Democracy, political language expert Jeffrey Feldman analyzes the words of leading conservative figures Ann Coulter, Dinesh D’Souza, James Dobson, Wayne LaPierre, Pat Buchanan and Bill O’Reilly to show how the Right’s language of violence is polluting our public discourse and limiting the free exchange of ideas.

In addition to exposing the conservative obsession with violence, Feldman also shows how the civic discussion in America can be reshaped without the use of violent language, creating a healthier political climate.

Related: Frameshop: O'Reilly's Anti-Latino Rant

Dangerous intolerance - Intolerancia peligrosa

Dangerous intolerance (El Diario/La Prensa EDITORIAL - 3.13.08)

En Español

In this anti-immigrant climate, it is no coincidence that hate crimes against Hispanics have increased. Nativist extremism has fueled attacks against immigrants, to the point that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) reports that hate crimes against Latinos increased by a shocking 35 percent from 2003 to 2006.

The Center has been documenting hate-spewing groups since 1971. While these are groups on the fringe, we know what happens when racist, homophobic or xenophobic agendas go from speech to agitation to violence—bombings of black churches, murders of gays and calls for the forced sterilization of Mexican women.

In the same three years that hate crimes against Hispanics increased, there was also a rise of nativist extremist groups. (Ironically, a few of the zealots fanning the flames of hate are themselves Latinos. SPLC included Alberto Rodriguez of Arizona and Rosanna Pulido of Illionois, both with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, in its list.)

The Center’s report underscores why Hispanics—regardless of legal status—feel more vulnerable. And the vulnerability is not only caused by extremist speech or hateful acts.

Too often, we are reporting on the profiling of Hispanic citizens by authorities across the country—from a Texas man who was deported and left homeless; a Georgia teenager testifying about an armed unidentified immigration agent barging into her home; a naturalized Latina’s home repeatedly raided in Long Island; and a congressmember calling for denying rights to “foreign” Puerto Ricans.

So far, ignorance and extremism have not been allowed to poison the presidential race. The most anti-immigrant candidates did not carry the day. But we need to remain ever vigilant against this rising tide of hate and violence.

Geraldo Rivera On Anti-Immigrant Nativism

Dumb Ms Ginny Brown Waite

How dumb is Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite (R-Florida)?

Very.

Last week she issued a press release in which she referred to Puerto Ricans as "foreign citizens".

Calling her comments “infuriating and contradictory,” members of the U.S. Congress and the full Puerto Rican House of Representatives demanded “a public apology” from Brown-Waite for referring to Puerto Ricans as “foreign citizens.”

Puerto Ricans were made American citizens in 1917.

Ms Ginny has thus far refused to correct her mistake and apologize.

Ginny represents an area in Florida's Central Region, which is home to some 600,000 Floridians of Puerto Rican heritage. However, the 5th District that she represents is comprised largely of nonLatino retirees. Perhaps picking a fight with Puerto Ricans is smart politics there--but it can only be a short-term play.

Why?

The district's demographics are changing allowing Democrats to compete in the formerly solid Republican district. But even if Ms Ginny manages to hang on in 2008, 2010 will be more difficult--and we can expect that the post-2010 redistricting will surely rid Central Florida of this embarrassment. But it won't happen so enough.

But let's be clear. Ginny's assault on Puerto Ricans is simply another manifestion of the rightwing's anti-Latino nativism. As I've said before, it's not about the "immigration status" of some Latinos--it's simple bigotry against Latinos.

Related:
Political leaders criticize Brown-Waite's 'foreign' remark
Puerto Ricans to Brown-Waite: You're an insensitive ignoramus

Immigration Misfire

In Immigration Misfair, Rosa Rosales (Wall Street Journal, February 5, 2008) points out what I and others have been saying about the harshness of the anti-immigration position of rightwing Republican politicians: It's a loser.

Political pundits used to maintain that the American electorate was galvanized around the issue of illegal immigration. Voters, they claimed, would punish any candidate who failed to take a tough stance on immigrants and did not adamantly oppose the "A" word -- Amnesty -- in all its tortured definitions.

Yet a funny thing happened in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. The most anti-immigrant candidates performed below expectations, and those accused of supporting amnesty and in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants won.

Rosales asks, "How is this possible? How could John McCain, the author of the McCain-Kennedy Comprehensive Immigration bill beat Mitt Romney, who aired anti-illegal-immigrant commercials more than 12,000 times in Iowa and New Hampshire alone?"

My response? Because most Americans are decent people--and the pogram against immigrants fomented by screech radio and allied nativist organizataions never spoke for them. Really, these primaries are the first time fair-minded Americans have been able to weigh in--and they're sending a loud message that they do NOT subscribe to the anti-Latino, anti-immigrant Party of the Know Nothings.

More

Also:
Immigration Attacks Batting .000 in Republican Primary
Mitt: Descarado
Immigration Losers
The GOP's Bitter Harvest to Come
A Xenophobic Zeitgeist - Erasing GOP Latino Gains
WSJ -- The GOP's Anti-Latino Tone is a Loser
California's Booming Latinos: 52% by 2042
New York farmers confront feds on migrants
Linda Chavez: GOP's Self-Inflicted Wound
Republican Presidential Hopefuls Diss 1,000 Latino Leaders
Experts: Economies grow in Hispanic-heavy areas
The Coming Latino Voter Response to the Failure of Immigration Reform
The Radical Right Claims Victory
Republicans: nativism is a proven loser
Clint Bolick: The GOP Must Now Prove Itself to Latinos
Linda Chavez' The Company You Keep: In Search of anti-Hispanic hostility
GOP Risks Losing Latino Voters
The Rightwing's Winning Strategy on Immigration
Macaca: Top Politically Incorrect Word in '06

Yes, We Can.

Si Se Puede.

What More Does Lou Dobbs Have to Do to Prove He’s Not Racist?

John O'Bryan offers CNN's Anchor Bigot some helpful advice in his recent column entitled "What More Does Lou Dobbs Have to Do to Prove He’s Not Racist?".

I only question O'Bryan's suggestion that Dobbs is a racist but not Liberals. We have just spent the last couple of weeks watching America's leading liberal politicians--Bill and Hillary Clinton--unabashedly using the race-card against Barack Obama. And I've heard few objections from liberals. If anything, some see the Clintons' clever racial tactics as evidence of their political smarts. Under that line of thinking, Lou Dobbs is not a racist, he's simply a very clever man that knows how to strum America's racial chord for big audiences.

Anyway, O'Bryan's is a good read--and Lord knows, we can all use laugh.

"It never ceases to amaze me. Somehow liberals and other sensitive types in this country have managed to turn America’s greatest cable news crusader into a bigot.

Just because Lou Dobbs spends night after night fighting to criminalize people who cross the desert to pick your tomatoes, some loony leftwingers have accused him of harboring white supremacist sentiments. Just because he accidentally quotes studies conducted by racist organizations and occasionally references the opinions of eugenicists, some people have decided that Daddy Dobbs is driven by nefarious motives. Well I’m not one of them. Who among you has not unwittingly supported a Nazi on occasion? We’re all only human.”

GOP Primary Voters Tune Out RightWing Radio

If America's right wing radio screechers are sooo right about everything, why is that their favorite candidates for president are faring sooo poorly?

The right's darling anti-immigrant Tom Tancredo never polled more than 1% among conservative Republican voters and was forced to drop out.

Mitt Romney--Sean Hannity's favorite--is having a hard time convincing rank and file GOPers that he's their man.

Fred Thompson--the favorite of Freepers--has been cast as the 2nd coming of Ronald Reagan but, again, Republicans primary voters are not believing the hype.

Then there's Duncan Hunter--aka, the Man that Built the San Diego-Mexico fence. The screechers think he's keen but he does nothing for the voters.

On the other hand, the candidates that the right wing radio "jihadists" have been working overtime to defeat: John McCain and Mike Huckabee are prospering.

This is what happens when extremists begin believing their own press releases about their purported influence and power.

Sweet!

Related: SOUTH CAROLINA'S BIG LOSER: TALK RADIO

GOP Rightwingers: Tancredo's the Genuine Article

Republicans: nativism is a proven loser

Five myths of anti-immigration talk

Miami Herald's Andres Oppenheimer--whose column Ya Basta! Time to hit back against anti-Latino bigotry inspired the creation of this weblog--has again written truth to nativist hate. In Five myths of anti-immigration talk, Oppenheimer debunks the myths used by nativists as cover for bigotry.

Here's a summary:

• Myth No. 1: ''We are only against illegal immigration. Undocumented immigrants should get in line for visas.'' That's deceptive because you can't demand that people get into line when, for the most part, there is no line to get into.

• Myth No. 2: ''Anti-immigration advocates are not anti-Hispanic.'' Maybe many aren't, but when was the last time you heard anti-immigration Republican hopefuls or cable television talk show hosts lashing out against illegal immigrants from Canada?

• Myth No. 3: ''We are a nation of laws, and the law says you have to enter the country legally.'' Yes, but we are also a nation of immigrants. And, by the way, nearly half of all undocumented immigrants enter the country legally, and overstay their visas.

• Myth No. 4: ''Building a border fence will solve the problem.'' Wrong. As long as the per capita income in the United States is five times bigger than that of Mexico, and as long as U.S. labor market demands millions of low-skilled jobs that Americans won't fill, people will jump over the fence, dig tunnels under it or come through Canada.

• Myth No. 5: Those of us who criticize anti-immigration groups are ''amnesty'' and ''open borders'' supporters. Baloney. I, for one, support both border protection and an earned path to legalization for millions of undocumented workers who pay taxes and are willing to learn English.