Comments on: Washington Post Journalist Admits Biased Immigration Coverage

By: ed

ed — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 16:21:17 +0000

Hmmmm.

Actually that “slip of the pen” might be the correct number.

Frankly I don’t buy the “12 million” as the correct number of illegal aliens in America today. I think it’s closer to 20 million. And there are more coming across the border every day because of the possibility of an amnesty. Considering that the senate plan has a 5-8 year delay before giving citizenship to the current crop of illegal aliens and that the number of illegals successfully entering America is pegged at 3 million a year now.

This could add 15-24 million more illegals to the system by the time the probationary period is up. And as the only documentation required is rather flimsy and largely self-generated, the opportunities for later illegals to give the appearance of conforming to the senate plan means that we could literally be creating 40 million or so citizens in a 1-2 year span.

By: Pajamas Media

Pajamas Media — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:39:02 +0000

What They Don’t Tell Us

Immigration: Big Media admits to under-serving its customers and La Shawn is duly surprised….

By: Ninth State

Ninth State — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 14:29:14 +0000

Well here’s an interesting surprise (Hat tip: La Shawn Barber). Yesterday, Robert J. Samuelson’s Washington Post article “What You Didn’t Know About the Immigration Bill” contains some pretty startling admissions: One job of journalism is to inform the public about what our political leaders are doing. In this case, we failed. The Senate bill’s sponsors didn’t publicize its full impact on legal immigration, and we didn’t fill the void. It’s safe to say that few Americans know what the bill would do because no one has told them.

By: Seahawk

Seahawk — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 14:08:34 +0000

Gee, you don’t think that journalists slant stories about any topic other than immigration though, do you?

(sarc/off)

By: dianne

dianne — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 13:32:42 +0000

I commend Samuelson for writing the article. However, the only thing that will really count is contact with your Senator and House representative. Flood them with letters, e-mails, bricks, rallies, anything you can think of to get the point across that we, your citizens and constituents, will not vote for any candidate, republican or democrat, who supports the sham Senate bill. The House and Senate committees are getting ready to try to write a compromise bill and unless the bill gets out of committee, the legislation will die. Personally, I hope some bill does get out of committee which emphasizes enforcement and employer sanctions and a tamper proof identification card. If the bill dies in committee, nothing will be done to stop the approximately 100,000/yr illegal immigrants coming across the border.

By: Heliotrope

Heliotrope — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 13:29:35 +0000

Fie! on Samuelson. Good journalism is not a mystery game. It is guided by Kipling’s “Six Honest Serving Men.” Those serving men are: Who, What, Where, Why, When, and How. But Kipling calls them “honest” serving men, by which he means that they are sent to scour all sides and shades of the topic.

DC is the epicenter of nuanced opinion. It teems with think tanks and lobbyists. It is a maze of too much opinion and torrents of slanted “facts.”

A real journalist, on top of his game, knows this and has learned to separate the wheat from the chaff and present the anatomy of the issue in clear, unbiased reporting. Kipling’s six honest serving men are his compass for doing this.

But, much (shall I say most) of the news corps in DC are not writing news so much as presenting briefs for their own convictions.

In the immigration issue, Kipling would take his six serving men to the political parties, the liberals, the conservatives, the Anglos, the immigrants, the National Association of Manufacturers, the unions, the Chamber of Commerce, and on and on. Only then would he weave his discoveries into a report.

It is a very big job to report from DC. Most of the people doing it are not up to the challenge, so they drop the “honest” modifier and take the easy path to publication. In fairness, deadlines play a big role, but it is never too late to get the complete picture.

By: Renee

Renee — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 12:13:59 +0000

Thanks for this article La Shawn. Too many people are drawn by “emotion” on this issue and less on the facts and the outcome for America as a whole. In their “zeal” to appear to be “the American version of the Good Samaritan (which does not resemble the parbale of the Bible at all)”, they fail to see the chaos that will ensue in the end (an in fact destroy those they claim to want to help and everyone else in the process).

But like you said, at least he is being honest.