Right-Wing Media Using Immigration Debate to Mainstream Hate
By Ali Gharib, AlterNet. Posted May 23, 2008.
By poisoning the public discourse with disinformation, right-wing talkers improve their ratings while leaving us far from fixing a broken system.In 2008, immigration may be what gay marriage was to the 2004 election: a divisive issue used not to present an actual policy or platform, but rather to galvanize a voting bloc.
Fear-mongering on the issue of immigration comes from a bevy of sources -- from white supremacist groups to CNN.
"Illegal immigrants are attacking our culture and our way of life," Glenn Beck told his audience on his "CNN Headline News" in the manner typical for his prime time-show -- Beck discussed the "scourge" of undocumented workers on more than a quarter of his 2007 programs.
In a report released Wednesday, the watchdog group Media Matters documented and dispelled a pattern of myths propagated by cable news shows and their anchors that fuel anti-immigrant racism and have sparked an increase in hate crimes against Latinos.
"The language of today's hosts, like Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck, is divisive and inflammatory, and often misleading," said Rep. Joe Baca, D-Calif., the head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, at a Capitol Hill news conference announcing the release of the report. "It only creates fear, hatred and negative stereotyping of immigrants."
Dobbs, the host of CNN's prime-time show "Lou Dobbs Tonight," is the ringleader of the cable news anti-immigration fear mongers -- featuring often-distorted stories about immigration on 70 percent of his programs in 2007. .......(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.alternet.org/immigration/86302/