AlterNet: Right-Wing Media Using Immigration Debate to Mainstream Hate

[marmar]

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/

[dustsailor]

1. Obama accused Limbaugh and Dobbs of stoking the hate

Great for Obama. It's about time our candidates stood up against these hate mongers. Kerry and Gore seemed to be timid about them.

[KharmaTrain]

2. Of Course This Is A Wedge Issue

The trial balloon was '06...an attempt by the GOOP to energize its base through yet another hatred. It wasn't enough to hate blacks or gays or women or A-rabs...now Mexicans were to be the next wedge. Actually it was an attempt to replay the popular immigration game of the middle 80's.

Big business benefits from this wedge as it takes the focus off the poor labor practices of corporations and puts the attention and blame on "aliens"...boogie-men. While Lou Doobies rails about the brown swarm that infests our factories and fields, he rarely goes after the corporations that make big profits off of their labor. That's not his job as he's always been a capitalist tool...playing "populist" to muddy the waters and prop up his ratings.

Consider this part of the GOOP's ongoing effort to disenfranchise voters that won't vote their way. Demonize and then cast the shadow over an entire group of people and keep them away from voting.

Enforce laws against those who employ illegals and stiffen the fines...and allow those factories to be unionized and see how quick this "issue" fades away.