Best of CounterSpin 2006
On this special Best of CounterSpin, program we look back over some of what was news for the mainstream media in 2006—and some of what wasn’t news, but should’ve been.
Ground Zero’s Undocumented Victims
[Note: This piece is a sidebar to Gullibility Begins at Home.] On January 11, 2002, the New York Daily News reported that immigrants and labor rights groups charged that hundreds of undocumented workers were hired to clean toxic World Trade Center dust out of buildings near Ground Zero with no training in hazardous waste disposal […]
Ian Williams on U.S. diplomacy, Daphne Eviatar on Lou Dobbs
This week on CounterSpin: Lebanon, Israel, and the state of US diplomacy, with the Nation’s Ian Williams. Also on the show: Freelance journalist Daphne Eviatar on Lou Dobbs and his anti-immigrant rants, which appear to be doing quite well for CNN.
The False Debate Over ‘Broken Borders’
Since 2005, much of the mainstream media has been rife with coverage of what has been called “immigration reform”—a policy debate over what kind of immigration legislation would be passed among a narrow range of options. One pole of the legislative debate was the McCain-Kennedy proposal, which would have created a temporary or “guest” worker […]
Aaron Glantz on Iraq, Doug Henwood on immigration
Independent journalist Aaron Glantz on Bush, Iraq, and the media. Also this week: Doug Henwood of the Left Business Observer joins to discuss the economic side of the immigration debate.
Birth of a Factoid
[Note: This piece is a sidebar to “The False Debate Over ‘Broken Borders’.”] Coverage of a recent study by Jeffrey Passel of the Pew Hispanic Center on undocumented immigrants in the United States (3/7/06) illustrates how facts are constructed in the immigration debate. The organization’s website states that the report provides “an estimate of 11.5 […]
CNN’s Immigration Problem
CNN anchor Lou Dobbs has been a high-profile voice in the immigration debate, using his show to rail against the country’s “broken borders” virtually every evening on Lou Dobbs Tonight. His openly crusading advocacy journalism has raised eyebrows and put CNN president Jonathan Klein on the defensive; as Klein told the New York Times (3/29/06): […]
CNN’s Immigration Problem
CNN anchor Lou Dobbs has been a high-profile voice in the immigration debate, using his show to rail against the country’s “broken borders” virtually every evening on Lou Dobbs Tonight. His openly crusading advocacy journalism has raised eyebrows and put CNN president Jonathan Klein on the defensive; as Klein told the New York Times (3/29/06), […]
Lee Price on economic recovery, Tala Dowlatshahi on foreign journalist visas
What’s the real deal on the economy? And how have harsher immigration policies impacted foreign reporters in the US?
Dobbs’ Choice
CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight devoted abundant broadcast time to what anchor Dobbs described as an influx of “illegal aliens who not only threaten our economy and security, but also our health and well-being.”
GE, Microsoft Bring Bigotry to Life
The latest hire by the cable news network MSNBC— co-owned by General Electric/NBC and Microsoft— is Michael Savage, a radio talkshow host noted for his unabashed bigotry. Savage is scheduled to have his own weekly one-hour show on MSNBC beginning in March. Savage routinely refers to non-white countries as “turd world nations” and charges that […]
The Elian Saga
The Perfect Solution Cokie Roberts: I have finally decided exactly what I want to have happen with Elián González. I would like him and his cousin, Marisleysis, to come live with me and get away from all of these crazy politicians on both sides. She is clearly the person who cares about him…. Sam Donaldson: […]
Castro Wants the Kid Back
Cute Kid! Cruel Communists! Martyred Mom! A Thanksgiving Miracle! Any one of these elements can make for the kind of sensational story the U.S. press craves, but the case of Elián González–the 6-year-old boy rescued at sea on November 25, after his mother and 10 others drowned en route from Cuba–has all these ingredients for […]
CBS Sees Immigrants as an ‘Army of Invaders’
CBS Evening News‘ February 17 “Eye on America” segment presented what Dan Rather called “an in-depth report from the front lines of this country’s losing battle against unlawful immigration.” That military metaphor continued throughout the segment, with Rather and CBS correspondent Bob McNamara referring to “an army of invaders,” a “border battleground” and “the daily […]
Drafting Students Into the ‘War on Immigration’
California’s Proposition 187, voted into law this November, denies access to education, non-emergency health care and other social services to undocumented immigrants. Many of those affected are students, as were many of the leading opponents to the measure, with youth in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities organizing walkouts and demonstrations. While youth are […]
Scapegoating Immigrants
In the wake of the World Trade Center bombing, a barrage of attacks on the asylum system in the U.S. has appeared in the media. These stories, which characterized the asylum procedure as a “scam” for entering the U.S., tended to feature the views of government officials and anti-immigrant “experts” without balancing arguments from immigrants […]
New York Times on Immigrants
The controversy over attorney general nominees Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood, both of whom had to withdraw after acknowledging that they had hired undocumented immigrants to care for their children, elicited a wide response in the media, particularly in the pages of the New York Times. “It’s Gender, Stupid,” was the headline of an Anthony […]
Questions About Source in Immigration Debate
Recent media coverage of immigration has been dominated by anti-immigrant voices; immigrant and refugee rights advocates have been slighted. In this often one-sided discussion, no group has enjoyed more exposure than the anti-immigrant Federation for American Immigration Retorm (also abbreviated as “FAIR,” not to be confused with the media watch group FAIR). Media outlets have […]
