All the News that's fit to slant.....er print.....or air
Somehow, somewhere that line between journalists and opinionists has gone from blurry to non-existant and the slanting of the news grows ever more tilted. This becomes especially true whenever the media is covering a story involving illegal immigration into this country.
Consider a story done on Los Angeles area television station Channel 7's "Eyewitness News" involving this critical issue which has been in the forefront of the news recently since the Gubinator was forced to retract a statement about closing the borders citing a "language difficulty" as his excuse for backpedaling". Newsanchor David Ono read the lead-in to reporter Carlos Granda's standp-up saying "Yesterday the governor praised a vigilante group which patrolled the border in Arizona". While it is true that President Dubya did incorrectly label the Minuteman Project a vigilante project, the actual work done by the Minutemen themselves in no way, shape or form qualifies for that particular characterization. If you don't want to consult your own dictionary, the definition of vigilante is: "One who takes or advocates the taking of law enforcement into one's own hands."
That's bad enough in and of itself but it got worse very quickly. Democratic Party flack Art Torres said "The Governor should apologize and refrain from encouraging this type of illegal and violent behavior. Now nothing the Minutemen have done so far has been the cause of any charges to be filed against them, they are not facing any indictments, nor have they been accused of any crimes at all. But would Granda call Torres on this? No, of course not. A liberal politician makes a statement and a reporter wouldn't dare question a liberal politico now would he? No way. Later in the same report, Granda played a sound bite from a MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) who accused the Minutemen of having detained border crossers at gunpoint. Since there are no accounts of such incidents to be found anywhere on the net, this claim appears to be specious.
Another news report on another Los Angeles station mentions a MALDEF suit against the Minutemen for detaining illegals at gunpoint, but no record of the lawsuit can be found anywhere. There is a lawsuit pending about an incident where a landowner held some people at gunpoint, but that has nothing to do with the Minutemen project.
If reporters want to be columnists, then they need to get out from behind the microphones and start writing op-ed pieces and label them as such. But if they want to report hard news, then they need to stick to the facts and remember to question people on both sides of the political aisle, even if that means that their own political biases aside in the interest of getting at the truth.
Consider a story done on Los Angeles area television station Channel 7's "Eyewitness News" involving this critical issue which has been in the forefront of the news recently since the Gubinator was forced to retract a statement about closing the borders citing a "language difficulty" as his excuse for backpedaling". Newsanchor David Ono read the lead-in to reporter Carlos Granda's standp-up saying "Yesterday the governor praised a vigilante group which patrolled the border in Arizona". While it is true that President Dubya did incorrectly label the Minuteman Project a vigilante project, the actual work done by the Minutemen themselves in no way, shape or form qualifies for that particular characterization. If you don't want to consult your own dictionary, the definition of vigilante is: "One who takes or advocates the taking of law enforcement into one's own hands."
That's bad enough in and of itself but it got worse very quickly. Democratic Party flack Art Torres said "The Governor should apologize and refrain from encouraging this type of illegal and violent behavior. Now nothing the Minutemen have done so far has been the cause of any charges to be filed against them, they are not facing any indictments, nor have they been accused of any crimes at all. But would Granda call Torres on this? No, of course not. A liberal politician makes a statement and a reporter wouldn't dare question a liberal politico now would he? No way. Later in the same report, Granda played a sound bite from a MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) who accused the Minutemen of having detained border crossers at gunpoint. Since there are no accounts of such incidents to be found anywhere on the net, this claim appears to be specious.
Another news report on another Los Angeles station mentions a MALDEF suit against the Minutemen for detaining illegals at gunpoint, but no record of the lawsuit can be found anywhere. There is a lawsuit pending about an incident where a landowner held some people at gunpoint, but that has nothing to do with the Minutemen project.
If reporters want to be columnists, then they need to get out from behind the microphones and start writing op-ed pieces and label them as such. But if they want to report hard news, then they need to stick to the facts and remember to question people on both sides of the political aisle, even if that means that their own political biases aside in the interest of getting at the truth.
posted by me at 11:21 AM
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