Posted by
Diryn on Saturday, February 02, 2008 7:03:51 PM
The National Council of La Raza is pressuring the cable news networks, CNN, Fox, and MSNBC to change the way they are presenting the immigration debate. "Hate groups and extremists have taken over the immigration debate", says Janet Murguia; the president of the council. If the networks don't meet their demands to restrict the individuals that the networks have been having present the anti illegal immigrant view they will then move to an economic boycott of the networks.
Examples that the council use include the use of the word "illegal" to describe the immigrants saying that, in effect, such usage demonizes the immigrants. Another one is their criticism of having Pat Buchanon on presenting his viewpoint of immigration as an invasion.
Well, there are estimated to be 12 million immigrants who are in this country without permission. Since it is against the law it is, by definition, illegal. As far as Buchanon's usage of the word invasion I seem to recall stories written about the United States "invading" Iraq. That was only 150,000 soldiers not 12 million. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in the 80's there were far fewer than 12 million but that was called an invasion. Buchanons usage of invasion in that sense is legitimate as free speech. 12 million is a lot more than 150,000! This is simply an attempt by the National Council to intimidate the networks into changing their presentation of the immigration debate by limiting one side as to what it can say.
I say this as someone who is actually in favor of higher legal immigration limits and who believes that immigration, both now and in the past, legal or illegal, has been a net benefit for the United States; bringing people who want to work to better their lives and who are family oriented. I don't want to stop immigration, I want to stop intimidation by groups like the National Council of La Raza.