Nets Focus on the ‘Sidestepping’ of Laws With Border Fence Construction

ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson, in a news brief on Tuesday’s "World News," spun the Bush administration’s decision to fast-track the construction of a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border, focusing almost entirely on the "more than 30 laws and regulations to be bypassed," as the graphic accompanying the brief put it. "The Bush administration today announced plans to speed up construction of the fence along the Mexican border by sidestepping more than 30 laws that now stand in the way. The administration says it will use its authority to bypass those laws in an attempt to finish 670 miles of fence along the southwest border by the end of the year."

What Gibson left out is the fact that, as the Washington Post pointed out, the plan is "permitted under an exemption granted by Congress."

Katie Couric on CBS’s "Evening News," on the other hand, didn’t leave out that detail, but seemed to bemoan the potential for environmental damage with the construction. "The Bush Administration announced plans today to sidestep more than 30 environmental laws and regulations so it can finish a huge fence along the Mexican border. Congress gave Homeland Security the power to do that, and the department intends to build hundreds of miles of fence in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, including one section along the Rio Grande that environmentalists contend would hurt wildlife."

Neither Gibson nor Couric seem to care about the "sidestepping" of laws by illegal immigrants. On the contrary, during the June 8, 2007 "World News, Gibson lamented that Congress rejected the proposed "comprehensive immigration reform" bill at the time. In 2006, Couric devoted two of her "Free Speech" segments in the course of two weeks to promote amnesty for illegal immigrants.