MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Gives 'Kudos' to Arizona Basketball Team for Pro
May 5th, 2010 5:32 PM
MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan on Wednesday gave "kudos" to the Phoenix Suns basketball team for protesting Arizona's tough new policy on illegal immigration. The host touted, "The team is set to wear Los Suns jerseys tonight on Cinco de Mayo in response to Arizona's controversial [law]."Ratigan enthused that congratulations were in order and added, "Around here we call that a slam dunk." The cable anchor…
Networks Fail to Distinguish Between Xenophobia and Law Enforcement
May 5th, 2010 11:42 AM
Liberal political pundits frequently remind Americans that words matter, which makes broadcast network reporters' coverage of Arizona's new crack down on illegal immigrants so appalling. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed a law on April 23 that would make it a misdemeanor for immigrants to not carry documentation proving they are in the country legally. The bill gave state law enforcement the…
Newsweek Reporter: Why Arizona Isn't Crazy
May 5th, 2010 6:38 AM
While the vast majority of national media stories from the controversy over Arizona's new immigration law are sympathetically centered on the plight of the illegal alien, Eve Conant offered a stunning contrast inside the pages of Newsweek based on reporting from Arizona last year. She said you might think the suburbs of Phoenix "were a safe and friendly place to raise kids. Ask me now and I'd say…
'Powdery White Substance' Sent to Ariz. Gov. Jan Brewer's Office - Hel
May 4th, 2010 5:28 PM
About 45 minutes ago, Red State's Caleb Howe reported that a package filled with a white powder was sent to the office of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. Brewer, picture right in a file photo, has become a controversial figure since she signed into law a bill giving state authorities more power to determine an individual's immigration status.Andrew Staubitz, the chief of Phoenix's Capital Police…
'View' Co-host Sherri Shepherd: 'I Don't Care' About Drug Smuggling fr
May 4th, 2010 5:22 PM
Our friends at CNSNews.com -- which is owned by NewsBusters parent organization the Media Research Center -- have a story today about ABC "The View" co-host Sherri Shepherd's reaction to Arizona's new anti-illegal immigration law.Reported Nicholas Ballasy: When asked, in the context of Arizona's new immigration law, about a Justice Department report showing that one-out-of-five American…
CBS's Smith: Is Arizona Immigration Law Like 'Nazi Germany
May 4th, 2010 11:24 AM
Filling in for host Bob Schieffer on Sunday's Face the Nation on CBS, Early Show co-host Harry Smith grilled former Republican Congressman J.D. Hayworth on Arizona's new immigration law: "Some people would contend that this law in Arizona is racist in nature. Some have equated it even with Jews having to carry identification during Nazi Germany. How do you respond to that?" [Audio available here]…
CBS Frets Illegal Aliens 'No Longer Feel Welcome' – and the Problem
May 3rd, 2010 11:58 PM
Most support Arizona’s impending immigration enforcement law and a solid 78 percent think the federal government should do more to keep illegal immigrants from getting into the U.S. where, Katie Couric noted in citing the new poll numbers, “hundreds of thousands of them now live in Arizona.” So, how did CBS take these hardly surprising findings? Couric fretted “many” of those illegals “no longer…
AP Stresses 'Peaceful,' 'Harmonious' Elements of Occasionally Violent
May 3rd, 2010 6:49 PM
A number of media outlets continue to hold water for the weekend's pro-illegal immigration protesters, as NewsBusters has reported, painting violence at many rallies as somehow unexpected or not representative of the larger movement.While that characterization may be fair, the benefit of the doubt afforded to immigration protesters by some of the nation's leading media outlets stands in stark…
CBS's '60 Minutes' Highlights Illegal Immigrant 'Carnage' in All-Amer
May 3rd, 2010 4:48 PM
In wake of Arizona's new immigration law, CBS 60 Minutes anchor Scott Pelley fretted over illegal immigrants entering the United States by swimming across California's All-American Canal: "a national moat on our southern border, and hundreds of people have perished in its waters. It is a carnage that has gone mostly unnoticed because many of the victims are buried without their names." [Audio…
NPR Guesses There Were 'Half a Million' Protesting for Amnesty Across
May 3rd, 2010 8:36 AM
On Sunday morning's Weekend Edition, National Public Radio anchor Liane Hansen claimed a huge turnout for amnesty rallies nationwide: "An estimated half million immigrants and their supporters turned out yesterday to rally for immigration reform and against Arizona's tough new immigration law."NPR's Ted Robbins offered a story from Phoenix loaded with four opponents of Arizona's new immigration…
Anti-Illegal Immigration Protesters Attacked at 'Mostly Peaceful' May
May 2nd, 2010 10:20 PM
As NewsBusters reported Sunday, a May Day rally turned ugly in Santa Cruz, California, Saturday when some attendees started a riot breaking windows and defacing property.City officials estimate that at least $100,000 worth of damage was done. A little north in San Francisco, three people supporting Arizona's new anti-illegal immigration law were attacked at that city's May Day event.Despite the…
Newsweek’s Clift: U.S. Illegal Alien Wave a 'Happy Invasion'; Says
May 2nd, 2010 8:21 PM
Pure genius, I tell you. With an estimated half a million illegal immigrants residing in Arizona according to the Pew Hispanic Center, questions are being raised about what this means for the United States and its national identity. But according to Newsweek contributing editor Eleanor Clift, it's a "happy" thing with lots of upside. On the May 2 airing of "The McLaughlin Group," show moderator…
Emerging Anti-Tea Party Line: Lack of Opposition to Arizona Proves Rac
May 2nd, 2010 2:43 PM
Comments on two Sunday shows reflected an emerging new liberal line of reasoning, which uses the lack of opposition to Arizona’s new immigration enforcement law, as a means to discredit conservatives and Tea Party activists as hypocrites and/or racists. HBO’s Bill Maher on ABC’s This Week: Government intrusion, government power is something that really bothers conservatives, unless it's directed…
Nets Celebrate May Day Pro-Illegal Immigrant Protests, Barely Mention
May 1st, 2010 10:51 PM
“Angry backlash from coast to coast,” ABC’s David Muir teased Saturday’s World News, “huge rallies across this country tonight against that new controversial immigration law.” On CBS, Jeff Glor teased: “May Day Message. Immigrant right groups rally from coast to coast against Arizona's controversial new law.”ABC reporter Eric Horng touted how “this is the fifth year in a row that nationwide…