Anchors of the biggest TV stations regularly contribute to spreading of anti-immigrant propaganda. Such is the conclusion of a recent report, “Fear and Loathing in Prime Time: Immigrant Myths and Cable News,” presented at a press conference organized by the New York Immigration Coalition and New York Community Media Alliance.
Such conclusion arises from the analysis of three shows: “Lou Dobbs Tonight” aired on CNN, “The O’Reilly Factor,” aired by Fox News and “The Glenn Beck Program” on CNN Headline News, Media Matters Action Network.
According to Paul Waldman, principal author of the report, the most common myth popularized in those shows is that undocumented immigrants are notorious criminals, who shun paying taxes, but still take advantage of all kinds of social services, using up funds that are there to support U.S. citizens.
Many other negative views are repeatedly presented in Dobbs’ and Beck‘s shows. They have discussed alleged plans to build a NAFTA superhighway between Mexico and Canada or popularized an idea of creating a North American Union, associating Mexico, Canada and the United States, whose structure and activities would resemble the European Union. It would have a common currency – the “amero.” In Dobbs’ show alone, this has been discussed 56 times in the last two years. As well, the anchors on all three shows have talked about Mexico’s alleged plans to take over southwestern United States, and have suggested that illegal immigrants who cross the boarder bring into the country dangerous diseases, like leprosy. These notions are presented without any proof and acquire credibility because they are brought up by CNN and FOX anchors.
“Such myths are often created by mentioning single incidents and blowing them up so that they seem to create a pattern or a rule,” said Waldman, from Media Matters Action Network. He illustrated his point by recounting an incident of an undocumented immigrant who caused a fatal accident while driving under influence. “O’Reilly mentioned this incident dozens of times, failing to point out that Americans also are responsible for equally bad accidents and in greater numbers.”
Waldman also pointed out to the fact that rhetoric of this sort sells great, especially in the pre-election period. “All Republican candidates sharpened their views – Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and even John McCain, who has distanced himself from his more pro-immigrant views,” Waldman said. “And the same goes for those who sit in Congress; they will bend their views the more calls they get from the people who complain about undocumented immigrants. Later, afraid to lose support, they will sign legislation that will be unfavorable to immigrants.”
“Another consequence is that the number of attacks on illegal immigrants rises and politicians exert pressure on local police to organize raids on immigrants and do profiling,” said Norman Eng from New York Immigration Coalition.” Some people are afraid to leave their houses,” he added.
The author of the report cites data that contradicts these myths. For instance, many studies suggest that immigrants commit crime less often than Americans. Moreover, contrary to a popular belief, illegal immigrants cannot take advantage of such social services as food stamps, Medicaid or welfare.
“The New York Times published some time ago statistics proving that in 2005 the Social Security Administration estimated that three-quarters of undocumented immigrants pays taxes, contributing yearly $7 billion to the federal budget and $1.5 billion to the Medicare funds. This is free money for the American state that undocumented immigrants will not be able to claim in the form of a pension,” said Waldman.
