CBS draws fire over illegal alien report
Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 5/2/2008 4:00:00 AM

Illegal alien climbing fenceLatino special-interest groups are angered at CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric for airing a report on the staggering taxpayer cost of healthcare for illegal immigrants.

Groups like La Raza and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) have written a letter of complaint to CBS, arguing the report promoted "anti-Latino falsehoods" and demonized illegal aliens. In the news piece, CBS reporter Byron Pitts interviewed a pregnant woman from Mexico who was rushed to a south Texas hospital to undergo an emergency C-section. He noted the $4,700 procedure did not cost the woman a dime because she qualifies for emergency Medicaid. Pitts also cited a study that estimates Americans are forced to pay $1.1 billion per year for the healthcare of illegal aliens.

Bob Knight, director of the Culture and Media Institute, says Latino groups are angry with Couric because she "went off script." But Knight contends the mainstream media has failed to examine the real cost of illegal aliens.

Robert Knight"[T]he mainstream media [has] pretended that there is no cost or downside to [the] millions of people coming over the border illegally," he notes. "So, these groups are really trying to intimidate Couric ... [and] her colleagues at the major networks."

The website for one Hispanic group sports a photo of Couric that morphs into CNN host Lou Dobbs. Dobbs is also a contributor to CBS' The Early Show, and has been the target of protests by socio-ethnocentric special-interest groups because of his staunch opposition to illegal immigration.

Knight also calls the CBS report a breath of fresh air amidst largely biased media coverage of the illegal immigration debate. He believes the mainstream media sees the introduction of millions of illegal aliens as a way to bolster the Democratic voter base. And he argues that if they can get those who are in the country illegally on welfare programs and dependent on government subsidies, then they can ensure a "new generation of Democratic voters."

Latino activists argue Couric's broadcast on illegal alien births was inconsistent, because in June she is scheduled to receive an award named for Alice Stokes Paul, the author of the Equal Rights Amendment.

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