Thread: Immigration Debate Opens New Front On The Internet

Immigration debate opens new front on the Internet.

Published March 22, 2011, EFE

Chicago – The debate on undocumented immigration is now being pursued on a new front: the commentary section on newspapers' Web sites.

The Chicago Tribune reports that several Hispanics have formed groups to provide a counterweight to the negative commentaries about immigrants.

Sara McElmurry, head of communications for the Latino Policy Forum, decided to activate her "Comment Corps" when she saw comments that were "full of hate" concerning two articles about immigration in the online versions of the Tribune and Sun-Times, Chicago's two major dailies.

She sent an e-mail to her 3,000 contacts to ask them also to comment on the articles, but from the point of view of immigrants.

"Not only on the articles about immigrants, but also on the articles about education and culture it seems that the word 'Latino' sparks anti-Hispanic feelings," McElmurry told Efe.

"We want to tell them that not all immigrants are Hispanics and not all Hispanics are immigrants," she said.

She added that there is more fear and emotion in the anti-immigrant comments than facts and rational arguments.

McElmurry said that she sent to the Comment Corps a guide with points about what to comment on.

Just like McElmurry, other members of the Hispanic community are doing the same thing in differnt blogs, forums and comment sections to counter attacks against immigrants.

Amalia Pallares, a professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, began a similar group of commenters on Facebook.

Her "Blog Squad" is made up of 50 people ready to comment when immigrants are attacked and it began after the debate that arose over Arizona's state law SB1070, the first in the country to criminalize undocumented immigrants.

The Blog Squad visits sites like the Huffington Post to include another point of view in addition to the anti-immigrant comments.

Both Pallares and McElmurry hope their efforts help to balance the public debate on immigration.

UIC student Cynthia Brito is part of Comment Corps and expressed her opinion after bitter criticism of Hispanic immigrants appeared in the comment section of the Daily Herald, a newspaper serving suburban Chicago.

After a protest against purported police harassment of Latinos, Brito noted that all the comments were directed against the Hispanic activists.

Despite her intention, she was not successful in trying to persuade some readers that Hispanics are not prone to committing crimes.

She cited a study by a Harvard professor which found that Mexican-Americans are less prone to violence than whites or blacks.

Immediately, Brito's comments were attacked using arguments claiming that Mexico is "one of the most violent countries in the world."

"With every post you prove your blind hate and ignorance to reality," Brito responded to one particularly vociferous critic.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2 ... -internet/

Check out how Fox Latino only presents ONE SIDE of this debate. The American side is not represented at all in their articles.

W

Related:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-1200442.html#1200442

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

Check out how Fox Latino only presents ONE SIDE of this debate. The American side is not represented at all in their articles.

W

I've posted dozens of times and check back and each comment is quickly deleted. Now I've been banned on 3 accounts so far and yet have never posted any hateful or racist speech but simply contest their pov through facts and other information articles ignore.

Pisses me off we have NO mainstream media sources left for the American People. The vast majority is controled by the liberal globalist agenda and the big name left "Fox" is controlled by Rino politics along with the couple medium sized Rep media's.

Only ones who dare tell the truth and be unbiased is the small town newspapers w/o major affiliations.

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

Check out how Fox Latino only presents ONE SIDE of this debate. The American side is not represented at all in their articles.

W

They will always express information to benefit themselves, because they do not care anything about Americans. Just in the U.S. to get whatever they can for free and steal jobs.

Reform: welcome to the group of banned. I am losing count as to the number of latino rags and websites that I have been banned from. I find it sad and also in some ways laughable the way the latinos and their press do the pep rally thing and make the illegals feel like they are going to win amnesty and be given free education. Any type of postings that are posting facts and that will not support the amnesty movement are blocked before the truth gets out.