Thread: Media Matters Protests/Targets Lou Dobbs

Media Matters Protests Lou Dobbs

Black Spin
Posted by Abena Agyeman-Fisher
Sep 1st 2009 5:20PM

Media Matters, self-described as a site "dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media," launched an e-mail campaign against Lou Dobbs and CNN on Tuesday because of a rally Dobbs is to host on Sept. 15:

Dobbs is scheduled to broadcast his radio show from Capitol Hill as a leading voice of the annual "Hold Their Feet to the Fire" legislative advocacy conference and rally sponsored by the rabidly anti-immigrant organization Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

FAIR describes itself as seeking "to improve border security, to stop illegal immigration and to promote immigration levels consistent with the national interest."

It also says:

With more than a million legal and illegal immigrants settling in the United States each year, immigration has an impact on education, health care, government budgets, employment, the environment, crime and countless other areas of American life. It is evident to most Americans that large-scale immigration is not serving the needs and interests of the country.

No biggie, right? What could be the big deal?

As one peruses the site, though, the messaging becomes increasingly ... questionable:

FAIR advocates:

that the United States should not contribute to a brain drain that entices away the skilled and talented who are desperately needed in their homelands; we should meet our need for skilled professionals by training and retraining our own;

Wait. Is it against immigration as a whole? Hmm. I don't know about you, but the site's message seems to speak to legal immigrants, too. After all, the majority of immigrants coming from Mexico and Guatemala, for example, wouldn't be the "skilled and talented" FAIR is referring to. Most immigrants that would meet that "talented" classification would be professionals. In short, you don't find doctors and engineers paddling over here in boats! It is the underclasses of the world that tend to be illegal.

I also can't help but sense some mild hypocrisy brewing here: Some American citizens want to blow the horn on illegal immigrants as if it is one of the worst crimes imaginable. But there is selective memory in process. Wasn't it immigrants the world over (with an honorable mention to Europe) fleeing the poverty of their own homelands that made America the melting pot it is today? I'd bet some money that the grandparents and great grandparents of the folks behind FAIR are also immigrants, but I digress.

At first, FAIR makes it seem as though it is focusing its efforts on illegals and the rights illegals may achieve in this country. With statements as the one above, though, it seems that its agenda, at the least, is dishonest.

According to Media Matters, here is the back story on FAIR:

FAIR was founded by John Tanton, a man who has a long history of making racist statements. In 1986, Tanton reportedly wrote: "As whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night?" In 2001, Tanton even praised the work of John Trevor, a notorious Nazi sympathizer, saying his work should form "a guidepost to what we must follow again this time."

Media Matters is disgusted that CNN would allow Dobbs, and by default CNN, to be associated with such an organization and are beckoning the public to e-mail CNN President Jon Klein in protest.

http://www.bvblackspin.com/2009/09/01/media-matters/

"Wasn't it immigrants the world over (with an honorable mention to Europe) fleeing the poverty of their own homelands that made America the melting pot it is today? I'd bet some money that the grandparents and great grandparents of the folks behind FAIR are also immigrants, but I digress."

Yes, they were skilled immigrants capable of helping to pull up a fledgling nation by its bootstraps. So that, having broken free from one superpower of the era, it would not come under the domination of one of the others. Totally different from the leeches who frequently come here today.

"Yes, they were skilled immigrants capable of helping to pull up a fledgling nation by its bootstraps. So that, having broken free from one superpower of the era, it would not come under the domination of one of the others. Totally different from the leeches who frequently come here today."


So true. Back in the day, my grandfather came from Sicily and was a skilled tiler. He started the family business here and tiled the Lincoln and Holland tunnels. He explained how difficult it was to do so back then, because every single sheet of tiles had to be pre soaked before applying. Dad said that he never complained, nor asked for anything from anybody. Yes, they were totally different from today's pathetic leeches. No comparison~

who cares about media matters and their lies and BS.

so what if Dobbs is hosting or even speaking at an anti illegal immigrant rally. thats his business and he still has free speech.