Thread: Minutemen can't take it when on the receiving end

http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/103213

Minutemen can't take it when on the receiving end
Ernesto Portillo Jr.
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.19.2005

Oh those poor Minutemen. They claim they've gotten a bad rap on network television and now they're howling mad.

NBC's "Law and Order" program Wednesday night portrayed a civilian border guard group named the "Countrymen" as overzealous vigilantes for murdering a group of undocumented Latino immigrants and their American-born smuggler in New York City.

Chris Simcox, who started his Minutemen in Tombstone, is incensed. He unsuccessfully tried to have the program yanked but he managed to get NBC to remove references to Minutemen from the broadcast teasers.
Now Simcox, in sensationalistic and breathless teasers of his own, is telling his followers the network's fictional program mugged his organization and put his members' physical safety at risk.

"Slanderous NBC Minuteman portrayal dishonors Law and Order Patriots!" screams large bold type in an e-mail sent out by the Minutemen. Simcox wrote that NBC "smeared the Minutemen as thugs and mass murderers."
So he says.

So I say welcome Minutemen to the club of the slandered on network television. It's a big club.

Network TV has long misportrayed, misconstrued and misrepresented groups. Young people. Women. Men. Blacks. Homosexuals. Southerners. Californians. New Yawkers. Rich and poor people. Teachers. The list goes on.

Take Latinos, for example. Growing up in the '60s and '70s, I saw Latinos portrayed negatively, if at all. They were pimps, welfare moms, gang bangers, gardeners, maids and criminals, always speaking with an accent. Although network television programs have slightly improved the depiction of Latinos, the negative images are still present.
But to the Minutemen, the network slandered the self-anointed border guard to raise ratings and profits.

Get out of here! An American broadcast network used hype to attract viewers so that it could reap more money?

That's funny since Minutemen Inc. uses lurid "Chicken Little" pronouncements to motivate people to join and donate money.
"That NBC did this during November sweeps when the network tries to maximize ratings so as to line its pockets with increased advertising dollars makes this slander of the Minutemen even more despicable," Simcox wrote.

But for the Minutemen the most egregious offense is that the program created a potential for violence - against the Minutemen.
Simcox wrote "members of our group have reason to fear acts of violent retribution against them and their families" because the program put his group in a bad light. But it won't be the Minutemen who are in physical danger.

It's undocumented immigrants who are subject to violence. The Minutemen, other similar groups, politicians and the media have made illegal entrants the source of our country's ills.
The Minutemen have made illegal immigrants enemy No. 1. And people will react.

Forty spin-off civilian border-watch groups have formed since the Minutemen surfaced earlier this year, according to Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil-rights organization. These groups, which are modeled after the Minutemen but not under its control, have engaged in immigrant bashing. Or worse.

Earlier this month a federal judge in Tennessee sentenced a man to 14 years in prison for making pipe bombs to be placed on a bus carrying illegal Mexican and Haitian immigrants.

The Minutemen insist NBC should be responsible "for any and all violence" committed against its members.

Likewise the Minutemen and its copy groups should be held to the same standard for attacks on the people they demonize.

Ernesto!! The MinuteMen are helping the US Government enforce the law because the current Wackident doesn't want to.

Ernesto!! Nobody's going to watch NBC any more.

Villainizing illegal aliens is one thing, but villainizing American Citizens is quite another.

You need to learn this lesson now and learn it well, Ernesto Portillo.

Jr.

Take Latinos, for example. Growing up in the '60s and '70s, I saw Latinos portrayed negatively, if at all. They were pimps, welfare moms, gang bangers, gardeners, maids and criminals, always speaking with an accent. Although network television programs have slightly improved the depiction of Latinos, the negative images are still present.
But to the Minutemen, the network slandered the self-anointed border guard to raise ratings and profits.

The TV networks have slightly improved the depiction??? DO WHAT?? They have just bought into the "racist card" and MIS-depicted. I believe what he stated about how they were portrayed in teh 60's and 70's was MILD compared to what they really ARE. The ones that we see don't speak with an ACCENT. They don't speak ENGLISH at all. I sure don't see anything that disputes the fact that they ARE all of the things that the networks USED TO DEPICT. I guess there are some who, once they broke that first law by entering our country illegally, actually become law-abiding citizens but I think they would be in the minority.

That article is total BS.

I hate to ask this, but when was the last time a person with a latino last name stood up for anything to do with securing our borders or being against illegal immigration. I wish, just for once, that a person with a spanish last name, would stand up our issues. I am constantly looking for this in all of the threads posted here. My guess is that they are biased, no matter what job they hold.

Believe it or not--there is one man that I've seen on Lou Dobbs several times who is a LEGAL immigrant and he speaks out a lot. I can't remember where he's from. He's not a state Governor but he has some elected position if I'm not mistaken. He even speaks with somewhat of an accent but he just HATES the fact that the ones that come here refuse to assimilate. He MIGHT have something to do with a school board in one of the western states. I'll pay attention the next time he's on Lou's show and let you know. I have just noticed this one in particular because it IS so rare to hear an Hispanic speak out AGAINST ANYTHING they do!