Thread: Me versus "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer"

I actually LIKE TNHWJL quite a bit. And most of their pieces, and almost all of their on-air debates are pretty all-sided.

However, after watching thier piece last night (08-20) on the poor, poor farmers of Colorado who are "struggling" with this year's lack of "undocumented" workers... I wrote the show an email. I said a) wow, what a one-sided piece, and b) don't use the term "undocumented".

And they actually wrote me back! This is the reply:


Dear Ed:

Thank you for your comments regarding the Farm Labor story on the NewHour on August 20th. I was the producer of the segment and wanted to address one of your concerns of the story being one sided. This story was a look at how farmers are adjusting to what used to not be a problem: Labor. It was not a look at immigration as a whole, and uncover the whole debate over immigration reform. It was a slice of one segment of our economy that counts on this type of labor to do their work, and how they are having to adjust.

I don't think there is another side to this. This was just a look at the options and the extra burdens put on one segment of our economy with the new landscape of labor in this country. They said over and over that the guest worker program is out of date and needs refining, that is all. I just did not see the other side of this story. We did not see it as a debate as much as it is an explainer of what the situation is out high labor intensive farms. We thought our viewers would be interested in what the labor market was like for farmers and landscapers.

Thank you for your interest in the program and this segment. I hope you will keep watching.

Sincerely,
Terry Rubin
Producer -- The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

Simple question nobody seems willing to ask or answer...

Who did these jobs BEFORE the illegal alien invasion?

My other question is "who is pocketing the profits from this new slave labor?" I don't know about you guys, but my produce is sky high. What was recently $.99 for a head of lettuce is now $1.59. What was $.99 for a cantalope is now 2 for $5.00.

Someone is making a killing off of illegal immigration, but it sure isn't the consumer. I guess we get the honor of paying for their health care, food, education, clothes and dental care.

Originally Posted by Dianne

My other question is "who is pocketing the profits from this new slave labor?" I don't know about you guys, but my produce is sky high. What was recently $.99 for a head of lettuce is now $1.59. What was $.99 for a cantalope is now 2 for $5.00.

Someone is making a killing off of illegal immigration, but it sure isn't the consumer. I guess we get the honor of paying for their health care, food, education, clothes and dental care.

Dianne, I hear you there. It's a joke, and quite frankly, it's a scam.
Read these articles on how the Iowa State University debunked the notion of our "produce prices will increase w/o cheap labor..." over ten years ago. Corporate farms are just that, corporate.
Besides, ask yourself this question, how in the hell can produce prices go up when approx 2/3 of our food is imported?

http://www.federalobserver.com/archive.php?aid=9357
http://www.federalobserver.com/archive.php?aid=9380

Here was my reply:

I fully understand your piece wasn't meant to examine the whole of illegal immigration. However... there IS another side to this specific portion of the debate. And that is whether or not these farmers, landscapers etc, should've gotten used to (hooked on) this cheap, illegal labor force in the first place. The fact is they got away with breaking the law for years and, frankly, based the success of their businesses on an economic anomoly. And now that the piper's come, they're complaining. With your help. There are plenty of economists, think tanks, orgainizations, consumers, or (gasp) politicians who you could've approached for something other than "oh, woe is me... the government won't legalize my cheating."

thanks for writing me back,

e

I don't think there is another side to this.

Him and Mary Mapes would make a beautiful couple.



Ya gotta love the driveby media.

ok, why does no one ever bring up the fact that THERE ARE ALREADY 12-20 MILLION ILLEGAL MEXICANS HERE THAT WON'T DO AGRICULTURE WORK???

These farmers bring in the illegals and when they get out their pens, scream that they need more illegals, over and over and over .....

Someone please get hold of someone with some political clout and ask them to state this fact.

We don't need any workers south of the border to do anything except ag work. We don't need them here nor want them here stealing and robbing and killing and ruining America.

I agree with you, Nomore. It's not that the workers are not here, they just don't want to do those jobs because they can get paid more and work less hard in construction and hospitality.

Its not just fruits and vegetables picked by illegals here....Its imported here from China using slave labor and keeping the prices even lower!!! China has the cheapest workforce in the world if China was attached to the United States we would have millions of illegal Chinese doing the "work Americans won't do!"
American factories were moved to Mexico for awhile but shipped to the Far East for a cheaper work force and cheaper overhead! On top of that companies get incentives by shipping there products to the US in accordances with the "Free Trade Agreements!" When American companies export out of the country are products are taxed twice (VAT - Value Added Tax)!
That is why companies move there production overseas to save on everything!!! Our country doesn't have a VAT system and need on bad!!! But to keep cheap labor costs, production and shipping costs down thats why we have a HUGE trade deficit!!! We are drowning folks and the US government it in on it!!!

BREAKING NEWS: we shouldn't even try to compete with China because we CAN'T. They are a COMMUNIST SLAVE STATE.