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 They said over and over that the guest worker program is out of date and needs refining, that is all.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