Fair and Balanced?
PBS will air it...you decide!
Posted on 06/24/2004 12:09:46 AM PDT by lonewacko_dot_com
PBS's new documentary 'Farmingville' was broadcast on many PBS stations tonight. It covers a Long Island community's reaction to a sudden influx of illegal immigrants.
From PBS's synopsis:The shocking hate-based attempted murders of two Mexican day laborers catapult a small Long Island town into national headlines, unmasking a new front line in the border wars: suburbia. For nearly a year, Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini lived and worked in Farmingville, New York, so they could capture first-hand the stories of residents, day laborers and activists on all sides of the debate.
Lou Dobbs calls it "[o]ne of the most important documentaries in years", but others say it's strongly biased in favor of illegal immigration. FAIR says it "Distorts Views of the Community". And, many of the visitors to PBS's discussion forums say it's biased as well. I have not seen it yet.
However, the documentary comes with its own discussion guide, and that might give us some clues to the documentary's intent. The guide could fairly be described as a pro-illegal immigration brochure. It gives the upsides to massive illegal immigration, and attempts to counter or sidestep the downsides.
Part of the brochure has been repurposed and placed in HTML pages on PBS's Farmingville site in their special features section. Because it forms a core part of their description of the documentary, that would tend to indicate that the views it expresses are endorsed by PBS.
The documentary makers had a web chat, and the transcript is here. The transcript makes clear where they stand as well as their misconceptions. Those misconceptions range from small things like the derivation of the word wop on up. In the web chat, they also attempt to subtly smear those who hold opposing viewpoints as racists.
Dan Stein of FAIR is given a chance to answer a few questions at PBS's site, however they're mostly meaningless questions and PBS does not provide an opposing view of the documentary itself.
There are past reports on the documentary here and here.
It'd be helpful if interested parties could look through at least the materials at PBS's site and point out all the lies and misrepresentations. Then, that hefty compilation could be sent to PBS and the documentary's sponsors. More importantly, the compilation could be sent to Congress with the suggestion that they use it as yet another example of PBS not serving the community as their charter says they should.
bttt
Ping!
Fair and Balanced?
PBS will air it...you decide!
I'll look out for the rerun. I live on Long Island and Farmingville is a very heated issue. Kinda like our own little slice of the Mexico-Texas border.
Bump.
Why do I get the feeling we're gonna hear about how the evil, white, European descendants are exploiting the poor, hard working, discriminated against minority of people that are brave enough to sneak in to our Country to do the jobs we don't want to do?
I haven't seen it listed for L.A.'s local PBS station, but I doubt if this documentary will be fair and balanced.
Most people on PBS's discussion board are not distinguishing between immigrants and illegal aliens. When one side refuses to even acknowledge that this difference exists, how can the subject be discussed honestly?
Having lived on Long Island, the amount of bias attacks against illegals you can count on your hands. Makes me wonder why they pick this incident out to put on PBS.
Maybe besides the abusive practices of some of the employers of illegals, they'll also show the crimes illegals perpetrate against Americans.
Maybe they'll even show why living in a nation where people respect the laws is preferable to rampant anarchy and the flouting of those laws.
Maybe they'll point out how the government has placed several millions of people as deserving of being above the law.
And maybe I sound like someone who drinks in the morning! =:0
LOL you're not drinking anymore than I am :) There was a Long Island issues focused radio station that used to go out to the 7-11 in Farmingville on Horseblock Road where over a hundred illegals would gather every day. There were one or two good citizen groups dealing with the issue BUT they've descended into in-fighting,etc. I went to the PBS message boards. I won't even bother to post.
You are spot on, DD...the Left frames the debate and we lose.
If "diversity" is so obviously grand why do they need such ham handed propaganda to promote it?
it's PBS and ham handed stuff is what they do best most of the time.
I wonder when PBS will have a program on the many Americans who have been raped and murderd by illegal immigrants. Naw...it will never happen.
“WETA balks at having day-labor shelter next door,” declared the headline over the July 31 story in the Northern Virginia Journal about WETA’s reaction to the Tuesday night vote by the all-Democratic county Board of Supervisors.Earlier this week, Sharon Percy Rockefeller, CEO of WETA, the Washington, DC PBS station really located in Arlington County, Virginia, lashed out at the county board for voting to build a pavilion, to house day laborers waiting for work, next door to WETA’s studios where the PBS NewsHour and Washington Week are taped.
If we can't buy and sell 'em, we may as well rent 'em.
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