Voters Express Concern Over Iraq [very biased PBS NewsHour panel on immigration]

PBS NewsHour ^ | 10/26/06 | PBS NewsHour

[lonewacko_dot_com]

...GWEN IFILL: ...Speaking to the voters shed a lot of light for us on this year's campaign, so we decided to bring some of the folks we've met along the way here to our studio to discuss what issues will drive their ballot-box decisions.

...EDUARDO ROMERO, Democrat, Virginia: My name is Eduardo Romero. I live in Arlington, Virginia, and I work at the Nonprofit Roundtable...

...EDUARDO ROMERO: ... really quickly, as well. I think we heard [immigration] is an economic challenge, but it's also a moral challenge. And I think we've heard some -- you asked about amnesty. I remember when amnesty was not a dirty word.

GWEN IFILL: Yes, when did that happen?

EDUARDO ROMERO: But somehow, it's switched, and "illegal" for me is a dirty word. One can say one breaks the laws, but tell that to that pre-school kid who now is determined to be an illegal alien...

...EDUARDO ROMERO: Can I respond to that? When you say that person's illegal, we know, I would assume -- and forgive me, I don't want to assume for everybody -- we're thinking immediately of a Hispanic, of a Latino. We're not thinking about an Eastern European in Boston; we're not thinking of that Eastern European in Chicago, where there's plenty of that activity. But there's not that language being spoken that way.

And so I hear that there's an economic reason to make change, but there is a moral reason. This is racism at its root, and the political language just lets it slide...

[lonewacko_dot_com]

First, this is presumably a panel of average voters; one wonders why a "wonk" like Romero was invited (list of his organization's members at nonprofitroundtable.org/membership/Member_Directory).

And, if you read the whole article, you'll see that his comments only received slight opposition. Normally one would expect his comments to be edited out if they weren't willing to provide some form of answer from either another panelist or the host.

This appears to be part of a trend with the NewsHour where they feature one-sided immigration "debates", such as David Brooks and Mark Shields both supporting amnesty.

Please send a short, polite note to their ombudsman suggesting that they have real debates about this issue instead of just spreading propaganda:

http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/feedback.html

[RasterMaster]

Message from Iraq

[CrawDaddyCA]

This is racism at its root, and the political language just lets it slide..

Of course, when all else fails, whip out the race card.

[ChiMark]

PBS is Passe'. Mark Shields? Wow, now that's a living
fossil. Has anyone ever figured the diminuitive audience share
for PBS? Bet it's close to Crissy Mathews.

[kinoxi]

No worries about ratings. It's publicly funded. They don't need to produce a competitive or realistic product. Kind of like Airbus.