Submitted by Kim Pearson on May 28, 2006 - 10:24am.
You've no doubt seen the explanation from CNN, blaming the inclusion of ths CCC map on a freelance producer who didn't know what the CCC was. What they don't acknowledge of course, is the following:
1. The producer would not have been directed to look for an "Aztlan" map if the show had not already been framed around the racist premise that illegal immigration is part of a sustained Mexican invasion. Beyond criticizing the source of the map, there ought to be more attention to the language and the premises used in the reporting.
2. I realize the pace of TV production, but the notion that Dobbs' producers are either so incomptent or so uneducated as to be incapable of doing the kind of simple evaluation of an Internet source that one would expect of a first-year college student should give both viewers and sponsors pause.
What's most disturbing about all of this is the fact that the specious reporting on Dobbs' show seems to have elicited little comment and criticism from professional journalists themselves.
"The arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I need to believe that right about now...
Kim, you've hammered a stake right thru the heart of this issue. Given the underlying racist premises that furnish much of the context for the current immigration debate, however, you shouldn't be surprised about the lack of criticism from "professional" journalists. They are part of the machinery of corporate media, and thus a central tool in the perpetuation of the false consciousness of race in this country, and the first line of defense of the status quo.
Of course there are those who will argue that race has nothing to do with this debate. They will rant on and on about the fact undocumented workers have broken immigration laws, that they are "illegals." But would the outcry be so loud, especially against amnesty and eventual citizenship, if the "invaders" were millions of so-called "whites" flooding across the Canadian border to take low wage jobs? Would we suddenly see a Greater Ontario map, showing New York, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, etc., as the reclaimed territory of "British" Canada?
You've no doubt seen the explanation from CNN, blaming the inclusion of ths CCC map on a freelance producer who didn't know what the CCC was. What they don't acknowledge of course, is the following:
1. The producer would not have been directed to look for an "Aztlan" map if the show had not already been framed around the racist premise that illegal immigration is part of a sustained Mexican invasion. Beyond criticizing the source of the map, there ought to be more attention to the language and the premises used in the reporting.
2. I realize the pace of TV production, but the notion that Dobbs' producers are either so incomptent or so uneducated as to be incapable of doing the kind of simple evaluation of an Internet source that one would expect of a first-year college student should give both viewers and sponsors pause.
What's most disturbing about all of this is the fact that the specious reporting on Dobbs' show seems to have elicited little comment and criticism from professional journalists themselves.
"The arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I need to believe that right about now...