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FAIR: The Lou Dobbs Primary? Media, Not Voters, Obsessed wth Immigration
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
FAIR - Dec 7, 2007
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3226
Media Advisory
The Lou Dobbs Primary?
Immigration more an issue for media than voters
Media coverage of the 2008 presidential election identifies immigration
as a key issue for the U.S. electorate--even though, according to most
polling, it does not rank as a top priority for voters.
CNN's Republican debate on November 28 opened with a full 35 minutes of
the debate devoted to the issue of immigration. Wa****ngton Post
columnist David Broder (11/15/07) recently referred to "illegal
immigration" as one of two major "icebergs ahead for the Democrats" in
the upcoming presidential race (ex-President Bill Clinton being the
other one).
Columnist and CBS correspondent Gloria Borger (U.S. News & World
Re****t, 11/10/07) declared immigration a "killer issue," and that
Democratic candidates "had better get started" on a solution:
"Independent voters are unhappy that nothing has been done on the
matter, and anyone who wants to be president needs to keep independent
voters happy." Borger approvingly quoted Democratic pollster Stan
Greenberg, who thinks the time has come for a "welfare moment"--an
allusion to Bill Clinton's pledge to "reform" welfare in 1992.
NPR decided to make immigration one of the three issues of concern of
its December 4 Democratic presidential debate. (Iran/Iraq policy and
China were the other categories.) The following day's New York Times
re****t on the debate (12/5/07) was headlined (in the print edition)
"Immigration, a Relentless Issue, Confronts Democrats in an Iowa
Debate." The paper alleged that the issue of immigration is "a topic
looming large both in the Iowa caucuses next month and in the general
election."
That's not what voters have been saying, though.
When asked to name their top priorities, the Iraq War still tops the
list of issues for both Democrats and Republicans. "It's raised twice
as often as the next-ranking issue, the economy," according to a recent
USA Today/Gallup poll (11/30/07-12/1/07).
Another recent poll (L.A. Times/Bloomberg, 11/30/07-12/3/07) found only
15 percent of Americans ranking immigration as one of the top three
issues of concern to them. In fact, noted L.A. Times columnist Tim
Rutten (12/1/07), "more than nine out of 10 Americans think something
matters more than immigration in this presidential election."
Even when posed a question about their position on "illegal
immigrants"--a politically loaded phrase--public opinion on
undo***ented workers is, as it is on most political issues, quite
mixed. But "a strong bipartisan majority -- 60 percent -- favors
allowing illegal immigrants who have not committed crimes to become
citizens if they pay fines, learn English and meet other requirements,"
according to the most recent L.A. Times/Bloomberg poll (L.A. Times,
12/6/07).
The polling data suggests that immigration is not at all the
"relentless issue" the New York Times makes it out to be. If anything
can be described as "relentless" about the issue of immigration, it's
the way it has been pushed by the media.
CNN's Lou Dobbs--who has a record of touting inaccurate xenophobic
claims and promoting white supremacists on air (see Extra!, 1-2/04;
Intelligence Re****t, Winter/05)--led into CNN's Republican debate
(11/28/07) by calling immigration advocates "misguided abject fools"
who are "working to subvert the will of the majority of the people of
this country." Given the clear disdain U.S. media are showing for
Americans' priorities for the upcoming election, one would think it was
not the U.S. electorate but Dobbs himself whose vote was going to
determine the 2008 presidential vote.
Of course, time spent talking about immigration-- which appeals to more
conservative voters--is time not spent talking about, say, the economy
or the Iraq War. This could very well be smart politics for Republican
presidential candidates; as GOP pollster Whit Ayres put it (USA Today,
12/4/07), "Anything that pushes Iraq farther down the agenda is good
news for Republicans." But media shouldn't mistake GOP campaign
priorities for evidence of a ****ft in the public's priorities.
******
FAIR
(212) 633-6700
http://www.fair.org/
E-mail: fair@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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