MMA: With Alabama Ruling, Fox Continues Anti-Immigrant Bent

[pampango]

Fox News has a well-documented anti-immigrant bias. This is apparent not only in countless examples of slanted coverage and purportedly "fair and balanced" debate, but also through the network's choice of slurs and smears when discussing undocumented immigrants. Fox's calculated decision to continually blast this one image of a man climbing what could be a border fence is a perfect example of how Fox uses its brand to reinforce negative views of unauthorized immigrants.

The way Fox responded to the decision by a federal judge to suspend implementation of the harshly criticized Alabama immigration law was yet another prime example. In her ruling temporarily blocking the law from taking effect, U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn said she needed more time to review the various lawsuits brought by the Obama administration and other groups who questioned the law's constitutionality.

Fox, which has defended and applauded the law, decided that guests from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), an anti-immigration organization, carried the best insight and brought them on to discuss the ruling. FAIR has been labeled a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Dan Stein, the group's president, was welcomed on Fox News' America's Newsroom, and he promptly blasted the Obama administration for "making all kinds of wild allegations" in its lawsuit. As Stein spoke, footage of what appeared to be immigrants running near the border appeared on screen.

Stein went on to parrot the conservative argument that "here's really nothing revolutionary here but for the fact that ... President Obama and his people do not want immigration laws enforced and so they and their allies are challenging all these laws." He also argued that the Alabama law would free up jobs for Americans and that the "administration is taking us down a course of chaos and anarchy and we have to stop it."

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201109060018

Not too surprising that FOX would be a leading proponent of Alabama's immigration law.