ABC's World News on Sunday caught up to CBS and NBC in fretting about
the potential problems caused by illegal immigrants who may be leaving
Arizona before the state's new law takes effect on Thursday.
Correspondent Barbara Pinto devoted her entire piece to lamenting the
possible damage to small businesses whose customers are presumably now
leaving the state, but offered less than a sentence to the idea that
illegal immigrants are already an expensive burden [1] on state social
services [2].
"The loud and bitter battle over Arizona's immigration
law has reached fever-pitch," claimed Pinto. "But Rosario Peralta
worries about the quiet exodus - immigrant families already leaving the
state in droves. In the past few months, she's seen business and
customers at her family grocery store disappear."
After citing
two small business owners who attest to the new law's ruinous effect on
Arizona's economy, Pinto turned to Judy Gans, a contributor to Barack
Obama's 2008 presidential campaign [3] and immigration policy expert at the
University of Arizona, to reinforce her economic analysis: "SB-1070 is
one of a number of laws that have been passed that has the specific
intention of making it unpleasant enough for illegal immigrants to be in
the state that they leave."
Pinto's report repeats a pattern of
network news coverage in which the economic and social impact of illegal
immigration is analyzed through a liberal lens and conservative
arguments are dismissed.
On the May 3 Evening News, CBS's Kelly Cobiella highlighted [4] the Quintana family's gut-wrenching decision to leave a state that supposedly no longer welcomes them:
KATIE COURIC: Hundreds of thousands of them [illegal immigrants] now live in Arizona. But as Kelly Cobiella reports, many no longer feel welcome.
KELLY COBIELLA: "On a dusty block in Phoenix, 15 years of the Quintana family's possessions are for sale. [to Manuela Quintana] When did you decide to leave? [translating] 'When the governor signed the immigration law,' Manuela Quintana says, 'I knew we had to move.'...The family packed up before dawn today and headed north to Colorado. Manuela says she's lost hope in this state. She thinks she'll find it again in another.
In her report, the CBS correspondent completely
ignored the conservative perspective that cracking down on illegal
immigration alleviates the burden illegal aliens, who often do not pay
income taxes but reap social benefits such as health care and education,
place on local economies. Instead, Cobiella pulled at the viewer's
heartstrings to portray Arizona's popular immigration law in a negative
light.
On the July 8 Nightly News, NBC's Lee Cowan shared [5] "telling" anecdotes of small business owners losing customers because
immigrant families are fleeing Arizona over the new law: "A look around
this once-bustling barrio is telling. The local hair salon has more
empty chairs now than customers." The hyperbole continued:
COWAN: For the Bolanos family, they stayed as long as they could.
MARCIAL BOLANOS, Arizona resident: Arizona is a good state, but no more now.
COWAN: He took his 15-year-old son out of school and is headed back to Mexico, which brings Hugo to tears. But you're really going to miss your friends?
HUGO BOLANOS: Yeah.
Instead of
contrasting the Bolanos family's story with a conservative view on the
economics of illegal immigration, Cowan concluded his teary-eyed piece
on a somber note: "It may be months before anyone knows for sure just
how many illegal immigrants and their business the law has scared away.
Supporters say good riddance, but critics fear the damage has already
started."
In most network news reports since the debate over
SB-1070 intensified, the economic angle of illegal immigration was
ignored. But when it was discussed, the networks focused not on the
strain on state budgets, but on the fallout over liberal politicians
pushing to boycott Arizona.
On April 27, Pinto and ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer emphasized [6]
the potentially devastating impact boycotts would have on Arizona's
tourism and hospitality industries without discussing the taxpayer funds
that could be saved because fewer illegal aliens would soak up social
services.
"Grand Canyon tours, business conventions, even the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team are being targeted," cautioned Sawyer.
"This
has happened before," warned Pinto. "Arizona's decision two decades ago
not to honor the Martin Luther King Jr holiday cost the state 170
conventions and a Super Bowl. A grand total of $360 million."
Also
on April 27, NBC Nightly News correspondent Andrea Mitchell dissected [6]
the destructive effects of boycotting Arizona without conveying the
conservative position on the economic benefits of the state's new law.
"It's
now gone beyond protest to threats of a boycott as Arizona becomes a
laughingstock to some," proclaimed Mitchell, referring to an SNL skit
that likened Arizona to Nazi Germany.
"I really feel that this is
one of the biggest anti-business things that the state could have
done," opined Ben Bethel, a hotel owner in Arizona.
On the May 13 Evening News, CBS's Bill Whitaker trumpeted [7] the "growing number of states and municipalities [that] are boycotting
or considering boycotting Arizona, pushing the state to repeal the law"
and pointed to Arizona's Tourism Board, which estimated the state has
lost over $90 million to boycotts, as evidence of the crippling economic
effects of Arizona's new immigration law. Yet Whitaker failed to lay
out the conservative cost-benefit analysis of the law.
Pinto's
June 25 report parroted Whitaker's case against the law: "Threatened
boycotts could cost the Phoenix area alone an estimated $90 million in
hotel and convention business. Another expense: the flurry of legal
challenges, including one by the Obama administration," as if it is
Governor Jan Brewer's (R-Ariz.) fault the Obama administration is
politicizing the Justice Department or that liberal activists are
willing to starve Arizona's economy to see the law repealed.
A transcript of the July 25 ABC World News segment can be found below: (H/T to MRC intern Rachel Burnett for the transcript.)
ABC World News
July 25, 2010
DAN HARRIS: Arizona's controversial new law cracking down on illegal immigrants takes effect this Thursday if it survives a court challenge. But many Hispanics, both legal and illegal, are already heading for the borders. And there's a heated debate over whether that will cost the state more than it saves. Here's Barbara Pinto.
BARBARA PINTO, ABC correspondent: The loud and bitter battle over Arizona's immigration law has reached fever-pitch. But Rosario Peralta worries about the quiet exodus - immigrant families already leaving the state in droves. In the past few months, she's seen business and customers at her family grocery store disappear.
ROSARIO PERALTA, Arizona resident: They're in fear. They want to either go back to other states or they're just not buying at all. They're buying the minimum because they just want to save their money so they can move maybe to another state.
PINTO: The law would make illegal immigration a state crime and would require police who have "reasonable suspicion" to question anyone about their immigration status.
JUDY GANS, University of Arizona: SB-1070 is one of a number of laws that have been passed that has the specific intention of making it unpleasant enough for illegal immigrants to be in the state that they leave.
PINTO: Proponents say the exodus of undocumented workers will open up low-wage jobs and save taxpayers money on schools and social services, but opponents in this state, where one in every three people is Latino, worry they'll pay. Apartment building owner Rollie Rankin is hurting already.
ROLLIE RANKIN, Arizona resident: 1070 has cost us 25 percent of our business and potentially it could have cost us our whole business just because losing 25 percent of your business in a short amount of time is business-threatening.
PINTO: Yet another drag on a cash-strapped state battered by foreclosures. Threatened boycotts could cost the Phoenix area alone an estimated $90 million in hotel and convention business. Another expense: the flurry of legal challenges, including one by the Obama administration. Outside federal court in Phoenix, the protests go on. Inside, a judge will decide if the state crackdown is constitutional and if it will go into effect on Thursday. Barbara Pinto, ABC News.
-Alex Fitzsimmons is a News Analysis intern at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here [8].