This morning’s front-page story in The News & Observer
on an illegal immigrant family whose male head of household was scooped
up in a meat-packing plant raid was pretty over-the-top in sympathy for
the family. I’ve corresponded with public editor Ted Vaden about it
today, and he decided to post a blog about it. He says, in part, quoting part of my e-mail to him:

“Jeepers, Ted, could this story be any more one-sided?” asked Paul
Chesser, associate editor of the Carolina Journal, published by the
conservative John Locke Foundation. He said in an e-mail that it was a
legitimate story, “but I disagree that it was written in an evenhanded
manner…. (W)here is the N&O coverage of those who have been
traumatized by illegal immigration’s effects?”

His summarization:

My own opinion was that, yes, the story was sympathetic to the family
whose lives have been disrupted. But it was balanced with comment from
immigration officials and activists who support the crackdown. I
thought it was useful for readers to see the personal impact on people
caught up in the crackdown, and it certainly was not supportive of
illegal immigration.

Read the cover story for yourself and see what you think. Here’s what else I had to say in my message to Ted:

I think the one quote from (Center for Immigration Studies
president Mark) Krikorian is almost entirely swallowed up by the
overwhelming sympathy expressed in the story for the illegal family.
The quotes from immigration authorities do not express an opinion one
way or another ? they just explain a bit what was happening….

There is plenty of blame to go around for the current dilemma:
current and previous administrations’ policies, businesses, immigration
enforcement, the illegal immigrants themselves, etc. A better story
would have been made had this family’s plight been presented (albeit in
briefer form), and then putting the onus on these various agents to
defend their actions or inactions over what their policies and
practices have caused….

I also asked him about the noticeable absence of any sympathetic
stories for those who have in one way or another been victimized by
illegal immigration, such as the family of the Johnston County father
and son who died in an accident with a drunk illegal.