Here is the latest example of media bias: “The most shocking thing this week about Donald Trump isn’t that he offended Mexicans by calling them rapists or got his objectifying show “Miss USA” kicked off Univision, or that the pageant’s hosts both quit in a huff and one of them called him a clown. . . . It’s the new [poll] that came out this week, that says he’s the number two most popular Republican presidential candidate in New Hampshire. . . . Not bad for a megalomaniac. But what does that say about the people of New Hampshire? . . . [T]he Democrats have plenty to be thankful for. He’s making the Republican Party look like a national joke. . . . [A]fter calling Mexicans rapists, Trump told the public ‘there is nothing to apologize for.’ ” – The Star-Ledger (New Jersey), Editorial, 6/26/15
Fact Check: The “mainstream” media, among them The Star-Ledger, are strict enforcers of politically correct etiquette pertaining to commentary on immigration. Specifically, no negative generalities about immigrants, legal or illegal, are permitted. Only positive generalities are allowed, such as: “They are all hard-working family-valuing people who have come here for a better life.” Any public figure who deviates from this and similar lines will incur the wrath of the media pooh-bahs. Commonly this consists of ad hominin attacks, rather than any argument that the negative generalizations are false.
Thus The Star-Ledger calls Donald Trump a “megalomanic,” highlights a statement that he is a “clown,” and claims that he makes his party look like a “national joke.” And just what did he say that prompted this vitriol? Here it is: “When do we beat Mexico at the border. They’re laughing at us, at out stupidity. And now they’re beating us economically. They are not our friend, believe me. . . . When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. . . . They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems [here]. They are bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Trump’s could have made his points in a more nuanced and balanced way. Still, he is raising valid issues, such as the extent to which Mexican immigration is indeed bringing us problems. One example is that Mexican immigrants are commonly poor, which raises the question of whether we should be importing poverty. Also, Mexican immigration can be problematic for assimilation due to historic resentments many Mexicans feel toward the United States.
Crime, including drug trafficking and sex offenses, is a legitimate issue for discussion too. Columnist Ann Coulter in her latest book, Adios America, notes that “there’s no question that the majority of heroin and meth in the U.S. is being brought in by Mexicans.” She cites evidence that a significant number of sex offenders come from Mexican and other Hispanic immigrant communities.
A further point she makes is to affirm that the media simply don’t want any discussion of the negative aspects of immigration. Thus again, they stifle debate by enforcing the most stringent political correctness. Donald Trump is bucking this enforcement by refusing to repudiate his statements. If he, as a presidential candidate, continues to speak on immigration in a bold and forthright manner, perhaps he can weaken the media’s stranglehold on free debate.
Immigration reformers must cease to care what media enforcers say about them, and cease to care if their statements aren’t perfectly phrased or are possibly “offensive” to the tender sensitivities of illegal alien advocates and other anti-Americans. One again, Donald Trump is showing the way.