I watch the Lehrer News Hour on PBS regularly, and the team there seems to work hard at providing factual news coverage and balanced editorial analyses.
But the topic of illegal immigration seems to have unhinged them. Today they presented a 10 1/2 minute segment on the sanctuary movement. Of that coverage, 87.5% of the time was devoted to sympathetic, evocative portrayal of what they terms "undocumented immigrants," interviewing one at length. She came here 10 years ago but still appears to speak no English--the interviewing was entirely in Spanish.
Lip service was paid to the other side via a former immigration official was interviewed twice, for a total of 1 minute 10 seconds--12.5% of the segment. His points were rebutted by church workers and activists. He wasn't given a chance to challenge the rebuts, nor did the reporter. The main rebuttal was an appeal to "higher law" and comparisons to the civil rights movements of the 50s and 60s.
Beyond the lopsided apportionment of coverage, the pro-illegal side was presented vividly, with a lot of affect, while the other side was a guy in a suit in an anonymous room.
Cameras do lie.
The overall effect was that of an unapologetic propaganda piece for illegal immigration, with just enough lip service to the other side to let a PBS official claim both sides were represented. Really, they were not.
I'm sorry to report this. My spouse--a diehard social and fiscal conservative--believes PBS and the Lehrer News Hour are as left-biased as Fox is right-biased. I try to disabuse her of this belief. And then pieces like this come along.
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