Jeff Dunetz
Big Journalism
5/27/2010
As if we needed one, here’s another item showing bias in the way the mainstream media covers the controversial Arizona illegal immigration law. Many major news organizations, including, MSNBC, CNN, and USA Today for example, covered a story about a group of Police Chiefs who met with A.G. Eric Holder to register their objections to the Arizona law…
…At first glance this all seems like a perfectly normal news story, but there was a very important piece of information left out: the meeting was arraigned by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) and the police chiefs attending the meeting were members of PERF. (Holder is an “old friend of PERF, he addressed their convention in April) . In the rare cases where a news organization mentioned the PERF connection (the NPR story referenced above is the only one I could find) they neglected to mention that PERF is an organization that objects to any enforcement of immigration laws directed at the illegal alien (as opposed to an employer who hires illegals). The Forum describes itself as a “national organization of progressive police executives.”
PERF is a national organization of progressive police executives from the largest city, county and state law enforcement agencies. PERF defines racially biased policing as “inappropriate consideration by law enforcement of race / ethnicity in deciding with whom and how to interview in an enforcement capacity.” PERF works with a diverse group of law enforcement officials, community activists, civil rights leaders and academics to set their standards and policies. These include the U.S. Attorney General’s Office, National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California, ACLU of Maryland, International Union of Police Associations, Union Baptist Church, and numerous law enforcement executives, partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Program.
If the reporters had done some legwork they would have found the group is not just against the Arizona law, it is against any enforcement of immigration laws…
Read the complete article at BigJournalism.com
