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Old 12-31-2010, 01:01 PM
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Jeanfromfillmore Jeanfromfillmore is offline
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Default Change illegal immigrant term?

Change illegal immigrant term?
The controversy has mostly been about what to do with roughly 12 million people who entered this country illegally and then dissolved into the population. During frequent and heated arguments, sometimes a side controversy has erupted over calling them ‘illegal aliens.’ So ‘undocumented workers’ evolved as the preferred reference. Now, a new fight has erupted over media use of the term ‘illegal immigrant.’ What….?
Yes, they are immigrants who are here illegally, technically speaking. But speaking terms are changing fast in this culture, and usually for tendentious reasons that don’t hold up to scrutiny on closer look.
It only took a glance to notice this one. I happened on to a television news show debate, a heated one, just in time to see and hear Jehmu Greene, former president of the Women’s Media Center, arguing that the term “illegal immigrant” dehumanizes human beings. Wait a minute…..what’s this about?
Are “illegal aliens” simply misunderstood “undocumented immigrants?” The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Diversity Committee believes so, and it’s engaged in a campaign to “inform and sensitize journalists as to the best language to use when writing and reporting” on the issue.
Furthermore, the SPJ contends it’s unconstitutional to use the term journalists are used to using.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press, who’s stylebook dictates much of the language used by journalists, is standing by the term…
From AP’s deputy standards editor David Minthorn: “The AP Stylebook created its entry on ‘illegal immigrant’ in 2004, in response to renewed debate over border security and the enforcement of immigration laws after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Together, the terms describe a person who resides in a country unlawfully by residency or citizenship requirements. Alternatives like undocumented worker, illegal alien or illegals lack precision or may have negative connotations. Illegal immigrant, on the other hand, is accurate and neutral for news stories.”
So this argument goes on for a while on the TV news show, and I’m struck by its nonsense, literally. Jehmu Greene contends that the term ‘illegal immigrant’ denies the humanity of the people involved. And she says that can even lead to violence against them.
This is the same Jehmu Greene who took to the airwaves of television news shows last January vigorously to battle against CBS allowing the Tebow ad to air during the Super Bowl. Remember that?
“CBS has had a well-documented position that it would not accept ads about contentious or controversial subjects,” said Jehmu Greene, president of the New York-based Women’s Media Center, which is spearheading the campaign. “I don’t think there is another issue in our society as contentious and controversial as abortion. There is some very strong hypocrisy at work.”
Interesting allegation.
Ms. Greene was a guest on the Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor Tuesday evening and host Bill O’Reilly re-stated the controversy to clarify. Abortion activists charge the ad is trying to turn the public against ‘choice.’ O’Reilly said….wait a minute….it shows that Mrs. Tebow had a choice and chose to have this baby, and Tim Tebow is the result of that choice, which he celebrates. Can you not, Ms. Greene, applaud the fact that Mrs. Tebow had a choice and made the one she felt most strongly about, asked O’Reilly?
‘I applaud the fact that Mrs. Tebow had a choice,’ she responded with stress.
‘Aren’t you attacking the group Focus on the Family more than addressing the message of their ad?’ asked O’Reilly. ‘You’re trying to muzzle these guys!’
And she’s doing it again, this time the journalists who use the term she finds so offensive and dehumanizing.
But since she brought up hypocrisy, well…..let’s look at it this way….
The term “choice” is a euphemism for abortion, and the ultimate dehumanizing term in modern political and cultural use. It denies the humanity of the human beings involved. And certainly leads to violence against them.
I kept hoping the news show host, or even the debate opponent on that show, would carry Ms. Greene’s argument about ‘illegal immigrants’ through to its logical conclusion. I practically talked back to the TV, asking her to ask the right questions. But alas, the argument went another way and then time expired.
So, speaking of expired, and terms, and the humanity of individuals behind the language we use in media and politics…..what about the term “choice,” Ms. Greene?
And, how about that Tebow ad? Let's be honest.
http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/8505/
Politically correct phrase legally incorrect
A "classic effort in propaganda" is how an immigration reform activist views a journalism society's push for the use of politically correct language in news stories concerning illegal immigration.

In its organization's magazine, Quill, the diversity committee of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) lambasts the use of the phrase "illegal immigrant" or "illegal alien" and calls on journalists to use the more politically correct "undocumented immigrants" or "undocumented workers" when reporting on the issue.

The article, written by a longtime member of the SPJ Diversity Committee, claims the descriptor "illegal alien" originated with "fiery, anti-immigrant groups" along the U.S.-Mexico border, such as the Minutemen, and is offensive to Latinos, "especially Mexicans." [Editor's note: Most border enforcement groups speak against illegal immigration, not immigration in general.]
Despite the SPJ's campaign, many mainstream journalists employ the word "illegal," and even Associated Press prefers the phrase "illegal immigrant" to "undocumented worker" in its official stylebook.

"This is a classic effort in propaganda. The people who control language often control the agenda, and if you go back and you look through history movements that have looked to control the terms of a debate, they often start with trying to control the language that's used," notes Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

"There's nothing pejorative about using the term 'illegal alien.' An alien, according to the law, is the legal definition of somebody who is not a citizen of the United States. Somebody who is not a citizen of the United States and is here in violation of the law, that legal term is 'illegal alien.'"

So Mehlman does not think the SPJ's effort to "inform and sensitize" reporters will have much of an effect one way or another.

A disclaimer on the op-ed says it does not reflect the views of the Society of Professional Journalists, its members, or the committee -- and that the committee has taken no official initiative on use of the phrase "illegal immigrant."
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/De...spx?id=1263624
Fox’s Megyn Kelly Employs Rape Analogy in Discussion of Immigration Language
Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly is rasing eyebrows with her suggestion that a movement to replace the term “illegal immigrant” with “undocumented immigrant” is analogous to “re-brand(ing) the use of the word rapist to nonconsensual sex partner.”
Although her remark was clearly meant to evoke what some see as an Orwellian manipulation of language, the intense heat given to the mighty #Mooreandme protest over the dismissive treatment of rape allegations on MSNBC’s Countdown could spark a similar surge of outrage over Kelly’s remark. Here’s why I don’t think it should. (h/t Doug Mataconis)

Kelly’s comparison is, without a doubt, self-contradictory. “Non-consensual sex partner” is a double-plus-oxymoron, in that without consent, you cannot have “sex,” nor can you be a “partner.” She would have been better served sticking to the burglary analogy, or perhaps drawing on the real-life marriage-dissolving National Organization for Marriage for inspiration. Even in misusing the comparison, though, she doesn’t trivialize rape. Indeed, the effectiveness of her analogy rests on the seriousness of the offense.
Intent matters, however, so while the remark could be seen as offensive, it’s clear to me that the intent (however misguided) was to illustrate the slippery slope that this sort of manipulation can lead to. In fact, it is here that Kelly’s guest, Jehmu Greene, falls short. She rests her argument on the notion that using the term “illegal alien” leads to violence against the undocumented, when the Society of Professional Journalists makes the more relevant point that the term “undocumented immigrant” is a less factually biased phrase. Creating a less charged environment should have remained a welcome, but secondary, side-effect.
In a similar vein, Fox News Managing Editor Bill Sammon landed in hot water when internal memos surfaced that showed exactly this sort of manipulation, but not because he was simply trying to dictate a more neutral standard, but because it appeared that his effort was driven by a desire to create bias where none existed.
Megyn Kelly and I probably disagree about a great many things, but I have always admired her toughness and skepticism, as well as her willingness to engage those with whom she disagrees. One instance in which we agreed completely, however, was the occasion of an online Playboy article that was an attack on women everywhere. Hopefully, her remarks on that issue will illuminate her intent in this case:
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/foxs-megy...tion-language/
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