Media Diversity Cops Say Only a Judge, Not a Journalist, Can Call an Immigrant ‘Illegal’
Matthew Boyle of The Daily Caller reported the “Diversity Committee” of the Society of Professional Journalists wants a yearlong “education campaign designed to inform and sensitize journalists” that the words “illegal immigrant” are hurtful and insensitive. In an article for the SPJ magazine The Quill, reporter Leo Laurence insisted that since our legal system presumes innocence until proven guilty, “Simply put, only a judge, not a journalist, can say that someone is an illegal.” (The National Association of Hispanic Journalists has also argued that the I-word unfairly “criminalizes a person.”) At the national convention in Las Vegas, the Diversity Committee resolution urged journalists to use the phrase “undocumented immigrant(s), and avoid both “illegal immigrant” or “illegal alien.” In several MRC studies of TV immigration coverage, we found the networks still primarily use “illegal immigrants,” but some journalists (like CBS's Harry Smith) used “undocumented” as a matter of routine. Laurence explained: read more
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Media Diversity Cops Say Only a Judge, Not a Journalist, Can Call an Immigrant ‘Illegal’
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on December 28, 2010. Filed under