A national campaign that encourages unauthorized immigrants in the United States to “come out of the closet” and thus openly flout their violation of U.S. immigration law was the subject of uncritical examination in a recent Univision broadcast.
Jose Antonio Vargas
By Curtis Houck | February 20, 2015 | 4:01 PM EST
As part of the left’s bashing of Rudy Giuliani for stating his belief that President Obama doesn’t love America, MSNBC’s The Last Word convened a panel on Thursday night to berate Giuliani. Liberal radio show host Stephanie Miller went as far as to compare what the former New York City Mayor told a gathering of Republican donors to using derogatory language toward African-Americans, gays, and women: “[W]henever someone starts a sentence with, this is going to be horrible, it's like when someone says I'm not a racist, but n-word for a black person. I'm not a homophobe, but f-word for gay person, I’m not a sexist, but c-word for a woman. That's what this is.”
LA Times Starts 'Race, Immigration and Identity' Site With Illegal Alien-Activist Jose Antonio Vargas
By Tim Graham | February 17, 2015 | 9:39 AM EST CNN’s Brian Stelter reports “Jose Antonio Vargas, a journalist and undocumented immigrant, is joining forces with the Los Angeles Times to create a new section of the Times web site devoted to race, immigration and multiculturalism.”
In other words, the Times seems to be creating a lobbying site for illegal immigrants, headed by an illegal immigrant and amnesty lobbyist.
By Tim Graham | November 24, 2014 | 8:02 AM EST
Monday's Washington Post carried a huge three-page article on its former employee, Jose Antonio Vargas, an illegal alien and amnesty activist. The headline was "HIDE, THEN SEEK: Amid Obama's executive actions, immigration activist Jose Antonio Vargas tirelessly pursues change -- even as he hopes to reunite with his mother." The headline inside was "From journalism to activism: A life on the run."
By Jeffrey Meyer | July 16, 2014 | 2:55 PM EDT
It seems as though National Public Radio has joined the ranks of the liberal media championing illegal immigrant Jose Antonio Vargas following his arrest on Tuesday, July 15 for attempting to board a plane without proper documentation.
That evening, NPR’s All Things Considered did its best to promote Vargas, with co-host Audie Cornish and media correspondent David Folkenflik engaging in a cheerleading session for the illegal immigrant. Cornish began the segment by lamenting how Vargas is “a Filipino without legal status in the U.S., though he has lived in this country for more than 20 years.” [Click here to listen to the MP3 audio.]
‘Big Three’ Continue To Champion Jose Antonio Vargas: ‘America’s Most Famous Undocumented Immigrant’
By Jeffrey Meyer | July 16, 2014 | 11:12 AM EDT Jose Antonio Vargas, a 31-year-old illegal immigrant, was detained by border patrol agents while trying to board a plane from McAllen, Texas without proper documentation. Following his arrest, the “big three” networks did their best to promote his cause on their Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning broadcasts.
ABC’s Good Morning America did the most to cheerlead for Vargas, with reporter Jim Avila declaring him “America’s most famous undocumented immigrant” without ever referring to him as an illegal immigrant. To their credit, both CBS This Morning and NBC’s Today correctly labeled Vargas as “illegally” living in the United States. All three networks did play up the fact that Vargas was a “Pulitzer Prize winning journalist.” [See video below.]
By Connor Williams | July 15, 2014 | 5:15 PM EDT
On the July 14 edition of Erin Burnett OutFront, the host gave ample time to advocates of amnesty for illegal immigrants. In fact, Burnett dedicated an entire segment of her program to an interview with a group of illegal immigrants, headlined by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and himself an illegal immigrant, Jose Antonio Vargas.
Vargas – naturally a pillar of objectivity on the subject – made sure to criticize Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) for “politicizing” the issue and lamenting that there has not been enough talk about the “humanity” of the situation. This is a slightly bewildering, since the one thing left and right can agree on regarding the border is that this is in fact a humanitarian crisis. Later in the segment, Vargas declared that “I don’t want to bring race into this” issue. He immediately followed by doing just that, asking: “but if these were white kids would we be doing this to the kids?” [MP3 audio here; video below]
By Randy Hall | November 20, 2013 | 5:40 PM EST
Earlier this month, NewsBusters reported that CNN has been exploring a shift away from breaking news and commentary to longer-form documentaries. Our suspicion was that most, if not all, of the political-oriented documentaries would promote liberal issue ideas instead of conservative perspectives.
Almost on cue, CNN has announced that it has acquired the rights to air a feature-length film next year chronicling the experiences of an immigrant who is in this country illegally.
By Paul Bremmer | May 9, 2013 | 4:23 PM EDT
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) recently proposed an amendment to the so-called Gang of Eight’s immigration bill that would allow homosexuals in the U.S. to sponsor their foreign-born partners for green cards. Naturally, MSNBC was elated at this potential fusion of gay rights and immigration reform, so to celebrate, Sunday's Weekends with Alex Witt brought on Jose Antonio Vargas, a former Washington Post reporter and liberal activist who happens to be both gay AND an undocumented immigrant.
Vargas eagerly played up his double-minority status, complaining:
By Tim Graham | September 22, 2012 | 7:40 AM EDT
Ted Hesson at ABCNews.com reports that formerly "objective" Washington Post reporter Jose Antonio Vargas is leading a crusade to ban the term "illegal immigrant" from polite news coverage. Or as Hesson puts it, Vargas will "begin monitoring the use" of the phrase "with the goal of shifting the conversation."
"The term dehumanizes and marginalizes the people it seeks to describe," Vargas said. "Think of it this way, in what other context do we call someone illegal?" Since announcing to the world that he's an illegal immigrant, Vargas has become a celebrity activist who's starred in cover stories in in The New York Times Magazine and Time. He wants reporters to use the word "undocumented," and many do.
By Noel Sheppard | June 14, 2012 | 11:38 AM EDT
Time magazine waded into the illegal immigration debate Thursday with a preview of next Monday's cover and featured article guaranteed to generate heated discussion on both sides of the aisle.
In front of a picture of unknown immigrants save the story's controversial author Jose Antonio Vargas was the bold headline "We Are Americans*"; somewhat below it read "*Just not legally."
By Tim Graham | June 24, 2011 | 10:59 AM EDT
Reid Epstein at Politico rounded up the blogosphere reaction to former Washington Post reporter Jose Antonio Vargas proclaiming he's an illegal alien (including Billy Hallowell, Meredith Jessup, and NewsBusters yesterday). On the left, he found, Vargas "has become the embodiment of the American dream." His examples: