"The Story" faces immigration backlash

[FM 100 Means Music]

Just a quick thank you to all the listeners who called and wrote in to criticize The Story for not interviewing any anti-immigration experts when they did a story last week on a massive raid on a factory that ended with 400 illegal immigrants being arrested.

 

[johnbasalla]

Don't you mean Anti-Illegal Immigration experts? I don't know anyone who is anti-immigration (although they are probably out there), but I know a lot of people who are anti ILLEGAL immigration. There's a big difference between the two. To not give both sides of the issue a fair hearing, demonstrates an agenda driven bias that lowers respect for "The Story".

 

[aaronread]

To not give both sides of the issue a fair hearing, demonstrates an agenda driven bias that lowers respect for "The Story".

Good Lord, do we have to explain Journalism 101 every time a hot-button issue comes up? Yes, The Story ([urlhttp://thestory.org/archive/the_story_051211_full_show.mp3/view]May 12, 2011[/url]) could have decided to get an anti-illegal immigration expert, or an officer who was involved with the raid (planning, execution, aftermath, etc) or a federal official from ICE or what-have-you.

The fact that they didn't does not offer any proof whatsoever of bias. It entirely depends on the context of the story being reported. If they were trying to portray a particular aspect of what happened...and from reading the summary of the episode, it appears that they did (i.e. what's happening in Postville, IA today, three years after the raid)...then not having the anti-illegal immigration aspect means nothing.

To take an extreme case to demonstrate my point: if Expert A says the sky is blue and Expert B says the sky is taupe, and my story is about "why is the sky blue?", I don't need Expert B there to provide a dissenting opinion that's not relevant to my story.