Now La Raza, which has launched a Web site to document instances of immigrant bashing, is demanding that the TV networks stop “handing hate a microphone.” They’ve also asked presidential candidate Mike Huckabee to renounce the endorsement he received from Jim Gilchrist, cofounder of the Minuteman Project to patrol the U.S.– Mexico border and a frequent guest on cable news shows. In response, Fox News issued a letter defending the network’s programming decisions, while CNN met with La Raza behind closed doors. (A CNN spokes-person acknowledged the use of strong language but declined to call it excessive.) MSNBC, meanwhile, has agreed to a meeting this month. But Huckabee is standing by his man. Huckabee said in an e-mail to NEWSWEEK that while he has sympathy for groups like La Raza, “I am glad [Gilchrist] supported my immigration plan.”
The Anti-Defamation League, meanwhile, is standing behind La Raza. “When we saw the rhetoric shift from a legitimate debate to one where immigrants were dehumanized, we believe it inspired extremists and [some] mainstream Americans to act,” says Deborah Lauter, the group’s civil-rights director. But according to Dan Stein, president of the Federation for Immigration Reform, La Raza is “trying to stop a legitimate public policy debate.” If La Raza can’t settle its dispute with the networks then it plans to take the fight to the sponsors. If that doesn’t work, the next stop is November—and the voting booth.
