L.A. Times to “Join Forces” With Illegal Immigrant Journalist
A tipster sends this with the message: the fish, the barrel, the smoking gun:
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.
The partnership will be called #EmergingUS and, in an unusual arrangement for a newspaper, it will be shared between the Times and Vargas.
Vargas came to the country at age twelve. It’s hard to say that he deserves any blame for his illegal status. (It’s a tougher sell to say he deserves no blame for using phony documents and lying about his citizenship to continue the ruse: “I was using an invalid Social Security card and writing false information on my employment forms.”) On the other hand, the recent flood of children at the border shows what happens when an administration announces a policy that we’re keeping minors who show up illegally. The whole issue is a classic clash of individual justice vs. clear rules that prevent perverse incentives. Vargas puts a face to the former value. The children at the border put thousands of faces to the failure to enforce the latter value.
Spot the irony:
The Los Angeles Times can’t hire Vargas directly, “but we can become a business partner with him,” Beutner said. “So that’s what we’ve chosen to do.”
Spot more irony:
[Published Austin] Beutner emphasized that Vargas is coming on board as a journalist, not an activist.
“The point of view” of the venture, he said, “is that this is an important topic to be talked about. It’s not meant to be advocacy, and it won’t be advocacy.
Well, sure. Look for Vargas to do a multi-part series on the crisis at the border, emphasizing the fact that policies legalizing “DREAMers” create a magnet for illegal immigration by children, leading to crushed hopes and misery for thousands. Plan to enjoy that multi-part series by this Objective Journalist while pigs glide past your window on gossamer wings.
Thanks to K.
Ding.
Patterico (9c670f) — 2/18/2015 @ 7:51 amIt was just one of those things. Ding.
felipe (b5e0f4) — 2/18/2015 @ 7:52 amSo they endorse open borders, and the right of employers to violate the law.
Steve Malynn (bcb9f3) — 2/18/2015 @ 7:58 amSpot the irony:
Another irony is that the business in question generally depends upon a well-educated, literary-oriented, somewhat knowledge-thirsty populace to keep it afloat. That segment of the LA Times’ potential readership has been eroding away on a continuous basis for over 20 to 30 years.
Then again, I guess newspapers (or publications above and beyond the level of the National Enquirer or People) somehow manage to survive in places like south-central Los Angeles or, farther away, Mexico.
Mark (c160ec) — 2/18/2015 @ 8:04 amCan’t wait for the article from Vargas on how the LA Unified School District has spent so much of its limited resources on English as a Second Language programs and in catching up seventh graders who had a second-grade education in their home countries that they have cut popular programs in art, music, and for gifted & talented students to balance the books. And consequently middle-class parents are fleeing the LAUSD and borrowing money to enroll their kids in private schools.
JVW (6adc73) — 2/18/2015 @ 8:31 amThen again, I guess newspapers (or publications above and beyond the level of the National Enquirer or People) somehow manage to survive in places like south-central Los Angeles or, farther away, Mexico.
Years from now the reasons demise of the newspaper industry will be obvious: big newspapers pandered to a left-wing readership at exactly the moment when lefties were either too lazy to read them or felt entitled to receive their news free of charge.
JVW (6adc73) — 2/18/2015 @ 8:32 amGood God, does anyone still read it? A loose, previously scanned copy laying in the Starbucks news rack is the same: A “Hiltzik The Hack” opinion piece. Daum’s tedious reflections on nothing. The Whiny Consumer guy. Slanted headlines trying to minimize anything dispute they disagree with (“Did ZYX Really Care About ABC?”). Referring to Brian Williams’ stories as an “embellishment,” and being so out of touch they assert NBC was “Standing By” Williams the day before NBC suspended him. Publishing political opinions of . . . their cartoonist, Mr. Horsey. I toss it back in the rack and take a NYT as always. Oh wait! There is an LA Weekly! I’ll grab that too. LAT has tried to bind their issues now, to prevent the “scan and dispose” treatment it gets. What a joke.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (5e0a82) — 2/18/2015 @ 8:52 amSend him back …. you can find sympathy between shit and syphilis in the dictionary but don’t expect any from me.
Roux (f5b497) — 2/18/2015 @ 8:59 amI suppose the Times Spanish language edition is still profitable, for those who can read.
Mike K (90dfdc) — 2/18/2015 @ 9:11 amYou mean the Times is not already “devoted to race, immigration and multiculturalism”?
Could have fooled me.
Patricia (5fc097) — 2/18/2015 @ 9:27 am” Beutner emphasized that Vargas is coming on board as a journalist, not an activist.”
That made me laugh.
Dejectedhead (75dfa4) — 2/18/2015 @ 10:59 amThere’s a difference?
egd (1ad898) — 2/18/2015 @ 12:54 pmGee, I hope they classify him as an “Independent Contractor”, CA and the IRS has some very strict rules about that.
askeptic (efcf22) — 2/18/2015 @ 12:54 pmMike K (90dfdc) — 2/18/2015 @ 9:11 am
An anecdote on literacy:
askeptic (efcf22) — 2/18/2015 @ 1:00 pmReturning to LA from ‘Vegas where I had seen bi-lingual menu-boards at a fast-food emporium, I suggested to the Mgr. of my local (right next door) Burger King that since his counter personnel spent so much time translating the menu for their Spanish-speaking customers – delaying service quite a bit – he should consider acquiring bi-lingual menu-boards for his location.
Amazingly, he did…..and then we discovered that the problem was not that his immigrant customers couldn’t read English, they couldn’t read Spanish either.
It still took as long to get a sandwich there as before, so I stopped being a B-K customer.
askeptic (efcf22) — 2/18/2015 @ 1:00 pm
Was Spanish their first language, or some Indian language? We’re getting
that now.
How did they know what to order? Somehow they did. Could they read numerals? Maybe numbers with pictures would work for them. How did they get around?
Sammy Finkelman (e806a6) — 2/18/2015 @ 1:31 pmso LAT is saying Vargas articles will be free of his own commentary and contain comments from more than one point of view?
seeRpea (6c0f9a) — 2/18/2015 @ 1:33 pmA future Vargas article:
“. . . estimates that bringing the immigrants out of the shadows and providing a pathway to citizenship will provide an extra $2 billion in tax revenue to the state per year which otherwise would remain uncollected. The usual gang of racists and xenophobes, on the other hand, claim that revenues. . . .”
And then, further down the road:
“. . . Though initial plans had called for undocumented immigrants to pay a back taxes and a fine, learn English, and pass a citizenship test, the Clinton Administration has announced that they are suspending these requirements which they deem manifestly unfair from a social justice perspective and Anglo-centric. The administration’s announcement was immediately derided by conservative activists and Republican politicians, who don’t seem to care that their bitter racism is driving away Latino voters crucial to maintaining that party’s congressional majorities. . . “
JVW (887036) — 2/18/2015 @ 1:55 pmMaybe, JVW, maybe.
“So this puto maricon LAPD pig pulls me over and rousts me, man. So I tell the cabron I dindunuffin but he frisks me anyway. He pulls a .38 out of my back pocket and a bag of rocks comes with it. He’s like “what’s this”. And I tell him “man that ain’t mine”. And he’s like “I just found it in your pocket”. And I’m like “man, those ain’t my pants”. And the gringo is like he don’t believe me. And he says “they’re not your pants?” And I’m telling him that I crashed at sumdood’s place last night and these were the pants I found by the couch when I woke and ….”
nk (dbc370) — 2/18/2015 @ 2:06 pmA perfectly logical story….
askeptic (efcf22) — 2/18/2015 @ 2:51 pmWhy is The Man so oppressive and unbelieving.
¡papeles, güey!
carlitos (c24ed5) — 2/18/2015 @ 3:15 pmDoes anybody even read that sorry rag anymore? Can there be enough literate leftists to keep it afloat? They should make it mostly pictures like the old Weekly Reader that I got in the first grade. Los Angeles used to be a nice place to live. No more.
Funeral Guy (2b0c22) — 2/18/2015 @ 8:04 pmLos Angeles used to be a nice place to live. No more.
Yet there are some odd contradictions about the city, referring to spots not too far away from where the owner of this very blog, Patterico, works—in the civic center of LA. Such sections of the town were actually more bedraggled and beaten down over 20 years ago than today, but certainly not for the reason that the politics or government of today is so much better compared with the past. The actual reason lies with socio-economic forces — good or bad — transcending the purely ideological and governmental. That’s why, even though I often hone in on the political, I also remain fully aware of non-political factors that can make or break people and societies.
In that vein, I’m reminded of the glib comments of an observer of the city of Chicago, who described it as being one-third San Francisco (leftwing wacko—but positive in various ways), and two-thirds Detroit (leftwing wacko—and negative in just about all ways).
Mark (c160ec) — 2/18/2015 @ 8:44 pmand then we discovered that the problem was not that his immigrant customers couldn’t read English, they couldn’t read Spanish either.
I confess that my take on immigration (particularly of the “undocumented”) would be different if Mexico, as one example, were an exemplary, wonderful, prosperous, stable, sensible nation. IOW, I ain’t no America-First nativist or pro-US chauvinist.
Mark (c160ec) — 2/18/2015 @ 8:49 pmit’s just starting to seem really weird that the “los angeles times” is still a thing
once they don’t have food stamp to prop up i bet they throw in the towel
fascism is so ascendant in california they simply don’t need a second-rate propaganda slut outfit taking up semi-valuable downtown real estate
happyfeet (a037ad) — 2/19/2015 @ 5:35 amThe dark night of fascism is forever descending in the US but only ever lands in Europe.
carlitos (c24ed5) — 2/19/2015 @ 6:48 amyes it’s very worrisome
happyfeet (a037ad) — 2/19/2015 @ 7:04 am