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.