Sunday, May 27th, 2012

Immigration: Denver Channel Still Getting Flack

By
Tuesday, February 27, 2007 at 3:28 pm

It started with a questionable broadcast and has evolved into a fight over rhetoric.

Coloradans For Immigrant Rights (CFIR), an advocacy group that was started by the American Friends Service Committee, is calling on community members to contact Denver’s Channel 7 News and encourage the station to stop using the term “illegal immigrant.”

Earlier in the month, the channel aired an “investigation” that was supposed to revolve around the undocumented and driver’s licenses. But as Colorado Media Matters found, the story had many factual problems:

A KMGH 7News “investigation” broadcast on the February 6 edition of 7News at 10 p.m. asserted without substantiation that “[i]llegal immigrants caught behind the wheel driving without a valid license … [or] insurance” are a widespread problem in Denver. In fact, the report presented only anecdotal evidence of four Hispanic men who pleaded guilty to driving without a valid driver’s license and without adequate auto insurance, and presented no factual evidence that any of those offenders actually were illegal immigrants.

The call for action comes after members of the immigrant community met with managers at the station to discuss the segment.

CFIR has recommended using the term “undocumented immigrant” or simply “immigrant” when producing news stories.

Categories & Tags: Immigration| | |

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