LatinaLista — The “About us” page at the decidedly right-leaning site “Shark Tank” explicitly describes their mission as: …”source for sharp analysis and biting commentary on anyone and anything that comprises Florida Politics – federal, state, and local.”
Since they take themselves so seriously and claim that their site is not just another news aggregator but a site that will keep “everyone honest on both sides of the aisle,” it was disappointing to see that they lowered their standards when it came to discussing Jeb Bush and last week’s Hispanic Leadership Conference which took place in their backyard of Coral Gables, Florida.
The site titled a post about Bush and the conference as Was There Too Much Pandering on Display at the Hispanic Leadership Conference?
Well, seeing that it was a Hispanic event, with the majority of speakers being Latino and Latina and attendees sharing the same, I can’t see that this was anymore pandering to Hispanics than a Tea Party event with Tea Partiers in attendance would be pandering to Tea Partiers.
At such focused events, there is a tendency to tell those in attendance what they want or expect to hear. However, to each is own interpretation. That part of the post didn’t bother me.
What bothered me is the following statement written by the author:
Hispanic leaders across the country need to be courageous enough to admit the fact that illegal immigration and criminal activity are inextricably tied together, as nobody and nothing can cross the southern border without the approval of Mexican Drug Cartels or the corrupt Mexican government. The crime rate along the southern border continues to escalate, and human and drug trafficking continues unabated. Leadership starts at the top, and it is in no way racist or bigoted to acknowledge that we have a border security problem that allows violent crime and criminal activity to spill over the Mexican border.
The journalistic credibility that this site obviously strives for just sank faster than the Titanic . Up until this fallacy being masqueraded as fact, the author made a very valid point — that those of us fighting for immigration reform don’t differentiate enough between legal and illegal immigration.
Yet, the notion that crime goes hand in hand with illegal immigration or that the crime rate along the border continues to escalate is a lie, plain and simple.
If it wasn’t a lie, then El Paso wouldn’t continuously be ranked the safest city in the United States or statistics wouldn’t show that in cities where there are high undocumented immigrant communities crime rates are low.
It’s these kinds of inflammatory and false statements that zap the credibility of the GOP in the eyes of the Latino community. Not to mention, these kinds of statements also illustrate the insincerity behind any GOP rhetoric that professes to welcome Latinos in their party.
And while this site claims to want to keep “both sides of the aisle honest,” it needs to start much closer to home.
