Warner Todd Huston
Jose Antonio Vargas: Being an illegal alien made me... a better reporter?
By Warner Todd Huston
Jose Antonio Vargas is the perfect example of media bias. He presents himself as both an activist for illegal immigrants and a "journalist." He's uniquely suited to this claim in today's PC world, too, because he is himself an "undocumented American," as he styles it. And in a new interview he also claims that being an illegal alien made him a better journalist.
Vargas has been blurring the line between journalist and activist since it became public knowledge that he has been in the United States illegally since he was a child. After his coming out, Vargas launched himself into being an advocate for illegals. Only in the Old Media establishment can someone be an advocate for a political viewpoint yet still be consider a just-the-facts journalist. Vargas isn't the only one, of course. Remember such "journalists" as Sanjay Gupta, Chris Matthews, Jay Carney, or Linda Douglas. Well, if you are a left-wing activist it works, anyway.
In the new interview with The Ithican's TinaMarie Craven, Vargas posits that his status as, in his words, an "undocumented American" (nice conceit, that) made him a more careful reporter. He had to exhibit the utmost veracity, he said, because if not people might start looking closer at him and his background.
But what might impinge on that veracity is that since coming out as an illegal immigrant, Vargas has become a vocal and ardent activist in favor of illegal immigrant's issues. So, how can one be an advocate for something yet still claim to be an impartial journalist? Well, one can't, really, but since he's in the proper, politically correct area with his activism the rest of the Old Media gives him a pass.
Aside from his current colleagues, Vargas has a lot of people to thank for his being able to fool employers and readers for several decades. Even as a High Schooler, Vargas was facilitated in his la breaking by highly placed members of California's education establishment — two in particular.
In High School Vargas relied on Rich Fischer and Pat Hyland, two high-ranking California public school officials, to help him with his criminal activity.
As a teen Vargas was helped to get an illegal Oregon Driver's license by these California teachers and this fake ID is what he used for years to get away with his lawbreaking.
Pat Hyland was the principal in the high school Vargas attended (Vargas wrote of her back in 2005). Like a good, militant leftist, Hyland has proclaimed her intentions to help even more lawbreakers if she can.
For his part Rich Fischer has had a storied career in California's public schools sector. He has been a celebrated schools administrator, a recipient of the Superintendent of the Year award, and was a nine-year Superintendent of the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District. He has also won the Los Altoan of the Year award. Additionally Fischer managed two statewide professional development programs, one of them being the Executive Leadership Center (ELC). And all the while he's been helping illegal immigrants get one over on the law.
To recap Vargas' trajectory, for years he's been lying to millions of readers not to mention countless employers, broken laws, elicited the help of others to help him break those laws, then after "coming out" he's become an activist and endeavored to shove his law breaking in all our faces as if it is all our fault... yet he still wants us to take him for a true journalist? Well, as the left measures things, I guess he is just that: the perfect leftist journalist.
© Warner Todd Huston
December 9, 2011
Jose Antonio Vargas is the perfect example of media bias. He presents himself as both an activist for illegal immigrants and a "journalist." He's uniquely suited to this claim in today's PC world, too, because he is himself an "undocumented American," as he styles it. And in a new interview he also claims that being an illegal alien made him a better journalist.
Vargas has been blurring the line between journalist and activist since it became public knowledge that he has been in the United States illegally since he was a child. After his coming out, Vargas launched himself into being an advocate for illegals. Only in the Old Media establishment can someone be an advocate for a political viewpoint yet still be consider a just-the-facts journalist. Vargas isn't the only one, of course. Remember such "journalists" as Sanjay Gupta, Chris Matthews, Jay Carney, or Linda Douglas. Well, if you are a left-wing activist it works, anyway.
In the new interview with The Ithican's TinaMarie Craven, Vargas posits that his status as, in his words, an "undocumented American" (nice conceit, that) made him a more careful reporter. He had to exhibit the utmost veracity, he said, because if not people might start looking closer at him and his background.
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My job was to do the best job I possibly could. I was too paranoid to make a mistake, God forbid being charged with plagiarism or having a lot of corrections or people saying I needed to check a quote. I am a very diligent reporter. I've had maybe one dozen corrections in like almost a 12-year reporting career. That's pretty good. And there are days where I think, yeah, I had to lie about my immigration status to get the jobs, but I don't think my journalism — the work I produce — I don't think people would question the quality of the work or the veracity of the work.
But what might impinge on that veracity is that since coming out as an illegal immigrant, Vargas has become a vocal and ardent activist in favor of illegal immigrant's issues. So, how can one be an advocate for something yet still claim to be an impartial journalist? Well, one can't, really, but since he's in the proper, politically correct area with his activism the rest of the Old Media gives him a pass.
Aside from his current colleagues, Vargas has a lot of people to thank for his being able to fool employers and readers for several decades. Even as a High Schooler, Vargas was facilitated in his la breaking by highly placed members of California's education establishment — two in particular.
In High School Vargas relied on Rich Fischer and Pat Hyland, two high-ranking California public school officials, to help him with his criminal activity.
As a teen Vargas was helped to get an illegal Oregon Driver's license by these California teachers and this fake ID is what he used for years to get away with his lawbreaking.
Pat Hyland was the principal in the high school Vargas attended (Vargas wrote of her back in 2005). Like a good, militant leftist, Hyland has proclaimed her intentions to help even more lawbreakers if she can.
For his part Rich Fischer has had a storied career in California's public schools sector. He has been a celebrated schools administrator, a recipient of the Superintendent of the Year award, and was a nine-year Superintendent of the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District. He has also won the Los Altoan of the Year award. Additionally Fischer managed two statewide professional development programs, one of them being the Executive Leadership Center (ELC). And all the while he's been helping illegal immigrants get one over on the law.
To recap Vargas' trajectory, for years he's been lying to millions of readers not to mention countless employers, broken laws, elicited the help of others to help him break those laws, then after "coming out" he's become an activist and endeavored to shove his law breaking in all our faces as if it is all our fault... yet he still wants us to take him for a true journalist? Well, as the left measures things, I guess he is just that: the perfect leftist journalist.
© Warner Todd Huston
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