Houghton Mifflin Harcourt promotes sanctuary cities to schoolchildren December 6 2016
If your child believes cities and counties should not enforce federal immigration laws, now you know where he or she got that idea.
Once again Channel One News pushes its agenda on a captive audience of schoolchildren.
85% of story is supportive of sanctuary city policies. School administrators have no idea of Channel One’s attempt to mold the minds of students.
From Channel One’s official December 6 transcript:
Okay, after the break, why some cities are gearing up for a battle over immigration. [“Battle”? How about gearing up for a renewed discussion about immigration? Channel One chose “battle” to sell the idea of an evil new president-elect coming to take away rights from peaceful illegal immigrants.]
Tom: Okay, Demetrius is here with our next story, and we are taking a look at how some cities are prepping for a fight when Donald Trump takes over as president. [“Prepping for a fight”? Channel One purposefully choses “violent” words to slant their story against anyone, especially the president-elect, who would dare disagree with the concept of sanctuary cities. Notice in the story that Channel One never mentions any of the innumerable cities of counties that aren’t “prepping for a fight.” Why not tell students about both the minority of cities and counties that support sanctuary city policies, and the vast majority of cities and counties that support enforcing federal immigration laws?]
Demetrius: Yeah, Tom. One of President-elect Trump’s talking points during the campaign was a tough stand on illegal immigration and promising to cut off money to cities that don’t help. But some cities across the U.S. don’t want to take up an issue that they say isn’t theirs to fight. Take a look. [“Tough stand”? What about: one of his talking points was to encourage enforcement of already existing immigration laws? Channel One is trying very hard to make students feel that the enforcement of existing immigration laws is an unfortunate thing to do.]
In St. Paul, Minnesota, the police department released this video letting the Latino community know officers are there to help. In Minneapolis, which has the largest U.S. population of people from the African country of Somalia, a similar video was released by the police department in Somali. These are just two of the immigrant communities across the country where tensions are high.
Alondra Cano: They’re really stressed; they’re afraid. There’s a lot of uncertainty about what’s going to happen to their families, to their children, to their future. [“They’re afraid”? Why didn’t the reporter ask, “Why are they afraid?” Is it because they are in the country illegally? If they are legal immigrants they wouldn’t be afraid, or would they. It would have been a good question. Also Channel One could have told students that there are some American’s afraid of crimes committed by illegal aliens in sanctuary cities.
Are there any legal Somali immigrants in Minnesota that feel they will be safer with illegal, criminal immigrants removed from their community? Sure there are, but Channel One won’t take the time to find them and interview them. After all, Channel One has a mission to accomplish with this story. Make students from elementary school to high school feel good about sanctuary cities and counties that do not cooperate with federal law enforcement.
Demetrius: Minneapolis has a longstanding city ordinance that says police officers will not ask people about their immigration status, whether or not they came into the U.S. legally or not. It says it keeps the city safe.
Mayor Betsy Hodges: If people don’t feel safe calling the police, they won’t call the police, and we’re a less safe city overall.
Demetrius: But President-elect Trump would tend to disagree. During the campaign Donald Trump promised to go after so-called “sanctuary cities” that he says give the undocumented immigrants a free pass. Trump often mentioned the killing of 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle by an illegal immigrant in San Francisco, a sanctuary city.
President-elect Donald Trump: We will cancel all federal funding to sanctuary cities. We will stop illegal immigration.
[It appears to students that only Donald Trump is opposed to sanctuary cities.]
Demetrius: Even before getting into the White House, his tough stance on illegal immigration and sanctuary cities has sparked protests all over the country. [Again “tough stance” is a phrase chosen to make students think badly of those who support local enforcement of federal immigrant laws.]
Luz Sanchez: We have now President-elect Donald Trump in office, and he has made several promises even up to this date that he plans on deporting 2 to 3 million undocumented immigrants.
Demetrius: There are more than 300 U.S. cities and counties that limit their cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Several mayors — all Democrats — plan to keep their cities as sanctuaries. Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel:
Mayor Rahm Emanuel: It always will be a sanctuary city.
Demetrius: New York’s Mayor Bill de Blasio:
Mayor Bill de Blasio: We are not going to sacrifice a half-million people who live amongst us. [“Not going to sacrifice a half-million people”? This is asinine. “Sacrifice” is another word of violence chosen to create an ugly image in the minds of impressionable children. Channel One didn’t need to use that quote. Why didn’t Channel One also quote one mayor that disagrees with the pro-sanctuary city mayors?
Demetrius: Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck recently made headlines when he said it is not his department’s job to help deport people — making them leave the U.S.
Chief Charlie Beck: It is not the primary job of local law enforcement to enforce civil or federal laws. I think it would break down the connections that we have with immigrant communities. [Are there any chief law enforcement officers who are opposed to the concept of ignoring federal immigration law? Of course there are, but no student would know that after watching this report.]
Demetrius: Sanctuary cities who refuse to cooperate could lose billions of dollars in federal funding. Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser could lose 20 percent of her budget.
Mayor Muriel Bowser: His immigration stance could really make his new hometown less safe. [Channel One chose to end their story with this frightful image of a lawless Washington, D.C. caused by the mean, heartless new Administration. This is Channel One’s obvious message to kids: Sanctuary cities make America safer. Those who dare oppose sanctuary cities make America unsafe.]
Demetrius: Demetrius Pipkin, Channel One News.
Tom: And we will just have to see how that plays out. Thanks, D.
See the video yourself: channel-one-news-america-safer-with-sactuary-cities-dec-6-2016
(The only reason you can see this video is because Obligation made a copy of it the day it ran. Channel One has erased it from their public website.)
Good grief this story is so sloppy and one-sided it is shocking, even by Channel One’s low standards. Did the “reporter” or “anchor” take time to define a “sanctuary city”? Like: A sanctuary city is one that has, either with a written policy or informally, made it known that it will not assist the federal government in dealing with illegal immigrants and their possible deportation.
Don’t students deserve a little more responsibility in a story than this? This story ran for 187 seconds. 159 seconds were pro-sanctuary city; 28 seconds were negative. 85% to 15%. Balanced? Nah. They weren’t even trying. Why weren’t they trying? Because few adults are watching Channel One News. Channel One makes its extraordinarily difficult for parents to watch a show online. They only provide parents with the latest program. Parents and guardians are not allowed to watch previous programs even if their child saw it two days before.
It was wrong for Channel One to deny students information about those who oppose sanctuary cities (other than Donald Trump). After mentioning the LAPD Chief’s pro-sanctuary city comment, why didn’t Channel One tell students that a “strong majority” of Californians oppose sanctuary city policies and that includes 65% of California’s Latino population. This survey was done not by a conservative group that Channel One News would normally dismiss, but by the University of California Berkeley in late 2015.
Sanctuary cities and cities and counties like them are all about not enforcing the law. “What law?” Channel One wannabe reporters and producers might ask. How about the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. This law called for local governments to cooperate with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. ICE is now under the Department of Homeland Security and the agency responsible for responding to illegal immigrants through detaining or deportation.
Parents of children who still watch Channel One will have no idea where their child got their ideas about illegal immigration being a good thing that needs to be protected.
Channel One News and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, their struggling parent company, have no business teaching students to pick and choose the laws society will obey.
Here’s one more reason why schools are dropping Houghton Mifflin’s controversial Channel One News program.
