Over the past few weeks, Mitt
Romney has changed his campaign platform regarding immigration. Throughout the early stages of the
primary elections, Romney, along with many of the other republican candidates,
took very harsh stances on illegal immigration. In fact, many in the republican party were concerned that,
by moving so far to the right on this issue, the Latino vote would be
completely lost in the general elections.
Thus, as Romney has begun to set his sights on November, he has lessened
his harsh views. When I was
conducting research on this topic, I found a wide variety of media
coverage. When I noticed several
articles published by Fox News, I found myself saying to myself, “Oh, I won’t
bother reading those.” Because Fox News often does not match up with my
viewpoints, I usually disregard their coverage. Then I realized: what a great
example of selective attention!
Thus, for this topic, I investigated this topic from both the far right
and far left.
Liberal
and conservative media outlets spin the issue of immigration very
differently. Juan Williams, of Fox
News, wrote, “Romney is beginning the Herculean task of repairing the damage that he has done with Latino voters on immigration.” Williams does not deny that Romney is unpopular among Latinos,
who are considered to be the fastest growing voting demographic. Instead, he places the importance on the economy
instead. He writes, “[Romney] will
say the big issue for Latinos is the economy not immigration. He will talk about
restoring economic opportunity -- the dream -- for people who come to the
United States.” By saying this, Williams overlooks Romney’s poll numbers with Latinos, where he is trailing Obama by
40 points according to a Pew Research Center Poll. For someone who reads Fox News, and agrees with their
viewpoints, however, Romney’s new Latino campaign platform is likely reassuring and
helps the reader recall what they want to remember about Romney.
In comparison, liberal media sources will not let Romney forget the harsh stands
that he vocalized only several weeks ago.
On The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC, O’Donnell discusses Obama’s “Latino Lock” on the Electoral College and how Romney is required to win several states where the Latino vote
will play a major role. MSNBC
frames this story so that Romney looks like a fool for overlooking such a huge
demographic during his primary campaign.
This leaves out a key point, though: some republican primary voters
likely would not have voted for Romney if his stands on immigration had not
been so harsh. Watching this, a
viewer of The Last Word is likely to be reassured that Romney would have to gain significant ground with Latino voters
in order to stand a chance against Obama in some states.
In both examples, the reader or viewer of the media will likely be comforted "knowing" that their candidate has the better spin on the issue. It
is unclear how this will play out come November. For now, however, it is certainly a good example of how
various media outlets can emphasize different aspects of the same issue.
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