Doug Feaver will make you "hate" the Washington Post all over again (N.C. Aizenman)

Doug Feaver runs the Washington Post blog "dot.comments", which appears to consist of attacks against their readers who leave comments rather than attempts to engage those readers' concerns. Yesterday he offered "The Latino Emigration" (link), a passive-aggressive attempt to smear those who, unlike the WaPo, oppose illegal activity:

No subject -- not presidential politics, not the war in Iraq -- generates more hate-filled comments from some of our readers than illegal immigration. Today, N.C. Aizenman reports that a "vibrant Latino subculture" in Prince William County, Va., is coming unglued because of "the construction downturn, the mortgage crisis and new local laws aimed at catching illegal immigrants." ...This subject is not going away and requires a significantly more civilized national discussion than this emotional issue is getting now.

I don't see any "hate" in the comments he quotes, but I didn't review all the comments left on the article. This is yet another example of the MSM being called on their propaganda and then blaming those who point it out.

And, the N.C. Aizenman story (link) is indeed propaganda similar to other "ghost town" stories, such as those from Russ Bynum/AP, Jill Capuzzo/NYT, and another one from the AP. Some highlights:

"If things keep going this way, I don't know how I'm going to survive," said [a restaurant owner whose clientele was apparently largely illegal aliens], massaging a sore arm her doctor blames on stress... As [a choir leader] watched them take their places beside her, she said afterward, she thought sadly of those not there: Brother William, the young Salvadoran carpet layer with a knack for guitar playing, who used to keep them all in tune [etc.]... The sun gleamed over Manassas out of a cloudless sky... But those neighbors are gone now, their homes vacant like so many others in the subdivision. And Silda, who is in the United States illegally, is too nervous to venture out for casual strolls... the Bangladesh-born owner [of a 99 cents store], perked up at the rare sight of a shopper... As [someone who fell on hard times and as a result fell out of Temporary Protected Status] lit his candle, it illuminated a large, framed photograph of him and his wife embracing the children. Mauricio stood for a moment, looking up at their grinning faces, before walking out of the room.

I have to wonder: do the WaPo's "reporters" ever break out laughing as they write these things? Does the WaPo hire people who used to write romance novels or the like? Does the WaPo have any shame?

UPDATE: Note to the WaPo: "Bart's People" (link) was comedy, not a model for you to follow.

Comments

Why dont they care about the American Citizens whose story are equally telling, yet are more important due to the fact that they are American and suffering from these illeglas and leagals coming here by the millions every year. It is totally changing the culture and language of the USA and they dont give a sh*t Unreal.....hang em all for treason I say.

The second you see the word 'vibrant' in an immigration story you know it's biased.

_The second you see the word 'vibrant' in an immigration story you know it's BIASED._ Make that BULLSHIT. Some \'vibrancy\' the WaPo won\'t be reporting on. [1]

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[1] www.fugitive.com/f-murder.html

You got that right, eh. I lived in Northern VA for over 35 years before I left in 2002. Even back then you could see the seeds of destruction in neighborhoods all over NoVA, but especially in PWC. A person I knew well described the situation there back THEN like this: A house in a nice single family house (SFH) neighborhood sells and after the moving vans roll away, there are 5 or 6 vehicles parked all over the place, often including the front yard. Several adults (often varying) and sometimes several kids seem to be living in the SFH now. A drive through nearby neighborhoods reveal more of same. In a month or 2 For Sale signs sprout like mushrooms as the smart home-owners get out early. It's downhill all the way from there. It was obvious even then that houses were being sold to people who couldn't afford them without combining several persons'incomes or renting out rooms and to investors who rented to as many people as was needed to make a good profit. The people who had owned homes there for years and who just wanted to live in them got hosed. The schools got more expensive (ESL will do that) while their quality went south, making it less likely that families with kids would move there. The tragedy is that this situation wasn't halted before whole neighborhoods were destroyed. It will take years for things to settle down.

I wonder if astute commenter "eh" is Canadian. That would be in character, eh?

_I wonder if astute commenter "eh" is Canadian._ Nope. [1] D Flinchum: Nice post. I used to live in the San Francisco Bay Area. The census in 2000 showed that one third of the adults there were born in another country. Many parts had completely lost the 'look and feel' of America. So even Indian and Chinese engineers have drawbacks.

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[1] www.imdb.com/title/tt0086373/

eh, one of the remarkable things about my old neighborhood in NoVA was the rise in crime in my apartment complex even as crime in general was declining in Alexandria from the late 80's-early 90's crack wars. I lived in Alexandria, VA on the west side, well away from the crack cocaine open air markets etc. I lived in a middle/working class apartment complex. It wasn't heaven but it was good. Most apartments were one person or a couple. Then sometime in the late 1990s, we started seeing dense occupation (Ethiopians & El Salvadorans) replacing relatively light occupation. I strongly suspect that some apartments that were rented to three or four people unofficially held six or more. The quality of life began to suffer. It was harder to find nearby parking and to do your laundry. Trash cans overflowed. For the first time, the parking lot contained mounds of fast-food litter. Crime appeared in our previously safe community. My 70-something down stairs neighbor was the victim of an attempted home invasion. Needless to say, as more of the low-density occupants left, no doubt at least partly in response to these problems, more high-density occupants moved in. The result was inevitable: By the time I moved out in 2002, it was hard to recognize the complex as the affordable, comfortable, safe middle-class community that it had been for more than 25 years. It was a dirty, dangerous third world slum. The owners, realizing that they had lost control of the property, are converting it to "luxury" apartments. About 250 units of affordable housing disappeared from the Alexandria market. So did I. I move to SW VA.