Why Melissa Block of NPR isn't credible

At NPR, Melissa Block offers the highly deceptive "'They're Scared': Immigration Fears Exacerbate Migrant Farmworker Shortage" [1]. It was heard on All Things Considered, but one of the things not considered was such very pro-grower propaganda has been pushed for decades and it's always bogus. Pro-grower propaganda like Block's goes back to the 1950s, with crooked growers who want a foreign serf labor force finding supposed reporters who barely rewrite their press releases.

See the Crops Rotting In The Fields page for dozens of examples of similar cookie-cutter propaganda. Like many of the rest, Block's propaganda starts with a noble intro:

On a recent, perfect morning at Johnson Farms in northern Michigan, workers climb wooden ladders high up into the trees, picking bags strapped across their bodies. The branches are heavy with fruit that glows in the morning sun. Their fingers are a blur, nimbly plucking fruit and filling bushel bags: about 50 pounds per load. It's hard, sweaty work.

It includes outright lying:

It's estimated anywhere from half to three-quarters of farmworkers are in this country illegally, and some growers say that President Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric has made a chronic worker shortage even worse.

Donald Trump hasn't said anything against "immigrants", and he's an amnesty supporter.

Like many of the others, it includes a swipe at Americans:

Johnson Farms' owner, Dean Johnson, 67, says it's just about impossible to find Americans to do this work. "We've tried. We really have," he says. "Sometimes people come out on a day like today and they'll pick one box, and then they're gone. They just don't want to do it."

Compare, for just a couple of examples, the comments from growers here. Do you spot any real difference?

Like the others it include scaremongering and a completely unverified assertion:

Without migrant workers to pick the crops, Reamer says, "There wouldn't be food. It's just as simple as that." She mentions Michigan's asparagus crop of 2016, which had to be mowed under because there weren't enough workers to pick it.

If Melissa Block were a real reporter, she would have verified that claim; there was probably another reason (such as low prices, low yield, disease, etc.)

While NPR is often considered "liberal", they're actually very pro-corporate. As articles like this show, they deceive people with propaganda designed to help crooked growers employ foreign serf labor. The last thing NPR would do is push policies that would help American workers do farm labor for higher wages under safe conditions as real liberals would.

Write @NPRmelissablock with your thoughts. And, in the small chance anyone still thinks Melissa Block is credible, see the Crops Rotting In The Fields page, Western Growers, Department of Agriculture, and immigration agriculture pages. And, for good measure, see the Postville page. She reported on abuse there [2], now she enables the same in the fields.

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[1] npr · org/sections/thesalt/2017/09/27/552636014/theyre-scared-immigration-fears-exacerbate-migrant-farmworker-shortage

[2] npr · org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94203311