Victor Manuel Ramos misleads about Lou Dobbs, far-left illegal immigration supporters

Victor Manuel Ramos of the Orlando Sentinel offers a round-up of reaction from far-left groups to Lou Dobbs' announcement that he's leaving CNN. The quotes and link to the article are here; the following deals with Ramos' clear bias:

1. Ramos misleads: he refers to the persons and groups as "Hispanic, media fairness and immigration advocates". The referrents: Brent Wilkes of the League of United American Citizens, Janet Murguia of the National Council of La Raza, Media Matters for America, Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Frank Sharry's America's Voice. The only "media fairness" group among them is MMFA, and their interest isn't in "fairness" so much as the right kind of bias. Ramos does later refer to MMFA as "liberal", but it's no clear whether he meant the "media fairness" label to apply only to them. And, of course, all of those listed are a rogue's gallery of illegal immigration supporters.

2. Ramos says:

Dobbs referred to unauthorized immigrants as "criminal aliens." He had also criticized Hispanic advocacy groups and, recently, had given voice to the "birther" conspiracy questioning President Barack Obama's U.S. citizenship.

"Criminal alien" is a perfectly valid legal term; see for instance ice.gov/partners/dro/cap.htm. Not all aliens are criminal aliens, and Dobbs knows the difference. Ramos is simply getting his talking points confused; perhaps he's been reading too much Max Blumenthal.

Ramos also seems to think that "Hispanic advocacy groups" are above criticism, a truly un-American notion.

And, rather than re-selling the Beltway fantasy that Obama has definitively proven where he was born, Dobbs - after saying that he believed that Obama was born in the U.S. - called on him to release his certificate in order to quell all of the rumors. Obama has already published a supposed certification which only increased the rumors; why not quell the rumors by releasing everything in an unassailable way?

3. Ramos says that the SPLC "monitors hate groups in the United States". The non-misleading formulation is that the SPLC "monitors what they call hate groups in the United States". There's no widely accepted definition of what is and isn't a "hate group", and the SPLC's definition seems to include a rather wide range of their opponents.