In addition to PIIPPs, a new way the mainstream media attempts to sell massive immigration - usually of the illegal variety - is through what we'll call "Crooked Town Story". These articles - some quite long - detail how a small town has changed after an influx of "immigrants", most of whom are illegal aliens. In most cases this involves what more honest reporters would recognize to be forced demographic change and this almost always involves one or more "bosses" of some kind: major employers that are profiting from illegal activity.

And, in most cases it's quite clear that the town is swimming in corruption, yet the stories at the most dance around that issue. And, they usually fail to point out other ways the towns could have been "saved", such as the major employers raising wages to attract legal workers. And, of course, they completely fail to "follow the money".

The first example is "Immigration wars squeeze Iowa town" by Sharon Cohen of the Associated Press about Marshalltown, Iowa, home of a Swift & Co. pork processing plant.

It's certainly not as bad as it could be, but after some statements from local leaders expressing opposition to illegal immigration, she offers the sales pitch:

And the town can't thrive without immigrants. The dramatic growth in the Hispanic population - from a few hundred in 1990 to perhaps as much as 20% of the 26,000 residents - has pumped new blood into this aging rural community.

Then, she quotes Mark Grey, "a University of Northern Iowa professor and immigration expert" and someone who sounds like a real piece of work:

"The leaders know darn well this town would really be suffering if not for the influx of refugees... They can wax nostalgic for the good old days, but the good old days are gone." ...Several times, town leaders have signed on to join Grey, the professor, to travel to Villachuato, a dusty, poor farming village in Mexico that is the source of many of Marshalltown's immigrants... "I wanted them to understand the economic conditions that drive people out of Mexico," says Grey, director of the Iowa Center for Immigration Leadership and Integration [newiowans.com]... ...Houses with dirt floors (and without electricity), unpaved roads and people desperate for work all provided compelling evidence. But the trip also revealed something else to Walker, the police chief, as he questioned villagers: "I said, 'How many of you have been to Marshalltown?' All the hands went up," he says. "'How many of you did it legally?' All the hands went down."

I believe newiowans.com is partly funded by federal money, and their director knows that his efforts involve those who are engaging in illegal activity. Perhaps one of our representatives would like to investigate exactly how they're spending the money. And, believe it or not, there are parts of Los Angeles with unpaved roads and people desperate for work, and there are far poorer situations in other parts of the Third World than anywhere in Mexico.

Needless to say, Cohen just lets him talk and doesn't ask him about any of those issues.

Related:
Swift & Co CEO: raid was just for show
Swift hearing: Chertoff, Allard, Hatch, Klobuchar, Coleman, Harkin, Grassley
Swift slabs of pro-illegal immigration propaganda
Roxana Hegeman/AP: the $5 Swift sausage scare
"Meatpacking raids: A victim's story" (Swift, identity theft)
voceunidas.org is now the Swift Raid Collaborative (Mexico-linked Peter Schey)
Tom Vilsack misled about Swift raid, DHS cooperation?
Wall Street Journal not very Swift in support for illegal immigration
Swift packing immigration raid conducted; send Bush a cookie!