Erick Stoll and Chase Whiteside run "New Left Media" and their claim to limited fame is going to tea parties events and trying to get those attending to make themselves look bad, even if they have to use deception to do it (link). A recent effort is 'Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" Rally - Interviews With Participants' ( peekURL.com/vcgsgls ) in which they smear their opponents.

Obviously, I'm not a tea parties fan. However, one great part of not being a partisan hack is that I can also not be a fan of New Left Media ("NLM") and their attempt to play on prejudices.

The NLM video does in fact play to the prejudices of the establishment and the Democratic base: that against large, heartland, media unsavvy white people. NLM does that just as assuredly as videos of the opposite variety might play to prejudices among other groups.

Further, because those interviewed are discussing social topics rather than what Dick Armey et al would prefer them to discuss - fiscal topics that would benefit the funders of groups like FreedomWorks - there are grains of truth in what they say. Stoll and Whiteside are relying on the prejudices of their audience to mask the fact that they aren't acknowledging that there are grains of truth in the statements made and that Stoll and Whiteside have little or no counter-argument to provide. Of course, that doesn't let the tea parties off the hook: what they should do but can't for various reasons is find smart, media savvy people to intellectually challenge Stoll and Whiteside and show them wanting, then upload that to Youtube.

For instance, one segment has confused remarks about how Beck or others were forbidden from praying at the Kennedy Center and other locations. That was based on a Beck claim (link); Stoll and Whiteside didn't indicate that - at least according to Beck's claims - there was a grain of truth in the statements by the tea partier.

A segment about immigration starts around 10:00 in the video, and - rather than indicating the grains of truth in the comments made - Stoll and Whiteside simply play to prejudices. Around 10:23, a lady refers to how immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island were subjected to a health screening. She's not only right, but steamship companies did their own pre-screenings because they were responsible for the return voyages of those refused entry. She also states that we have no idea what diseases those entering the country [presumably illegally] might have, another fact that even the New York Times has acknowledged.

Another tea partier states that current immigrants are "just coming here for a free ride", obviously a false statement about most or many. However, it is true about some, and the correct thing to state is that immigrants do in fact take advantage of social welfare programs and that without them fewer would consider the U.S. a viable destination.

Another refers to remittances, where [presumably illegal alien] caddies would work in the U.S. during the summertime and then return to Central America during the winter "and live like kings". Even the Los Angeles Times wrote an article about that effect ("The Busboys of San Miguel" by Diana Marcum, December 14, 1997, link; and, yes, long memory).

Then, tea partiers enter the birthright citizenship debate (such as it is) and discuss how some illegal aliens come here intentionally to have U.S. citizen children. Stoll (or Whiteside, it isn't clear who the interviewer is) then states, "it takes still 21 years for you to file, if you have a kid here it takes 21 years, your kid has to be 21 years old before they can file for your parent to achieve residency." That takes the tea partier aback, which illustrates again how they should find smart people to intellectually engage those like Stoll and Whiteside. For instance, that representative could direct the NewLeftMedia folks to this 2002 Los Angeles Times article about Korean "birth tourism", including this:

Their reasons [for having U.S. citizen children] range from a desire to enroll their offspring in American schools to enabling them to avoid South Korean military service.

It isn't just about waiting the 21 years, although some people have been known to engage in long-range planning. That representative might also point out the series of welfare benefits to which the U.S. citizen child is entitled, as well as the fact that it's more difficult to deport parents who have U.S. citizen children due to advocates such as Barack Obama and the mainstream media.

I've tweeted a challenge to Stoll and Whiteside to debate me on this issue (twitter . com/24AheadDotCom/status/22674947804), and I'll update this post in the unlikely event that they agree.

UPDATE: The interviewer is Whiteside.

8/26/14 UPDATE: My current handle is @24AheadDotCom_ . The link above isn't valid anymore.