crooked town story

The "Crooked town story"

The "Crooked Town Story" is a type of media report that highlights the positive impacts of an influx of immigrants and/or illegal aliens into a specific city or region, while ignoring the downsides.

In these types of stories, a town that's supposedly in bad shape decides to look the other way on our immigration laws and as a result the town has an influx of illegal aliens and becomes a bustling hub of commerce. In some cases, the story is about refugees instead of illegal aliens, but in all cases the concerns of many residents are ignored or worse. The downsides of the influx are ignored or hand-waved away.

See the posts below for several examples, and see the PIIPP and crops rotting in the fields pages for other examples of cookie-cutter propaganda.

Last modified Jul 12, 2015
Discussed in (click each link for the full post):

Julia Preston promotes Dayton looking the other way on illegal immigration (Ohio, headscarves) - 10/07/13

In the New York Times, immigration reporter Julia Preston offers a cookie-cutter article that follows the Crooked Town Story model. In those types of stories, a town that's supposedly in bad shape decides to look the other way on our immigration laws and - presto chango! - the town becomes a bustling hub of commerce.

Jay Reeves of AP helps chicken processors with their illegal labor needs (Alabama, twister, immigration) - 05/28/13

If Jay Reeves of the Associated Press isn't getting paid off by chicken processors like Tyson Foods and Pilgrims Pride, he should be. Reeves offers "Twister Heals Ala. Town Fractured Over Immigration" [1]. The article seems to have two purposes:

Gabriel Thompson (unwittingly?) supports labor exploitation, low wages (Russellville, Alabama, immigration, Alternet) - 08/27/11

Gabriel Thompson - author of "Working in the Shadows: A Year of Doing the Jobs (Most) Americans Won't Do" [1] - offers an article [2] at Alternet opposing Alabama's new immigration law in which he shows that either he's clueless, or he thinks his readers are.

Crooked Towns: Brent Wistrom/Wichita Eagle on Liberal, Kansas - 09/02/07

Next in our series of "Crooked Towns Stories" is "Hispanic influx gives Liberal, Kan., a new face" by Brent Wistrom of the Wichita Eagle:

Crooked Towns: Sharon Cohen/AP on illegal immigration in Marshalltown, Iowa - 09/02/07

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...

Russ Bynum/AP promotes illegal immigration (Stillmore, Georgia) - 09/15/06

Russ Bynum of the Associated Press offers "Immigration raid cripples Ga. town" (link).

Jill Capuzzo/NYT: corruption, illegal activity are good for Riverside, New Jersey - 07/27/06

Jill Capuzzo of the New York Times offers a ludicrously transparent article in support of illegal immigration: "Town Battling Illegal Immigration Is Emptier Now". Don't you feel sad and all just by reading the headline? It continues. The lesson the NYT wants you to learn is that the best way for Riverside NJ to prosper is just to give a wink and a nod to illegal immigration. If they don't, cue the tumbleweeds.

Molly Hennessy-Fiske/LAT promotes corruption in Arkansas; Huckabee - 07/23/06

Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Los Angeles Times offers a fine slice of pro-illegal immigration propaganda called "Arkansas Immigration Raid Reaches Beyond Workers" (link). It "reports" on the aftermath of the raid at the Petit Jean Poultry plant in Arkadelphia, Arkansas a year ago. We're informed that "[i]nstead of feeling reassured that immigration laws were being enforced, many felt that their community had been disrupted":

AP: "Immigration Crackdown Could Create Ghost Town" - 05/16/06

The AP offers a video report here that Yahoo or they subtitle with the following: Visit Columbus, New Mexico, where some community leaders fear that blocking immigrant smuggling could put the town out of business. While I didn't watch the video I have a pretty good idea of what it will and won't cover. They might give an ironic tip o' the hat to Columbus being the town where Pancho Villa conducted his infamous raid. But, they probably will treat transnational corruption as a wonderful good.