Arizona/Alabama Airheads


In 2010, Arizona passed a law that would allow officers to ask for documentation or look into citizenship as long as there was a reason for suspicion. The law, better known as SB 1070 was supposed to go into effect that summer. Due to complaints that the law made people subject to racial profiling, it was overturned and started a trial with the U.S. Supreme Court.

This video shows similar situations that would have been in effect would the bill have passed.



In Alabama the same year, a bill similar to SB 1070 was passed. The state ran into a problem though when tomato crops started to rot due to all the deported immigrants no longer working in the fields. Many people believe that illegal immigrants 'steal' jobs, but from the issues in Alabama it proves that while illegal immigration is a problem,  they stimulate the economy and in the video below, Colbert argues that they take the jobs nobody wants to take.


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Everything in this video is very true. Colbert who spent a day as a field worker last year and deemed it 'very hard', starts the video by saying 'I told you so!' While he uses large amounts of humor to relate the news, all of his claims are facts. Simply put, Alabama had rotting tomatoes because nobody else would take the jobs and so they then had to pull in inmates to work the fields. That's the cold hard truth.

On The O'Reilly Factor: Talking Points, Bill O'Reilly explains why the immigration bill, SB 1070 should be passed. O'Reilly boldly states that the "media is flat out dishonest in reporting" on the bill and that the backlash Arizona is receiving is results of anger from the "Left Wing." Using very strong clips from other sources disagreeing with the law, O'Reilly believes it's time to set the record straight for everyone. He then declares that the boarders out of control, that crime is at an all time high, and that immigrants are plaguing the streets of Arizona.

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At the beginning of the video O'Reilly states that he "is here to bring people the truth." Ironic how that works out, right Bill? While he gets the facts right about the bill, the crime rates in Arizona are at an all time low, as well as the number of immigrants in the state. Furthermore, it's obvious from the beginning that O'Reilly isn't reporting independently and that he has a very strong opinion of the bill allowing him to report with bias. Not to mention the small snippet at the end where Bill does a little bit of his own racial profiling and reports that the police don't want to spend time tracking down "house painters."

Despite O'Reilly's and many others arguments in support of the bill, in the summer of 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Arizona's law saying it was unconstitutional. Jon Stewart, aired a clip once again showing us just how much framing goes on.


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As mentioned above, Stewart compares networks and their take on the Supreme Court's ruling and how they reported on the developments according to what would appeal most to their audience. In large, Stewart shows us just how much news companies can report on only what we want to know by using agenda-setting, gatekeeping, and framing. While Stewart doesn't state many facts in this video, he did add that the ruling still allowed officials to ask for documentation if the suspect was already stopped.

In this video on FOX, they asked whether the provisions to the bill subjected cops to legal issues and if so how would they navigate such issues? Kris Kobach, the co-author of the new immigration law clears up confusion and explains the changes that were made.

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We checked the facts in a couple of different places and found that FOX news was reporting some solid facts. Not only did they have a very credential source, Kris Kobach, but they also interviewed racial minorities to better confirm their logic.
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