The Globe and immigration coverage redux

Dozens of people contacted this office today, angry that the Globe didn't have a story about a Town Hall meeting held at the Statehouse on Thursday by those who want tougher laws for illegal immigrants. Since my column for this Sunday was already written and edited before this issue broke, I'm using this entry to address the matter.

The rally, which was coordinated by State Representative Marie Parente and talk radio personality Michael Graham, reportedly drew hundreds of people (I was not there but have heard crowd estimates of between 600 and more than 1,000). Something of this size and importance should have received some coverage, but there was no story or photo in today's Globe.
A few readers sent questions in the morning asking why there was no story. But the onslaught of complaints came in the afternoon, when Graham urged his listeners to call and write the paper.
Here are a couple of samples of (clean) comments that were sent:

Just curious why the largest newspaper in Boston did not cover the anti-immigration rally held at the State House yesterday, April 6. Why would the Globe cover the pro-immigration rally, which attracted half the people, and not the other side, which was comprised of AMERICAN citizens. Frankly, I am sick of the local and national media ignoring us and focusing so much attention on the immigrant side. We are the people who live here. They are the people who came here ILLEGALLY. Technically, they are criminals, but they have sympathy from all of our media outlets. These immigrants are being shown defaming America and defacing our flag, but yet if we oppose them we are called RACISTS. Well I believe the Boston Globe is BIASED. Please get with the picture and see that not everyone agrees with your editors and there are other sides that should be covered.
Sincerely,
Meghan Noe

Dear Mr Chacon,
Please convey to the Globe management and business office that there will be one less customer for their product due to the lack of ability for the newspaper of record to no longer be capable of recognizing a major local news story.
No excuses suffice to have ignored the event at Gardner Auditorium yesterday. I can assure you as I have my local representative, that while there may have been a thousand or more in attendance, there are thousands more legal citizens of this Commonwealth who are disgusted by the state and federal government's lack of willingness to put an end to illegal aliens breaking our existing immigration laws and sealing the borders in a meaningful way.
Refusing to cover a subject as important as a local public demonstration in our Statehouse that voiced serious and timely legal and political concerns only furthers evidence of the Globe's bias and lack of ability to objectively report news.
Sincerely,
Lynda Du Shane

I criticized the Globe last year for the way it covered the debate over state legislation that sought to offer in-state tuition rates to children of illegal immigrants. You can see that column here.
I found then that the paper didn't offer the voices of those who oppose such measures as prominently as those who support them.

In the current debate over the federal immigration reform, I have generally found an improvement in the Globe's coverage - especially when it comes to explaining the position of those who want stricter measures against amnesty for immigrants.

But the lack of coverage of Thursday's rally was a mistake.

Carolyn Ryan, the Globe's assistant managing editor/metro who oversees the paper's local news coverage, acknowleged on Friday that the Globe should have had something about the event.

"It's a legitimate point," Ryan wrote to me on Friday. "We should have covered the gathering. We're very interested in hearing from all sides of this issue, and if there are upcoming events we should know about, I hope the organizers will let me know directly."

The reporter who usually covers immigration for the Globe was unavailable that day to cover the story, but I'm trying to find out why the reporters in the paper's Statehouse bureau weren't able to help out on the story. I'll update this blog entry when I hear from them.

It's unfortunate that a lack of clear communication resulted in the lack of coverage of a newsworthy event. That lapse in coverage has led people to the mistaken belief that the Globe dismisses the concerns of those who want to make our immigration laws tougher.

As I have stated before, all views on this topic deserve to be heard and published in the newspaper.