One of the effects of having Colorado Media Matters up and running is that it has really made me realize just how bad the problem of right wing, uh, misinformation is in our state. (What can I say, I don't spend my days listening to KHOW or the other conservative talk stations.) And it seems that Peter Boyles of KHOW radio is really fact challenged when it comes to the question of immigration. Check this stuff out:
I'm not sure the problem with Boyles is so much that he actually influences opinion (after all, he had to misrepresent poll results showing that most Coloradans disagree with his right wing views on immigration), it is that he gets inside the heads of our Colorado Democratic leaders. The steady drumbeat of factually challenged and racially inflammatory anti-immigrant propaganda makes people react differently to events like the pro-immigrant rally this spring, creating a "Run Away!" response instead of embracing and welcoming the next wave of people who will crash the gate of the progressive movement.
This right wing propaganda, coupled with the relative absence of any other kind of information on the issue in the media, leads to the false assumption that when people say there is a problem with our immigration system, that what they mean is that they favor Boyles and Tancredo's solutions as opposed to solutions like a path to citizenship and easier rules for people trying to get into the country legally. That, in turn, leads to things like the special session and Democratic candidates claiming they are "100% against amnesty."
To me this is a crystal clear example of how the right wing propaganda machine succeeds in moving the debate to the right, even against the tide of public opinion.
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