Immigrant Story Takes Precedence on TV, Radio

Whatever side of the border or fence viewers may have sat upon, Monday’s immigration rights rallies provided vibrant material for national and local media, which in some cases interrupted regular programming to provide a day of expansive coverage.

The protests were the lead story on Fox News and CNN all day, with both cable news networks devoting substantial airtime to the rallies and debates about the immigration issue. Split screens showed live images of flag-waving protests in Los Angeles and other cities as commentators across the political spectrum argued about the impact of illegal immigration on the country’s economy and questioned whether the actions would spark a backlash.

Local stations for the most part stayed with their regular scheduled programming, covering the massive protests during their newscasts. But KTTV Channel 11 stayed with live coverage past noon, with anchor Steve Edwards offering analysis and interviews with activists and experts on both sides of the issue.

Perhaps the most comprehensive English-language coverage was from KABCN, the satellite network of KABC-TV Channel 7. The station usually airs repeats of news-oriented network shows. But on Monday it swarmed the local protests at various sites along the routes.

Not surprisingly, some Spanish-language stations provided special programming on the rallies. Cristina Saralegui dedicated her Emmy-winning Univision show, “The Cristina Show,” to the national immigration debate with a program called “Latino-Phobia.”

Saralegui, known to her audiences simply as “Cristina,” opened the program with this message: “Today, May 1, day of the laborer, in almost all of the world, the sleeping giant -- the 43.5 million Hispanics who reside in this country -- woke up.”

The show, which included taped interviews with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, also featured a fierce debate with popular L.A. radio personality Eddie “El Piolin” Sotelo of Radio la Nueva and Luis Nieto, a Catholic priest, squaring off against Julio Giron of the Minutemen civil border patrol group and Jack Martin from the American Federation of Immigration Reform.

The argument got so loud that it left Saralegui pleading with her guests: “If this sounds like a henhouse, nobody will be able to hear each other!”

At least one broadcaster was unhappy with Monday’s mainstream media coverage. CNN’s Lou Dobbs, who has made his opposition to illegal immigration a mainstay of his daily program, charged the media with adopting the position of the proamnesty side by repeatedly referring to the protesters as “immigrants” instead of “illegal immigrants.”

“The headlines in this morning’s major newspapers and on national television, simply put, reflected the language of the pro-illegal alien amnesty advocates,” Dobbs said. “In other words, some of the nation’s most important mainstream media and news organizations completely mislabel today’s demonstrations and boycotts supporting amnesty for illegal immigration, apparently not embarrassed by the question, why would immigrants require amnesty? We are, after all, a nation of immigrants, not illegal immigrants. And we are also a nation of laws.”

On local English-language radio, the marches drew extensive spot reporting from AM news stations across the dial.

And the events also supplied fresh fodder for radio talk-show hosts, most of whom are outspoken in their call for tighter immigration policies.

Larry Elder, for example, who has an afternoon show on KABC-AM (790), said about the protesters: “You’re here illegally and you’re demanding what?”

Other radio shows, such as “The John and Ken Show” on KFI-AM (640), mocked the rallies. John and Ken urged their largely conservative audience to participate in “The Great American Spend-a-Lot.”

The highly rated afternoon drive-time hosts randomly selected listener receipts submitted by fax or e-mail to show they had purchased items Monday to counter the economic boycott called for by some immigrant rights groups. Some listeners were reimbursed up to $640.

Times staff writers Greg Braxton, Matea Gold, Scott Martelle and Lorenza Munoz contributed to this report.