Talk shows influence immigration debate

[Mel_and_Daniel 1]

WASHINGTON - Immigration has supplanted Iraq as the leading issue on television and radio talk shows, complicating the prospects of a Senate bill desperately wanted by President Bush.

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Conservative talk radio's impact on the immigration debate reached new heights last week, with one host effectively writing an amendment for when the Senate returns to the imperiled bill this week.

National talk show hosts have spent months denouncing the bill as providing amnesty for illegal immigrants. Some top Republicans who support the legislation have defied the broadcast pundits. Others GOP lawmakers have tried to placate them, even to the point of accepting their ideas for amendments.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., the key conservative negotiator behind the compromise bill, told reporters Friday that California-based radio host Hugh Hewitt "had several ideas" that "we are trying to include" in amendments to be offered in an upcoming series of crucial votes.

Hewitt, a conservative who has criticized many aspects of the bill, had Kyl as a guest on Thursday and asked: "Does the bill provide for any separate treatment of aliens, illegal aliens from countries of special concern?"

Kyl replied: "It's going to, as a result of your lobbying efforts to me."

People seeking entry the U.S. from countries that the U.S. has designated as state sponsors of terrorism will get a higher level of scrutiny, Kyl said Friday.

Other Bush allies have tried more confrontational approaches to the talk hosts, sometimes with bruising results.

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., told reporters last week, "Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem." Some hosts, he added, do not know what is in the lengthy bill.

The comments incensed conservative talk show hosts who generally had supported Lott over the years.

Lott is "upset that the American people got right into the middle of the conversation over the problem with illegal aliens and it didn't turn out all that well for the pro-amnesty forces," Atlanta-based talk show host Neal Boortz wrote on his Web site.

"If Trent Lott and his other buddies up on the Hill aren't listening to 'talk,' then what are they listening to? The answer is either their wallet or their legacy."

Radio host Rush Limbaugh asked his audience: "What are we going to do about Mississippi Senator Trent Lott?"

Lott's treatment contrasted sharply with that given to Kyl. In a column posted on his Web site, Hewitt called Kyl "perhaps the single most effective and principled conservative in the United States Senate."

The immigration bill would tighten borders and workplace enforcement, create a guest worker program and provide ways to legal status for many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S.

The legislation faces showdown votes this coming week that lawmakers on all sides agree will be close.

If the measure fails, talk radio and TV — where CNN's Lou Dobbs has been especially critical — will deserve substantial credit, academics and politicians say.

"Talk radio and talk TV are most effective when there's an immediate action pending," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the University of Pennsylvania, who is an authority on media and politics. "It's a classic instance of mobilization with all the pieces in place and it's sure to have an effect."

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., a leading opponent of the bill, said in an interview that "talk radio has had a significant impact on this issue."

A frequent guest of Dobbs, Hewitt and other conservative hosts discussing immigration, Sessions said, "I think people have learned more from talk radio than from reading the newspapers."

As for Lott, Sessions said: "I can't imagine what Trent was thinking. Maybe his mouth was moving and his brain was in neutral."

Michael Harrison, editor of the talk show industry magazine Talkers, said immigration has replaced the Iraq war as the most discussed topic and has led many conservative hosts to show more loyalty to the anti-amnesty issue than to the Republican Party.

"I think talk radio should be credited with possibly saving the American people from George Bush's immigration bill," Harrison said, adding that he and his magazine are nonpartisan.

Some Republicans who recently announced their opposition to the bill said constituent concerns were their main reason. But they acknowledged the intensity of talk radio hostility in their states.

"Neal Boortz, he popped us pretty good," said Lindsay Mabry, a spokeswoman for Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., who shifted from qualified support to opposition to the bill in recent days. She said Chambliss consulted with Boortz on immigration even though the senator was not an on-air guest during the debate.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070624/ap_on_...BHcxvCchgLMWM0F

[Portlander 0]

Talk radio is 91% conservative.

Michael Harrison, editor of the talk show industry magazine Talkers, said immigration has replaced the Iraq war as the most discussed topic and has led many conservative hosts to show more loyalty to the anti-amnesty issue than to the Republican Party.

D@MN STRAIGHT. Unlike FOX News, many conservative talk show hosts are not merely shills for the Republican Party.

The Republican Party has turned into the State's Righters worst nightmare. BushCo, with the help of the Rs (and many Ds!) has federalized everything possible, and claimed HUGE amounts of power for the Executive branch as possible. States rights are falling to Federal Guidelines left and right. BushCo is exerting federal control over the states on everything from Education to Die with Dignity. This is hardly conservative. Most real conservatives I know have supported Bush because they assumed the 'R' next to his name meant conservative. They were wrong.

Fiscal responsibility? The Republicans had to pass a law allowing them to BORROW MORE. We are now more than 9,000,000,000,000 dollars in debt. Thats after Clinton and the Republican congress balanced the budget. Thats 30K USD for each and every man, woman and child in the US.

Supporting the military? BushCo have been privatizing the military, giving an estimated 40% of the money we spend on Iraq on mercenaries such as Blackwatch and Executive Action. BushCo have stripped the right to vote from many active duty soldiers in Iraq ... because they aren't in their precincts. Thousands of soldiers are told they have pre-existing mental conditions and have been kicked off of their pensions. Then of course there is Bush's man for Walter Reed Hospital

They support becoming the World's Policemen, but they don't support the troops themselves. How odd is that for a "conservative"?

[Sofiyya 1,687]

I'm glad talk show hosts are doing a job our legislators don't do.

[Ban Hammer 14,078]

I'm glad talk show hosts are doing a job our legislators don't do.

maybe we should elect jesus illegal to fix the illegal immigration problem

[Portlander 0]

There is lots of money to be made off of illegal immigration. Nothing will be done about it until the lobbyists are tethered.