... Before the Truth Can Get Its Boots on

By John Miano on September 27, 2010

I recently wrote about how two separate newspapers ran nearly word-for-word identical editorials on H-1B visas. The piece at issue he was published as an opinion of the newspaper without attribution to another source.

It has happened again with the same text. This time at September 26 editorial in the Ventura County Star:

In a rare show of bipartisanship, Congress has approved a $600 million border-security bill to help cut off the flow of illegal immigrants.

The bill is to be financed in part by doubling the cost of an H-1B visa, which allows foreigners with the technological, scientific and medical skills our economy needs into the country for up to six years, during which time they can apply for permanent residency. That's how badly skewed politics has made our immigration policy: We are keeping the people we don't want at the expense of the people we do want.

Congress regularly adjusts H-1B visa numbers to placate employers who want the quotas hiked or to mollify groups who say foreign technical workers are taking jobs from Americans.


Neither the Star nor News Sentinel gave any attribution that their editorials came from another source.

This is yet another example of how unreliable the mainstream media is when it comes to reporting immigration issues. Not only are these newspapers printing information that is patently false, they are simply copying it from other sources.

This begs the question, what is the original source for this material? It turns out that the original version is by Dale McFeatters of Scripps Howard News Service and was published on September 3.

The version published by Metrowest Daily News on September 6 is identical except for a paragraph break, but gives no attribution to Mr. McFeatters.

The Knoxville News Sentinel version takes the same text and inserts additional material – again with no attribution to Mr. McFeaters.

The version published by the Ventura County Star is identical to the original McFeatters version with some cuts, – but with no attribution.

The editorial has also been published as commentary by the Mobile Press Register on September 6 and in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune on September 7. Both of these newspapers attributed Scripps Howard or Mr. McFeatters as the source.