Sins of omission

***scroll for updates…Americans lining up to do the job…***

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times ran a piece of open-borders propaganda masquerading as journalism, which featured a Riverside, Calif., landscaper named Cyndi Smallwood who claims she can’t find workers to dig ditches even at $34 an hour.

The claim seems preposterous, but the Times assures us that Smallwood has no ideological ax to grind. She is “ambivalent on immigration reform,” the Times reports. Just an ordinary landscaper, you know.

But it turns out there’s a tiny bit more to the story that the LA Times isn’t telling you. Reader Christopher L. wrote this morning to point out that a simple Google search shows that Cyndi Smallwood is president of the Orange County chapter of the California Landscape Contractors Association, and is a member of the association’s “Immigration Task Force.” The activist group opposes the “Punitive Immigration Reform Bill Proposed by Rep. Sensenbrenner.”

Eagle-eyed Conor Friedersdorf also followed up:

An all too common form of hack journalism consists of going to an interest group, finding a useful character for an anecdotal lead and conveniently passing the source off as though they’re just a regular citizen on the sidelines of the debate. It’s a dirty little secret of journalism, but most hack journalists who do it at least have the decency to slip in a mention of the person’s affiliation.

In this article the Times goes a step further, inserting obviously false language suggesting — no, actually stating outright — that Smallwood is ambivalent about immigration reform. The suggestion is that this is a regular person, so you shouldn’t discount what she’s saying as you might if she was someone pushing an agenda.

Turns out Smallwood is quite a busy, savvy p.r. agent for the open-borders lobby. Conor links to articles here and here and here on her political activities, and observes:

If traveling to Washington DC to lobby for a trade association, planting pro-guest worker program quotes in multiple press outlets and backing a specific faction in the immigration reform debate is considered ambivalence on immigration reform I’d like to see the Times version of an activist!

I would like the LA Times to explain its failure to disclose these relevant details. Was this laziness and incompetence on the part of the reporter? Or something else? Will they go back and let readers know the full picture of who this woman is? What else aren’t they telling us?

And while they’re at it, why don’t the Times’ editors press a little harder on this:

The other employees are Latino and, as far as Smallwood can tell, all in the country legally. Her employees need driver’s licenses and the ability to move through freeway checkpoints near the border, which tend to eliminate any with fake papers.

Since they are subsidizing this government contractor, the taxpayers of California might like to get a straight answer on the immigration status of Smallwood’s employees. Driver’s license requirements, of course, are no barrier for illegal aliens to get jobs. Hello:

Finally, the Times notes that as a public works contractor, Smallwood is subject to state prevailing wage laws. There are, doubtlessly, a thicket of other requirements (years of experience needed to fill supervisor positions, perhaps?) that might help explain Smallwood’s alleged inability to find legal American employees.

Maybe the LA Times could find out and report back on the other side of the story. For once.

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Update: A reader e-mails:

Smallwood was on Laura Ingraham’s show this am. What the LA Times didn’t report was the $34 per hour job was the prevailing wage on state contract projects, and she had two (yes two) openings for that high paying position, which requires (per Smallwood) 2-5 years experience in landscape construction, the ability to read plans/blueprints and the ability to operate a bobcat, ditch witch or similar ditch digging equipment.

From my listener’s perspective, she was reasonably forthcoming when questioned by Ms. Ingraham, so I can only assume she would have been forthcoming to the Times writer if the same questions were asked. That, of course leads to two conclusions: (1) the Times staffer was too lazy to ask simple questions; or (2) the piece was an agenda-driven article…never mind-knowing the Times, it was likely both.

Update 2: Inside Riverside blogs another key point:

If anyone bothers to read past the headline and first paragraph they will learn that Cyndi already has 12 employees. She says all of her employees are legally allowed to work here.

So what is the problem?

The real problem appears to be Cyndi’s preferred method of advertising her $34 an hour job American’s won’t do; word of mouth. I’m sure she is reaching a vast audience do that.

Now you may be wondering why anyone would pay $34 an hour for landscaping. Well it’s not up to Cyndi. You see she does contract work for the State of California and they set the pay rates.

This afternoon Cyndi was on the John and Ken Show. She told them that since the article appeared in the LA Times this morning she has received over 30 resumes. Yep, 30 resumes in just a few short hours for a job American’s won’t do. Cyndi may want to re-think her not-so-hi-tech word of mouth advertising campaign.

John and Ken took some calls from the audience. Cyndi, who seems like a nice lady, appeared to get flustered that everyone who called in wanted the job.

At one point she asked a caller why he had never stopped on the side of the road and asked how much the guys shoveling dirt were making.

Well who in their right mind would do that? I always assumed the guys in the bright orange vests on the side of the highway were prisoners on some sort of work release program. Walking up to them and asking “Hey, how much ya making diggin that there hole fella” would get you a fist in your face for your trouble. Seriously, who knew these guys were making $34 an hour? It makes you wonder how much the 5 Cal-Trans guys standing around watching the one Cal-Trans guy dig a hole are making. It also partially explains why California has a $100 billion plus budget.

If you are looking for work send Cyndi your resume. Her fax number is 951-734-6565

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