You Call this a Headline Article? Shame on the Boston Globe!

The issue of immigration has exploded in Massachusetts, animating the gubernatorial race, spurring legislators to attempt crackdowns, lighting up talk radio lines, and sending both sides of the debate to rallies and protests.

Oh, really? How interesting? Where are these rallies and protests? What percent of Massachusetts is "exploded." Has it really animated the gubernatorial race, or is it just something the media is focused on?

I'm truly interested in these questions, but none of them are answered in the article. However, we learn that John DePetro had lots of callers who apparently were overwhelmingly against illegal immigration. How many callers? I don't know, the Globe didn't say. Just lots and lots.

``The real live impacts of immigration are being felt beyond urban centers," said Michael Graham, a WTKK radio talk show host who focuses almost exclusively on the issue. In ``Springfield and Medford people are saying, `What do you mean, I have to learn another language to order a doughnut? I don't live in New York. That's not how it's supposed to work here.' "

Oh, really? So he's a.. ah.. expert? You sure he isn't a conservative expert, Yvonne Abraham and Scott Helman?

Despite my gut feelings, I decided to read on. We learn a Republican congressman has made bills on the subject (there are still Republicans elected in Massachusetts? Who'd have thunk't?) I also learned something pretty scary.

See, my mother has a hard time distinguishing between immigrants and illegal immigrants. She doesn't get that just because there are 20 immigrants refacing my grandmother's retirement apartment complex that they aren't also 20 Americans. She just assumes that most of them are illegal immigrants, therefore stealing American jobs. Folly, I say, it could be a safe assumption in Texas that half were illegals... but in Massachusetts? Chances are greater that 20 Americans have a job than 20 Americans just lost one.

Well, apparently the Globe has the same - how should I put it? - ill-guided philosophy on a front-age headline.

State Representative Stephen P. LeDuc represents Marlborough, a city where the number of immigrants doubled during the 1990s to about 16 percent, with many coming from Brazil, India, and Guatemala.

So what exactly does that have to do with illegal immigration? Why should this be a lightning post issue for the gubernatorial race?

But demographics have made the issue more immediate for more people, specialists said. At the 2000 Census, about 1 in 7 Massachusetts residents was foreign-born, and since then, immigration, already at a 50-year high, has continued to accelerate. Of the estimated 1 million foreign-born residents of Massachusetts,

Again, why? What does this have to do with illegal immigration? Oh, wait... I forgot... it takes 50 words in one paragraph to get to an actual phrase that has to do with the point of the article:

about 200,000 are undocumented.

While I hardly doubt that this issue is as truly big as the Boston Globe puts it (without a shred of statistical evidence, only anecdote after anecdote), the Globe needs some sort of big issue to sell newspapers. Apparently, the truly big issues in this campaign (Cape Wind, the Health Care bill, equality in marriage, property tax relief vs. income tax relief, take your pick) just aren't a-sell'n like they used to. Glad to see the Globe pandering to the right, or at least employing right-wing tactics to sell newspapers. Let's scare the public out of their wits, a little doom and gloom'll keep the subscriber base up. But, shouldn't Karl Rove get a byline? Or some stock options? I mean, come on, it's only fair!