Yesterday’s Chronicle ran a story on an unique immigration protest: five motorcyclists who call themselves the Paul Revere Riders, crossing the country to sound the alarm about illegal immigrants. Here’s a representative sample:
“One if by land, two if by sea, three if from Mexico,” declares their Web site — comparing illegal migrants from Mexico to British redcoats of two centuries ago.
“The idea is to get enough people enough excited about their country to take action,” said leader Frosty Wooldridge when the group arrived in Los Gatos Tuesday evening. “Paul Revere in April of 1775 was the great communicator. He rode and spread the word and actually beat the British. We’re trying to spread the word through our neighbors and through the Internet.
“We’ve seen people march for anarchy, march for Mexico, march for illegality,” said Wooldridge, who hopes legal immigration will be reduced dramatically and illegal entries stopped altogether. “It’s time we as Americans stand up.”
The story quotes exactly five people: the leader, and four of the anti-immigration protestors. All had positive things to say about the ride, and about the anti-immigration cause. Nobody was quoted with anything critical to say. A story on a politically charged protest ends up coming off as a human interest story.
Just to be clear, I don’t think the reporter, Tyche Hendricks, has an agenda here. » Read more..
