Shocked by an inaccurate and obviously loaded question in a recent poll conducted by Dr. Bruce Merrill and sponsored by KAET-TV/Channel 8 and the communication-journalism school at ASU, Protect Arizona NOW founder and chairman, Kathy McKee, is issuing an appeal for the restoration of journalistic ethics in Arizona.  States McKee, "I used to have great respect for Dr. Merrill's work.  It's perplexing why he would risk losing respect by buying into the one-sided smear campaign that the much of the media – with the notable exception one super-sharp talk show host – has bought into against PAN and our National Advisory Chairman.  I have been urging the media, from the first second Eric K. Ward's libelous hate mongering began last spring, to at least have the journalistic ethics to investigate who this person even is.  Ward called PAN a hate group and me a racist this past spring.  Since this is the most moronic thing anyone could say about PAN or me, I researched who he was – and if the mainstream media had any journalistic ethics whatsoever, they would researched too–but they wouldn't, even after our inquiries and prodding. Even a rudimentary search finds that Eric K. Ward:

•     Is a darling of the PHOENIX ANARCHIST COALITION.
•     Is in a far-left, ultra-liberal group called Windcall, along with Stuart Acuff, a former organizer for SEIU, the union that has filed a lawsuit trying to keep our initiative off the ballot (or at a minimum keep the votes from being counted until all legal challenges are resolved).
•     Is a veteran member of Windcall, who's other "residents" push zealous far-left agendas.
•     Wrote an article sympathetic to legalizing drugs.
•    Is editor of American Armageddon: Religion, Revolution and the Right, Dominion-Redemption Holy War, which blasts our Founding Fathers, and as described on amazon.com, "takes pot shots at the Promise-Keepers, Evangelicals, and Southern Baptists," and "denigrates people who believe in the Bible as the word of God."

       "Every person in the media who reported a one-sided version of this smear campaign or Bruce Merrill's self-embarrassing poll needs to hang their head in shame for not asking the basic questions of who and what was behind this libel.  The AJA Code of Ethics is posted on our website, www.PAN2004.com.  We hope that media professionals (or wanna-be's) who haven't read it, will.  And everyday citizens who didn't ask even rudimentary questions or have a single first-hand fact at hand before trying to validate to this smear campaign, aided by hostile and/or unobjective media, really need to do some soul-searching for their intellectual dishonesty, " adds McKee.

           "The most pathetic and unethical article on this subject was written by Byron Wells of the East Valley Tribune.  Neither Wells nor his publisher had the courtesy to respond to my question about why their article on PAN devoted twice more space to The Occidental Quarterly and Council of Conservative Citizens – an imbalance which in itself broadcasts bias really slanted – than to PAN.  Neither Wells nor his publisher answered questions as to who Eric K. Ward even is.  What's wrong with these questions?  What's wrong with that paper?  Telemundo, Univision, and La Voz are far more objective and professional than that."

        PAN National Advisory Board Chairman, Dr. Virginia Abernethy, responds, ""The book that Ward edited and Kathy refers to above gets Amazon.com's lowest possible rating. The summary of the review is, 'Promotes an extreme leftist position on the culture war.'  In connection with a book on the Founding Fathers, Ward describes a Washington State University student as having 'the appearance of a racist skinhead' and links this to a 'sinister and ugly motivation.'  What kind of appearance does Ward mean??  A short haircut and neat shirt, maybe?  What is Ward's 'appearance'?  Is he just a bit quick to condemn someone whose views he doesn't like? I think that Arizonans deserve to know that this Eric Ward flits about the country, with hate-mongering his stock in trade, apparently a professional agitator."

             Laments McKee, "Inferring that the student above is a skinhead, when the student could just as easily be a chemotherapy patient, shows the disrespectful and inflammatory thoughts that must come naturally to Ward.  Frightening, isn't it, to think no one questioned this person, his agenda, motives, or anything else?  No one, that is except PAN leaders and KFYI talk-show host Joe Crummy.  Having lived in California during the Prop 187 battle, where he witnessed nonstop lies/distortion/disinformation/smear campaigns against grassroots activists, Joe was outraged at the evidently loaded and inaccurate question in Merrill's poll, as well as the unethical and illogical link the poll tried to make between the results of the loaded question and the results of a totally different question about Protect Arizona Now.  Joe was even more incensed that the newspapers and other media were so quick to buy into an obvious smear campaign."

             "Merrill's gone-missing logic", scoffs McKee, is akin to taking a month-old poll that found the price of applies to be 59¢ a pound, comparing it to this month's poll showing oranges priced at 39¢ a pound, and concluding that the price of fruit has gone down – disregarding the fact that this month's price of apples may actually be $5 a pound.  For me, Protect Arizona NOW has always been a vehicle to help spread truth and enlightenment, and thus hopefully reinvigorate a sense of journalistic ethics in the media, as well as intellectual honesty within the public.  It looks like the latter goal, which should have already been in full-bloom, is lagging far behind the Arizona Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act.  Our selfless, courageous Founding Fathers (sorry, Eric K. Ward) died to bring us a free press, and if what we're seeing Arizona is typical of all over the country, no doubt our patriotic forefathers sacrificed and died in vain."

As a reality check, to illustrate what hate-speech really looks and sounds like, here is a recap of sound-bites and transcripts (courtesy of www.ccir.net , which has tapes available):

Armando Navarro, Prof. Ethnic Studies, UC Riverside at Latino Summit Response to Prop 187, UC Riverside, 1/1995

"These are the critical years for us as a Latino community. We're in a state of transition. And that transformation is called 'the browning of America'. Latinos are now becoming the majority. Because I know that time and history is on the side of the Chicano/Latino community. It is changing in the future and in the present the balance of power of this nation. It's a game - it's a game of power - who controls it. You (to MEChA students) are like the generals that command armies. We're in a state of war. .... What this means is a transfer of power. It means control."

Art Torres, former CA state senator, currently Chair of California Democrat Party at UC Riverside 1/1995

"Que viva la causa! ............Remember: 187 is the last gasp of white America in California.

 

Jose Angel Gutierrez, Prof. Univ. Texas at Arlington, founder La Raza Unida Party at UC Riverside 1/1995

"The border remains a military zone. ......We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. It's a matter of time. The explosion is in our population."

Bill Richardson, New Mexico Governor, former U.S. Congressman, U.N. Ambassador, U.S. Sect'y of Energy interviewed on radio Latino USA responding to Congressional Immigration Reform legislation in 1996

"There are changing political times where our basic foundations and programs are being attacked, illegal and legal immigration are being unfairly attacked. We have to band together, and that means Latinos in Florida, Cuban-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, South Americans, we have to network better - we have to be more politically minded, we have to put aside party and think of ourselves as Latinos, as Hispanics more than we have in the past."

Mario Obledo, founding member/former Nat’l director of Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), former CA Sect'y Health/Welfare on Tom Leykis radio talk show

"We're going to take over all the political institutions in California. In five years the Hispanics are going to be the majority population of this state." Caller: "You also made the statement that California is going to become a Hispanic state and if anyone doesn't like it they should leave - did you say that?" Obledo: "I did. They ought to go back to Europe."

Richard Alatorre, former Los Angeles City Councilman at Latino Summit conference in Los Angeles opposing CA Prop. 209 ending affirmative action in 9/1996

"Because our numbers are growing, they're afraid about this great mass of minorities that now live in our community. They're afraid that we're going to take over the governmental institutions and other institutions. They are right, we will take them over, ...

Joe Baca, former CA Assembly member, currently member of Congress at Latino Summit Response to Prop 187 UC Riverside 1/1995 and Southwest Voter Registration Project annual conference in Los Angeles, 6/1996

"We need more Latinos out there. ..............But when we look out at the audience and we see, you know, la familia, La Raza (the family, our race), you know, it's a great feeling, isn't it a good feeling? ..............and let me tell you, we can't go back, you know, we're in a civil war.

Antonio Villaraigosa, Chair of MEChA (student wing of Aztlan movement) at UCLA, former CA assemblymember, former CA Assembly speaker, currently Los Angeles City Councilman at Southwest Voter Registration Project Conference in Los Angeles, 6/1997

If they're supporting legislation that denies the undocumented driver's licenses, they don't belong in office, friends. They don't belong here.

Gloria Molina, one of the five in Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors at Southwest Voter Registration Project Conference, 6/1996

"This community is no longer going to stand for it. Because tonight we are organizing across this country in a single mission, in a plan. ...And this November we are going to remember those that stood with us and we are also going to remember those that have stood against us on the issues of immigration, on the issues of education, on the issues of health care, on the issues of the minimum wage."

Vicky Castro, former member of Los Angeles Board of Education at Southwest Voter Registration Project Conference, 6/1996

"Que viva la raza, que viva la raza (long live our race)!  I'm here to welcome all the new voters of 18 years old that we're registering now in our schools. Welcome, you're going to make a difference for Los Angeles, for San Antonio, for New York, and I thank Southwest for taking that challenge. And to the Mechistas (MEChA students) across this nation, you're going to make that difference for us, too. But when we register one more million voters I will not be the only Latina on the Board of Education of Los Angeles. And let me tell you here, no one will dismantle bilingual education in the United States of America.

Ruben Zacarias, former superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District at Southwest Voter Registration Project Conference, 6/1997

"We have 27 centers now throughout LAUSD. Every one of them has trained people, clerks to take the fingerprints. Each one has the camera, that special camera. We have the application forms. And I'll tell you what we've done with I.N.S. Now we're even doing the testing that usually people had to go to INS to take, and pretty soon, hopefully, we'll do the final interviews in our schools. Incidentally, I started this very quietly because there are those that if they knew that we were creating a whole new cadre of brand new citizens it would have tremendous political impact. We will change the political panorama not only of L.A., but L.A. County and the State. And we do that we've changed the panorama of the nation. I'm proud to stand here and tell you that in those close to three years we have processed a little over 78,000 brand new citizens. That is the largest citizenship program in the entire nation."

Ernesto Zedillo, former president of Mexico announcing the Mexican constitutional amendment allowing for dual citizenship on 6/23/97

"I have proudly affirmed that the Mexican national extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders, and that Mexican migrants are an important - a very important part of it. For that reason my government proposed a constitutional amendment to allow any Mexican with the right as he desires to acquire another nationality to do so without being forced to first give up his or her Mexican nationality. fortunately, the amendment was passed almost unanimously by our federal Congress and is now part of our constitution. I am also here today to tell you that we want you to take pride in what each and every one of your Mexican brothers and sisters are doing back home.

........" Other demonstrators: "Raza fuerza (brown race power), this is Aztlan, this is Mexico. They're the pilgrims on our land. Go back to the Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria."

Fabian Nunez, formerly Alliance for Immigrant Rights, political liaison for L.A. School District, currently Speaker of the CA Assembly at Latino Summit Response to Prop 187 at UC Riverside, 1/1995

"There's only two forms of power in this country and in this world.  One is economic power, We certainly don't have the economic power because we don't own the means of production, but there's another form of power, and that's the power of the masses. So you can be as revolutionary as you want, you can be Chicano nationalist, you can be Mexican-American, you can be Hispanic, you can believe in the concept of Aztlan, you can believe in the concept of multi-culturalism. Somebody can say 'Everybody here is wrong, I am the only one that has reached revolutionary completeness'.

 

MEChA (student wing of the Aztlan movement - motto: "For the race, everything, for those outside the race, nothing.") chants at national conference, Cal State Univ., Northridge, 6/1996

"Viva la raza (long live our race)", "Chicano power" "We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us" "Long live the revolution" "Esta es mi tierra, esta es mi lucha (This is my land, this is my fight)"

March 6, 2004 Tucson rally

One of 18 similar attired, similarly signed future guestworkers coming to our country just to do work Americans won't do, while chanting "Death to the U.S.,"

"Drive the U.S. into the Sea," "Get out, youre in Mexico," and of course their pep song, "We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us."