You didn’t? Neither did I, although I have been trawling Google News for immigration stories pretty thoroughly this week.
As far as I can tell, only two small Pennsylvania news services noted the story, although it was carried on AP:
Charter Bus Carrying Illegal Chinese Immigrants Hits I-80 Bridge Over Lehigh By Kevin Amerman The Morning Call April17 2007
and
Bus carrying illegal immigrants dangles off bridge AP 4/18/07
For the MSM, clearly, the human interest of a dramatic near-accident which could easily have killed more people than the Virginia Tech atrocity was completely eradicated by the inconvenience of it vividly illustrating the scale of America’s immigration disaster. Rather than increasing the story’s newsworthiness, that made it non-news.
Happily, the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader has more journalistic integrity. This and other stories have exasperated it and lead it to sensible conclusions:
We can only speculate on how many other buses — buses that don’t crash — are, minute-by-minute, traveling our interstates with similar passenger lists. What does this all mean? It means we have a huge problem that we cannot afford to ignore anymore, one that will determine the essence of our society into the next century and beyond. The federal government, ostensibly in control of immigration matters, is asleep at the wheel… What we can see, however, is that we can’t wait for the federal cavalry to charge in and save us. It may never happen or, if it does, it may be too late. It’s a problem we — and by we, we mean all of us in Northeastern Pennsylvania — need to start addressing now… Let’s get all the local mayors — not just Hazleton’s Lou Barletta — looking at ways to deal with these issues, whether it’s gang units or sharing information in a better and more timely fashion. Most importantly, we call upon our county commissioners to take the lead on this issue, which impacts every county resident.
(Immigration a tough issue that we must address now Sunday, April22 2007)
Northeastern Pennsylvania has already made a tremendous contribution to preserving America by supplying the heroic Lou Barletta. Now it seems to providing media wisdom too. This may be the first explicit endorsement of local action I have seen.
Applaud the Times Leader.
