Ohio Survey Ranks Hispanics Low - Right-Wing To Blame

This piece in Time on a survey conducted in Ohio on stereotypes of immigrants in the U.S. should be subtitled:

Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck and all of FOX News hates Hispanics. Here's proof.

By reading this terrible excuse for an objective article and study, you get the clear impression that Ohioans who supposedly live in a "no-immigrant" bubble get their views that Hispanic Americans are crime-ridden, anti-assimilating and poorly-educated people (compared to other immigrants), from the above-mentioned sources.

One of the study's authors, Jeffrey Timberlake of the University of Cincinnati, says as much:

The extremely low marks for Latinos, on the other hand, are of more recent vintage. Immigrants from south of the border may never have enjoyed the same cultural cachet as, say, those from France or England, but the cratering of their numbers is almost surely the result of more than two years of campaign-trail rhetoric and cable fulminations on the issue of illegal Mexican immigrants. "I can't say for certain how the data would have been different in the pre–Lou Dobbs or Glenn Beck era," says Timberlake, "but it seems we're seeing the reflection of the general debate."

OK. And this:

"(Cable TV personalities) are entertainers seeking attention." I don't see the value of ginning up hatred of a particular group. All that does is diminish our chance to solve the problem."

I don't know how accurate the poll really is in reflecting the true tendency of immigrant groups in the United States. I don't believe the results are representative. Do the feelings of 2,000 relatively homogeneous Ohioans speak for folks in many areas of the country where Hispanics are more diverse, both ethnically and economically? I would hazard a guess as to say no.

What's truly pathetic about this study is the foolish attempt to try to blame conservative and anti-illegal immigration people for supposed Hispanic ills. Unfortunately, some people - too many and almost exclusively from the left and academia - continue to insist that people who are against illegal immigration are automatically anti-Hispanic. Chances are these people have never viewed an entire Glenn Beck or Lou Dobbs program, which makes their accusations even more pathetic.

And I thought professors were supposed to be smart. Silly me.