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For the past 10 days, Fox News has been full throatily endorsing the new immigration bill that was just signed yesterday in Arizona. Fox has been consistently pushing the idea that the AZ bill is the model for the nation. Here are some examples of the Goebbels like usage of propaganda by Fox News on this story.

Here is some video from April 15 of Fox News pushing the bill courtesy of Media Matters:

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Brian Kilmeade introduced the segment on Fox and Friends by saying, “Arizona is close to having one of the toughest immigration enforcement laws in the United States, maybe in our history. The legislation would make it a crime to be in the country illegally. It’s the latest move to combat increasing violence at their border, so could this be used as a model for the rest of the nation, or does the bill go too far?” The network then brings in the man behind the bill state representative John Kavanagh to promote the bill. They never featured a guest in this segment who argued that the bill goes too far. This is typical Fox News practice where they asked a balanced question, but only put the conservative point of view on the air.

Today on Fox and Friends Saturday Media Matters captured a much more insidious piece of Fox News propaganda on their chryon.

As you can see the second part of the question has been dropped, so what is left is a loaded question about the AZ law being the model for America. Fox News has mastered the art of visual propaganda in their graphics and crawls. FNC knows that they are on screens all over hospitals, doctors’ offices, and public places. The chryon above gets the message across that this immigration bill should be the model for America without even having to say a word.

The broader point is that Fox News and the GOP try to label liberals, progressives, and Democrats as socialists all the while they endorse a bill bears a striking resemblance to the Nazis treatment of the Jews. The Nazis required the Jews to identify themselves, register, and carry papers. The Nazis required citizens to prove that they weren’t Jewish, much as the Arizona law requires Hispanics to prove that they are in the country legally. Misidentifications were common in Nazi Germany, just like they will be in Arizona, because each law relies/relied on stereotypes of identification. The Nazis looked at physical features such as nose size, while the Arizona law is going to be based on skin color and dress.

Fox News, the Republican Party, and the right wing fancy themselves as defenders of freedom, but the question that they never answer is whose freedom are they defending? The freedom that the right is defending is white freedom. Certainly all the legal members of the Hispanic community in Arizona will be having their freedoms violated, but those people aren’t white so they don’t matter. Any good fascist outfit needs a stellar propaganda wing to disseminate their message, and convince the people that their oppression is justified and acceptable. This is the role that the thinly disguised as news organization Fox News plays.