Published: 5 July 2011
Region: USA & Worldwide
A few days ago, under a headline in the New York Times Magazine that read “Outlaw: My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant”, Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has worked for The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post and The Huffington Post, revealed that he had lived in the US as an illegal immigrant since childhood.
His story divided the American media community, spurring outcries that he has lost his credibility as a journalist and prompting fierce debate on the ethical issues involved.
Most other journalists latched on to the themes of criminality and deception implicit in Vargas’s confession. Howard Kurt’s interview on CNN was subtitled “The reporter who broke the law”, and Phil Bronstein, Vargas’ former editor at The San Francisco Chronicle, wrote an article headlined “I was duped by Jose Vargas, illegal immigrant”.
If the US media and the nation as a whole have been betrayed, the fact that Vargas decided to place himself in the limelight may only have compounded the offence. Interviewed on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, Michele Norris told him “… some of your critics say that two words that are missing from your story so far are, ‘I’m sorry’”.
Others in the journalism community reacted even more vigorously.
Jack Shafer, writing in the on-line publication Slate, considered that Vargas’s “lies … violated the compact that makes journalism possible”. There is, said Shafer, a critical relation of trust between editors and reporters that underpins the credibility of a news organisation.
But there are an estimated 11 million ‘undocumented immigrants’ in the US and their collective story may be no less important than Shafer’s doubts about one of them. Huffington Post journalist Rory O’Connor sided with the mass of illegals and wrote a piece headlined “Jose Antonio Vargas is an American hero” which reflected widespread sympathy for Vargas’s lifelong struggle to live up to the ideals of the American dream.
Yet this raises another issue for many in the US media. Is it possible for journalists to also
be advocates, or must they maintain a resolute impartiality? In the San Francisco Chronicle, Dick Rogers was sure. “A reporter who has personal ties to a campaign or cause should not be able to cover it,” said Rogers. His piece was titled “Reporter’s deceit was inexcusable”.
Michele Norris drove the point home. “You’re a former journalist at this point,” she said to Vargas, “or do you still consider yourself to be a journalist? You’re an advocate, and it’s sort of hard to be both…. Journalists are usually known as people who don’t take sides in controversial issues.”
But is journalistic impartiality really achievable, or should we accept that journalists, like all of us, have their own points of view? In reality, journalists are never neutral and always engage with the society they live in.
This is what Vargas did. In “outing” himself as an illegal immigrant, the journalist did no more than to accept his engagement. He says that he decided to reveal the truth he had lived with for years to push for the DREAM act and spur a debate on American immigration reform. He set up a website called Define American to start the campaign and – quoting CNN’s Jay Rosen – said: “This is not going to be a view from nowhere.”
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists now fears that his outing will prompt increased scrutiny in the media industry, resulting in less diversity in newsrooms. But by coming out as an undocumented journalist, Vargas’ wish is to challenge America’s perception of undocumented immigrants as a whole.
Lise Fievet Mailhebiau for Media Diversity Institute
