Fox News Debate Ringers: Anti-Immigrant Hate Group and Corporate Shill
Remember those “audience-submitted” questions at the Fox News debate last night? It turns out that Fox slipped in a couple of ringers — including a representative of an anti-immigrant hate group founded by a white supremacist.
One of the YouTube questions came from Kristen Williamson, a spokeswoman from Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a conservative advocacy hate group that lobbies for less immigration. Chris Wallace did not introduce Williamson’s question as one selected by viewers. However, the format of the question appeared as the other user-submitted videos.
Earlier during the debate program, NumbersUSA, a right-wing grassroots group also dedicated to decreasing the number of legal immigrants, aired a new national television ad.
Among the many white supremacy connections between the two groups, both were founded with help from John Tanton, an infamous anti-immigrant activist. An advocate of eugenics and other racist beliefs, Tanton has said that his immigration philosophy is guided by the goal of preserving a “European-American majority.”
Another question came from a hyper-partisan right wing operative named Lee Doren:
Doren isn’t any average citizen; he’s employed by Craft Media, a consulting firm that specializes in social marketing for corporate lobbying and Republican campaigns. Fox News failed to disclose that Doren — who has gained an online following with Big Business-friendly YouTube videos — and his firm represent a number of special interests already looking to influence the presidential election. For instance, the firm has counted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — a trade association for Goldman Sachs, Dow Chemical, Chevron, and other large corporations — and Newt Gingrich’s attack group American Solutions as clients in the past. According to its website, the firm does everything from creating ads to assisting clients with “placing” articles in a variety of media outlets.