L.A. Times "mainstreams' hate speech, its columnist argues

Op-Ed columnist Gregory Rodriguez observes in the L.A. Times today that even as the number of illegal immigrants has been dropping fast, the rhetoric of America's haters gets more and more nasty: "The political discourse overall is pretty horrific, and while immigration has always brought out the worst in people, today's polarized climate only makes matters worse." One reason, he says, is the tougher economic times. That's when race baiting always becomes worst. The lack of a strong voice on the right "pressing for decency" is another culprit, he argues, noting that President George Bush used to urge against "harsh, ugly rhetoric." But Rodriguez also blames the Times itself and other newspapers for legitimizing racists in their online comments.

Struggling newspapers seeking to engage readers at any cost are also part of the problem. Whereas racist rants were once confined to marginal websites, today many papers — including this one — have opened their online comments section to, well, complete nut-jobs. Allowing vitriolic racial rhetoric to remain on a mainstream website is to give it a level of acceptability. Just last week, in response to my column on the so-called burka ban in France, a rabid commenter proposed that all those crossing the U.S.- Mexico border without papers should be shot on sight. Nice. Such "dialogue" not only pushes out reasonable people, it emboldens the unreasonable ones. By allowing it to be posted, newspapers are presiding over the mainstreaming of anti-immigrant hate speech.

Rodriguez walks the walk as well as the founder of Zócalo Public Square, which is pretty much all about civil dialogue.