Skip to main content

Trending

  • Fox/Dominion Lawsuit
  • Meta
  • Twitter

Social Media Menu

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Utility Navigation

  • Take Action
  • Search
  • Donate

Media Matters for America

Main navigation

  • News & Analysis
  • Research & Studies
  • Audio & Video
  • Archives

Media Matters for America

  • Nav
  • Search

Main navigation

  • News & Analysis
  • Research & Studies
  • Audio & Video
  • Archives

Trending

  • Fox/Dominion Lawsuit
  • Meta
  • Twitter

Utility Navigation

  • Take Action
  • Search
  • Donate

Social Media Menu

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
CIS Nextstar
Molly Butler/Media Matters

Nexstar Media cited a group founded by a white nationalist and eugenicist to discuss immigration policy, airing it on at least 24 local news stations

Written by Casey Wexler

Published 02/19/21 1:02 PM EST

Share

  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Print

Comment

  • Comments

Nexstar Media Group, the largest local television news company in the United States, recently released a piece on immigration that included an interview with Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) senior fellow Todd Bensman, who fearmongered that “an open border” policy would allow migrants to “get into the United States and stay forever.” The Nexstar segment cited Bensman as an expert on immigration with no reference to his history of spreading misinformation or the fact that the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies CIS as a hate group. 

As of July 2020, Nexstar Media Group owned 196 stations. Like its slightly smaller rival, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Nexstar produces content that can be played on multiple stations across the country. Unlike Sinclair, however, Nexstar's syndicated content is usually less openly conservative. Yet on February 16, one syndicated Nexstar piece aired an interview with a representative of CIS with no reference to the organization’s extremist views. 

CIS was established by white nationalist and eugenicist John Tanton, who also founded multiple other extremist anti-immigrant organizations including the Federation for American Immigration Reform and NumbersUSA. CIS Executive Director Mark Krikorian has spent years attacking immigrants, both documented and undocumented. Notably, he was a proponent of the family separation policy under the Trump administration.  

Tanton-founded groups have been frequently cited by mainstream and local media alike throughout the end of the Trump administration and first days of the Biden administration. Nexstar is the latest in a long list of news outlets, including The Associated Press, that have used CIS as a source without acknowledging the group’s white nationalist ties or its years of extremism. 

The recent segment by Nexstar Washington correspondent Anna Wiernicki is largely about how the implementation of President Joe Biden’s new immigration policy will work and specifically how the Department of Homeland Security is going to begin to let asylum-seekers into the United States, officially ending the Trump administration’s policy that forced people to stay in Mexico. But the piece also included this soundbite from Bensman: 

Video file

Citation From the February 16, 2021, edition of WLNS’ 6 News at 11 PM

(VIDEO BEGINS)

TODD BENSMAN (CIS SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY FELLOW): You have just an open border.

(VIDEO ENDS)

ANNA WIERNICKI (NEXSTAR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT): Todd Bensman with the Center for Immigration Studies says the policy change will invite a surge at the southern border. 

(VIDEO BEGINS) 

BENSMAN: Large numbers of migrants from Central America and really from throughout the entire world have heard about these policies and understand that it means they can get into the United States and stay forever.

(VIDEO ENDS)

WIERNICKI: But the White House says that isn’t part of the plan.

Wiernicki’s segment did not mention that Bensman specifically has a history of pushing the conspiracy theory that the terrorist group ISIS was infiltrating the United States through the southern border. Instead, the interview treated Bensman as an expert on immigration policy who can provide a legitimate opposing view to the Biden administration’s plan. 

According to a Kinetiq database search, this piece aired across the nation at least 24 times between February 16-17, including on stations in Texas, Colorado, Michigan, California, and Florida. This also included Nexstar station KRON in San Francisco, a market with the potential to reach over 2.3 million households. 

CIS and other Tanton-affiliated groups have been pushing bigoted anti-immigration claims and conspiracy theories for decades -- and yet one of the largest broadcast news companies in the country is still citing them in reports on immigration policy as if they are providing good-faith expertise. Nexstar Media Group has a responsibility to avoid spreading misinformation to potentially millions of Americans through this type of sloppy reporting.

The Latest

  1. Face The Nation guest on social media platforms reinstating Trump: "This is all about what drives shareholder value."

    Video & Audio 03/19/23 1:45 PM EDT

  2. As Trump called for protests, Meta profited from his newly reinstated Facebook page

    Article 03/19/23 1:34 PM EDT

  3. Newsweek's Batya Ungar-Sargon: “The Biden administration has effectively partnered with the cartels as a kind of, like, jobs program to import child slave labor into this country.”

    Video & Audio 03/19/23 11:20 AM EDT

  4. Fox News host suggests young people are transitioning for internet fame

    Video & Audio 03/17/23 8:46 PM EDT

  5. Fox News reporters parroted false claims tying Silicon Valley Bank's failure to Black Lives Matter

    Article 03/17/23 5:30 PM EDT

Pagination

  • Current page 1
  • …
  • Next page ››

In This Article

  • Center for Immigration Studies

    Center for Immigration Studies
  • Immigration

    Immigration
  • Local News

Comments
0 Comments
Share Count
0 Shares

Related

  1. Local news outlets at the U.S.-Mexico border frequently cite nativist anti-immigrant groups in reporting on immigration

    Article 02/09/21 3:33 PM EST

  2. The AP repeatedly cited nativist groups with ties to white nationalism in articles on immigration

    Article 02/16/21 9:54 AM EST

  3. Local and national media outlets are citing anti-immigrant extremist groups to discuss Biden’s immigration plan

    Article 01/22/21 10:32 AM EST

Media Matters for America

Sign up for email updates

Footer menu

  • About
  • Contact
  • Corrections
  • Submissions
  • Jobs
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions

Social Media Menu

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

© 2023 Media Matters for America