The earliest mention in Chitowndailynews' Media Insider of the controversy regarding Rosanna Pulido and her postings in the Free Republic occurred on March 4 when we found the following blog entry attributed to TarsTarkas.net: (The posting occurred March 3).

 

Rosanna Pulido just became the republican candidate to replace Rahm Emanuel in the 5th district in Illinois. She also posts on FreeRepublic.com as chicagolady. That means a Freeper is on the ballot! She hates immigrants. Hates, hates, hates them! She really, really, really hates them. She also posts on a site filled with people who think Obama was born in Kenya, think he is a socialist (or worse), and think Obama used an army of dead voters ran by ACORN to steal the election. You are the company you keep.

 

That appears to beat the WMAQ story by several days. Congratulations TarsTarkas.net.

 

The next entry to get the story was a poster on a discussion list, Something Awful. The poster, with the screen name Whilst farting I, urged readers on March 4 to “dig deep” into chicagolady posts on Free Republic for embarrassing entries that could be served up to the media. There were many posts, most from Whilst farting I, about the situation in the days that followed.

 

The WMAQ question comes next. Here is its entry: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/GOP_Not_Fully_Embracing_Their_Candidate_for_Congress_Chicago.html

<object id="5105" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" height="394" width="448"><param value="always" name="allowscriptaccess" /><param name="movie" value="http://www.nbcchicago.com/syndication?id=40815942&path=%2Fnews%2Flocal"/><embed src="http://www.nbcchicago.com/syndication?id=40815942&path=%2Fnews%2Flocal" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="transparent" allowfullscreen="true" height="394" width="448"></embed></object>

 

Note that there was no apparent follow-up. Maybe this was the time when you should have listened to your J-school professor when they said get another person to talk to you? For instance, did the head of the Cook County Republican Party want to defend her comments? What did Matt Reichel, Mike Quigley or someone from the civil rights community think of her comments? Seriously, a lost opportunity.

 

The next entry appeared on WBEZ Chicago Public Radio. However, it was in a comment, not by the radio staff:

 

 

Candidates Gear Up for 5th District ElectionProduced by Mike Rhee on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 WBEZ Chicago Public Radio

Now that the primary's over, three candidates are gearing up for next month's special election for Illinois' 5th Congressional District seat. Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley fended off 11 other candidates for the Democratic nomination. Voters pulled ballots for Democrats over other parties by a margin of more than 12 to 1. Rosanna Pulido secured the nomination for the Republicans. Pulido is known for her strong stance against illegal immigration. PULIDO: Social conservatives in the 5th district have never had an opportunity to vote for a social conservative because one has never come to bat. Well guess what, here I am. Anti-war activist Matt Reichel is the Green Party's nominee. He says he's trying to win votes from the people who wanted something other than an establishment candidate. REICHEL: So I expect those voters will come over and we will at least register in the thousands, and we're going to push to get 10,000, 15,000 votes. The special election is set for April 7.   Comments: John Sheehan, Oak Park // Friday, March 06, 2009 @ 2:20 PM Rosanna Pulido is the only candidate in the race who is listed on Southern Poverty Law Center web site as a member of a virulent nativist hate group The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). She is best known for founding the Illinois chapter of the violent anti-immigration group Minuteman Project. Mrs. Pulido can also be read posting as "chicagolady" on the ultra-right-wing Free Republic Internet message boards.

 

And, yes, Pulido does have entries on the Southern Poverty Law Center web site:

Intelligence Report:
Spring 2008

The Nativists Page 17

 

Rosanna Pulido

<!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } TD P { margin-bottom: 0in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } -->

Rosanna Pulido

Rosanna Pulido, 51
Chicago, Ill.

There are more "illegals" in Illinois than in California, Rosanna Pulido told The Conservative Voice in July 2006. Pulido said she'd learned this startling "fact" from Susan Tully, the national field director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), and that it had inspired her to participate in the original Minuteman Project operation in April 2005, and then to form and lead the Chicago and Illinois chapters of the Minuteman Project.

Never mind that the FAIR data is false (in fact, Illinois ranks five states behind California in terms of the number of "unauthorized immigrants," according to the authoritative Pew Hispanic Center). "In Chicago, Ill., where I live, the city is under siege by illegal aliens who speak Spanish, use public services and take jobs away from citizens," Pulido testified before a congressional subcommittee in May 2007.

By that point Pulido, who's of Mexican descent, was also representing American Hispanics Against Illegal Immigration and the FAIR-funded front group You Don't Speak for Me! "I believe there are a lot of Hispanics out there like me who are afraid to speak out," Pulido told the Chicago Sun-Times. "I'm uniting with other Latinos who know we must stand up for the rule of law and fight for every American citizen no matter what race or ethnicity they are."

Later in 2007, Pulido accepted a job as FAIR's regional field coordinator for the states of Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, New Mexico and Ohio. (FAIR was listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center last December.)

When Latina magazine honored Elvira Arellano, a Mexican woman who sought refuge in a Chicago church so as not to be deported and separated from her son, Pulido excoriated the women's magazine for "turning a criminal into a hero."

Whatever organization she's speaking for, Pulido has a flair for the dramatic. Last October she told the Northwest Herald that she "liken[s] what's happening with illegal immigration to [Hurricane] Katrina. … We are drowning in illegal aliens."

The Intelligence Report contacted Pulido by phone and asked her to explain the difference between her various roles within the anti-immigration movement. She referred all questions to Bob Dane, FAIR's press secretary.

Apparently, the Illinois leader of You Don't Speak For Me! now lets FAIR speak for her.

After listening to the MSM discuss how blogs, and probably discussion lists, will never replace investigative reporting, a question needs to be asked about the mess here. We can argue about whether or not someone at the two major newspapers in this town should have been reading the New Republic. What we shouldn't argue about is that a major party candidate for the US House of Representatives is listed and has a bio on the Southern Poverty Law Center web site. Why wasn't that more widely known? It under cuts the arguments for newspapers for this to have happened.

 

All around, the only people who look good in this are the few blogs.