NBC. in its socalled white paper on migrant labor in Florida. says that Florida has about 200.000 migrant workers and implied that all of them live in appalling misery. poverty and neglect. WJXT in an editorial tended to agree. What are the facts? At the peak of the harvest season there are no more than 100.000 farm workers in Florida and of these roughly 30.000 can be truly classified as migrant. Admittedly some Florida farm workers. and they are in the great minority. are poor and Illhoused. But it is unfair to condemn the agricultural program of an entire state by suggesting the worst elements represent average conditions. Thats about as fair as holding up the slum conditions of Jacksonville to nationwide view. implying that such conditions represent the Bold New City of the South. Theres every good reason and the responsibility of news media to attack those areas in which the migrant or anyone else is a hapless target for abuse. To film. as NBC did. a parttime construction worker who has lived in the same area of Florida nearly all of his life and to imply to the nation that this man Is an example of a migrant worker in Florida is more than unfair and borders on the dishonest. We are distressed that any representative of the news media would draw such an unbalanced. untrue picture. It is shocking and Indefensible to have people living in shacks and roachinfested houses. whether they be on Florida Avenue in" Jacksonville or U.S. 27 in South Florida.
Identified stereotypes
Implies that all migrant workers live in appalling misery, poverty, and neglect.