Yesterday, a pair of articles, one on Fox News, the other on Fox Latino, each detailed a lawsuit against Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s denial of driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants in the state on work visas granted through Obama’s recent federal policy.  The policy seeks to assist immigrants brought here as children, who have stayed here, gotten an education, and avoided a life of crime. Not surprisingly, the immigrants were painted in a more favorable light on Fox Latino while Gov. Brewer got better PR on FoxNews.com.

Both articles have reporting from the Associated Press, and some of the reporting in each of the articles is identical.  Why, then, are readers at Fox News’ main site treated to this opening paragraph?

Immigrant rights advocates filed a lawsuit Thursday that seeks to overturn Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s order denying driver’s licenses for young immigrants who have gotten work permits and avoided deportation under a new Obama administration policy.

But readers at Fox Latino find this:

Civil-liberties and immigrant-right groups filed a historic lawsuit Thursday against Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and her executive order denying driver’s licenses to young undocumented immigrants approved for federal work permits under President Barack Obama’s deferred-action program.

Notice the difference?  If you are on FoxNews.com, you get language such as “avoided deportation” while the Latino site empathizes with the young immigrants “approved for federal work permits.”  Indeed, Fox, it is all in how you say it.

Later, the two articles give Governor Brewer’s defense of her actions.

Fox News:

“Brewer has defended her Aug. 15 order on driver’s licenses as necessary for ensuring that state agencies adhere to the intent of state laws denying public benefits to illegal immigrants.”

Fox Latino:

“When Brewer announced the order back on Aug.15, the governor said she was reaffirming the intent of current Arizona law denying taxpayer-funded public benefits and state identification to undocumented immigrants.”

Fox is implicitly admitting its use of “illegal” is a slur they do not wish their Latino audience to read. 

The article on FoxNews.com also omits information that “dozens marched toward the capital Wednesday night, upset with Brewer’s executive order.” Worried that their “folks” may not like the sound of people protesting one of their favorite governors?

Such blatant pandering is insulting enough, but perhaps more so is the insult to their readers' intelligence.  The articles are within a few clicks of each another so either Fox thinks its readers are too lazy, too stupid or too uninterested to notice that it changes its reporting according to who's likely to be looking.  Any of the possibilities is disgusting.