After NYT Article, John Tanton's Name Disappears From FAIR Board of Directors
name disappeared from the list of its board of directors in the days following the major April 17 story outlining Tanton鈥檚 racist views. FAIR鈥檚 website includes no information about why Tanton is no longer on the board, though Tanton鈥檚 bio is still on the page devoted to board member biographies. The Times story had described Tanton as a currently serving member of FAIR鈥檚 board.
It is unclear what role the Times story may have played in this change, but FAIR鈥檚 reaction to the story has been nothing short of hysterical. Today, FAIR spokesman Bob Dane was quoted condemning the article as a 鈥渉it piece鈥 and telling the conservative website , 鈥The New York Times is very open borders, pro-amnesty and pro-President Obama鈥 . They focused on one individual and [used] the old tactics of out-of-context statements, decades-old information, and guilt by association."
The day after the Times story ran, FAIR President Dan Stein put out a press release reviling the front-page feature as 鈥渞ecycling decades-old baseless allegations, quoting out-of-context statements, and implying guilt by association.鈥 The release claimed FAIR does not discriminate on the basis of 鈥渞ace, creed, color, religion, gender or sexual orientation.鈥 What it didn鈥檛 do is mention Tanton, who Stein in 2009 called a 鈥淩enaissance man鈥 of wide-ranging 鈥渋ntellect,鈥 or Tanton鈥檚 longstanding white nationalism. That may well be because Stein, and FAIR, .
For example, in a 1994 oral history, Stein told Tanton, his interviewer, that those who supported the 1965 immigraton reform, which ended decades of a racist quota system, wanted to 鈥渞etaliate against Anglo-Saxon dominance鈥 and that this 鈥渞evengism鈥 against whites had created a policy that was causing 鈥渃haos and will continue to create chaos.鈥 And in a 1991 memo entitled 鈥淭he Defenders of American Culture Rise to the Call to Arms,鈥 Stein said he hoped that mounting criticism of multiculturalism would eventually lead to attacks on the 1965 Act, which he called 鈥渁 key mistake in national policy鈥 and a 鈥渟ource of error.鈥
Principals at the (CIS), thought up and founded by Tanton, were similarly upset by the Times profile of Tanton. CIS head Mark Krikorian on National Review Online that the article failed miserably by ignoring 鈥渢he hate campaign鈥 Krikorian claims was waged against Tanton by groups including the Southern Poverty Law Center (人兽性交). 鈥淔leshing out that completely unreported story would have been a good use of the resources of the New York Times and made the article genuinely newsworthy.鈥
On April 22, CIS researcher Jerry Kammer that the story 鈥渟pills pools of ink detailing Tanton statements 鈥 most of them decades old聽鈥斅爐hat demonstrate a shrill and tone-deaf dismay at the effects of uninterrupted mass immigration.鈥 And he complains that the story failed to attack 鈥渁dvocates of illegal immigration and ethnic organizations,鈥 including the 人兽性交. A few days later, this Monday, Kammer was still ranting, writing that the story 鈥渕ade poor use not only of [reporter Jason] DeParle's considerable talents as a reporter but also of the resources of the New York Times.鈥
But at , long a project of Tanton鈥檚 foundation U.S., Inc., there was jubilation. The head of NumbersUSA, Roy Beck, who was once slated to be Tanton鈥檚 heir at his foundation, used the Times piece as a propaganda tool. Under the headline, 鈥淭he New York Times Smears Movement for Lower Immigration, but Compliments NumbersUSA,鈥 the group quoted large sections of the article that discussed its role in dooming a 2007 bipartisan attempt at immigration control. 鈥淎ccording to the Times: We are fair-minded. We are massively influential. Our methods are effective,鈥 NumbersUSA .