As a consumer of news, I have seen countless instances of angry readers writing to newspapers’ editors to complain that certain situations are misrepresented in published articles. This is as commonplace as article publication itself, because as Bernstein mentioned in his piece, there are definitely narratives being pushed – by everyone involved, including readers as well as writers. I am therefore doubtful that the New York Times could have avoided criticism, at least in the broad sense. Further, I do believe that Bernstein’s article should be taken with a grain of salt; being a nail salon owner himself, it seems that he wanted exoneration from being associated with the new shroud of negativity surrounding nail salons that emerged in the wake of Nir’s article. The tone in which Bernstein’s article was written feels angry; it’s almost as if the writer is on the defensive, which in itself begs the question of “What are Bernstein’s motives in writing this piece?”

While Bernstein’s response to Nir’s article seems anything but motive-free, I don’t think that any kind of reporting is truly flawless, though I did appreciate the quality and narrative style of the latter writer’s work. One of the major flaws that I did notice in Nir’s piece was (as mentioned by Bernstein) that she did make generalizations where generalizations may not have been appropriate. It is to be taken for granted that undocumented, “illegal” immigrants will can expect to face exploitation; in this economy, in which market regulations mix with the greediness of capitalism, businesses can potentially abuse undocumented immigrants much more easily than they could American citizens. As noted by (the motive-driven) Bernstein, Nir quite unfortunately extended her argument about nail salon abuses to groups that may not experience such mistreatment, and though any writer can be subject to criticism, Nir’s overgeneralization was the fatal flaw in her otherwise-enlightening article.

(Please note that I am by no means justifying abuse of undocumented immigrants; I simply wanted to illuminate the fact that “illegals” are known to be subject to exploitation because they have nowhere to turn safely when wrongs are committed against them.)