This News Goes to 11: Media Hype Plays into Trump’s Hands

 

“Did you see that horrible story about the abused dog?” My better half poses that question (or one like it) at least once a week. My response is always, “no, I didn’t and please don’t tell me about it!” Then she tells me about it.

My job requires following the news, but if pets, kids, or the elderly are harmed, I want to avoid it entirely. The political world has enough stories to anger me; I don’t need my rage further stoked by some jerk across town who’s whipping Fido with a stick.

That brings me to kids in cages.

For the past week-plus, social media has been awash with children of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers being wrenched from their parents and shipped to detention centers before getting a one-way ticket home. Images of sobbing toddlers, screaming parents, and kids in cages (some of whom were detained by Obama, but, no matter) are everywhere.

I’ve read articles about the problem, but have studiously avoided the emotion-drenched videos and photo galleries that accompany them. To date, I assumed that was due to my “abused innocent” rule, but I think something else is at play.

Today, the media is giving apocalyptic coverage to family separations at the border. Trump is compared to Hitler, he’s a madman leading us to war, and Obama-era policies are blamed on the current administration. It all seems too familiar. In just the past two months:

  • Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong Un normalized a savage despot and endorsed his concentration camps.
  • Trump criticizing Canada shows he is destroying our strongest alliances, which could lead us to war.
  • Melania is missing! Trump must have abused her.
  • Trump refuses to ban guns, despite the shooting at Santa Fe High School. The blood is on his hands.
  • Trump cancels summit with North Korea, which will lead us to nuclear war.
  • Trump moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem, causing the peaceful residents of Gaza to riot protest. This will lead to war.
  • Trump withdraws from Iranian nuclear deal, which will lead us to nuclear holocaust.
  • Trump tells Honduran caravan they won’t be allowed into the US. What a Nazi.
  • More post-hurricane problems in Puerto Rico, meaning Trump hates brown people. Did we mention he’s a Nazi?
  • Trump orders airstrikes on Syria, which will lead us to war. Just like Hitler.

Again, these apocalyptic media panics are just from the past 60 days. Every week the world is ending for a different reason; all of them are Trump’s fault.

I want our immigration laws enforced. That doesn’t mean we should add the counterproductive cruelty of separating families when it can be avoided. Politely drop them back on the other side of the border and tell them to sign the guestbook on the way in. We have immigration processes and a nation without borders is a nation no more. None of that requires the emotional abuse of children.

But if the media actually care about this issue as something more than the Cudgel of the Week, they shouldn’t drop it into the same template as every other Trump critique. When everything is an outrage, nothing is. Voters and viewers are tuning out.

Look at the Russia! Russia! Russia! coverage over the past year. Monmouth University released a poll Monday, showing the public’s views of the Mueller investigation. I delved into the data and made a chart of the trendline.

A year ago, 74 percent thought the investigation should continue. After 12 straight months of Russia hysteria, it should be much higher, right? Wrong; only 52 percent think it should continue. That’s only a seven-point spread from those who want it ended. By the midterms, the lines may have crossed. The American people are outraged out.

Complaining about media bias is tedious if it becomes simple whining. At this point, however, the media is hurting not only itself but the Democrats’ chances in November. Trump might end up reversing his bad policy of family separation, but if the media doesn’t reverse their bad policies, they’ll be covering Trump in a second term.

A few stories need to be cranked to 11. All of them do not.

One final note: Following a week of this current outrage, Trump’s approval ratings have returned to their highest level ever.

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  1. The (apathetic) King Prawn Inactive
    The (apathetic) King Prawn
    @TheKingPrawn

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: Politely drop them back on the other side of the border and tell them to sign the guestbook on the way in.

    That only really works for the Mexican immigrants, less so for the Guatemalans and Hondurans.

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: None of that requires the emotional abuse of children.

    Indeed. I recommend reading what Senator Sasse posted on his Facebook feed about the matter. To ignore our laws and to ruthlessly enforce them in this manner both are beneath us as a people.

    • #1
  2. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Their parents did this to them.

    • #2
  3. John Davey Member
    John Davey
    @JohnDavey

    Media:
    Where does he get those wonderful toys?

    • #3
  4. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: When everything is an outrage, nothing is.

    Again. Louder.

    We should supply the hyperventilators with paper bags so they don’t hurt themselves.

    • #4
  5. The Scarecrow Thatcher
    The Scarecrow
    @TheScarecrow

    There are these human beings, citizens of another country, who have children. We call them “parents”. The Left curiously insists on calling them “brown people”, just before calling us racists. Still don’t get that one.

    Anyhoo, I, being an average Joe with a reasonably good heart who wishes no ill to my fellow man, assume these parents are like me – I would not send my children off in the company of complete strangers to a foreign land beyond my ability to help them.

    I reflexively hold these fellow humans to the same standard I would hold anyone I respect, because I’m not a racist or xenophobe.

    The Left position seems to consistently be that these people can’t help themselves, that they are different, and that they can’t make it without the help of precious us.  Which makes us pretty doggone wonderful.  This seems really, deeply, perniciously racist to me.

    I of course accept that sometimes there are extraordinary circumstances, there’s a parent that makes an unbelievable effort to get here with her child – maybe even die in the effort, to get safely here to relatives already living here who have offered help. All to help the child. My heart (and brain) yields 100% to a case like this – who wouldn’t?

    Oh yeah, the Left. Anyone who supported Elian Gonzales’s return to Cuba should really just shut up right now.

     

    • #5
  6. WI Con Member
    WI Con
    @WICon

     Perhaps these Pearl Clutchers in the MSM and Capital Hill could ask Elian Gonzales for a comment?

    • #6
  7. DonG Coolidge
    DonG
    @DonG

    Quite a pickle this is.  As I understand it, “families” are only detained if they are caught in the country *after* entering illegally and then refuse deportation.  Because of past lawsuits by immigrant advocates, child must be held separately (it is dangerous to mix kids with detained adults).  What to do?

    Some say that you can slap a tracking bracelet on the family members and release them.  But what are they supposed to do?  They can’t work and they probably don’t have enough money to spend a few months at a hotel.  It would seem cruel to turn them out into the streets to await their requested hearing.  Of course there is also the problem of people faking be a family. 

    There is no person in the Western Hemisphere outside of Cuba and Venezuela that can make a legitimate claim to asylum by treaty definition.  A better fix to the family split problem is same day deportation: fingerprints, DNA swab, adjudicate and deport.  Same process as now, with the split up/detention and the needless delays.

    • #7
  8. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    Game over, man:

    Everything is erased and over and horrible and nightmarish; for GOD’S SAKE it’s getting to the point where you can’t even force nuns to pay for birth control anymore. 

    • #8
  9. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    If you’re not supposed to be in _____, you will have to leave. Why is that concept so difficult? 

    • #9
  10. Freesmith Member
    Freesmith
    @

    Someone should have warned the media beforehand that a crazed, one-sided, vicious attack strategy against Donald Trump wouldn’t work and would lead to ruination. 

    Someone who had experience in exactly that failed approach. 

    Perhaps someone involved with the Trump documentary, “The Sociopath.”

    • #10
  11. Umbra of Nex Inactive
    Umbra of Nex
    @UmbraFractus

    The (apathetic) King Prawn (View Comment):

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: Politely drop them back on the other side of the border and tell them to sign the guestbook on the way in.

    That only really works for the Mexican immigrants, less so for the Guatemalans and Hondurans.

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: None of that requires the emotional abuse of children.

    Indeed. I recommend reading what Senator Sasse posted on his Facebook feed about the matter. To ignore our laws and to ruthlessly enforce them in this manner both are beneath us as a people.

    The current options are

    1. Separate the children from their parents. (The one currently chosen by the Trump administration.)
    2. Leave the children in prison with their parents.
    3. Don’t put the parents in prison even though they’ve been caught committing a crime.

    It’s obvious that the ones screaming about the inhumanity of option 1 are really advocating for option 3. Option 2 is off the table thanks to previous generations of open borders advocates. Option 3 is a significant blow to both national security and the rule of law.

    There is a theoretical option 4, which is a speedy deportation, but many of the cases currently being focused on are asylum claims which cannot be resolved in mere weeks.

    Once again, there are no solutions, only tradeoffs.

    • #11
  12. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Umbra of Nex (View Comment):
    Once again, there are no solutions, only tradeoffs.

    As conservative as statement as it gets!

    • #12
  13. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Umbra of Nex (View Comment):

    The (apathetic) King Prawn (View Comment):

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: Politely drop them back on the other side of the border and tell them to sign the guestbook on the way in.

    That only really works for the Mexican immigrants, less so for the Guatemalans and Hondurans.

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: None of that requires the emotional abuse of children.

    Indeed. I recommend reading what Senator Sasse posted on his Facebook feed about the matter. To ignore our laws and to ruthlessly enforce them in this manner both are beneath us as a people.

    The current options are

    1. Separate the children from their parents. (The one currently chosen by the Trump administration.)
    2. Leave the children in prison with their parents.
    3. Don’t put the parents in prison even though they’ve been caught committing a crime.

    It’s obvious that the ones screaming about the inhumanity of option 1 are really advocating for option 3. Option 2 is off the table thanks to previous generations of open borders advocates. Option 3 is a significant blow to both national security and the rule of law.

    There is a theoretical option 4, which is a speedy deportation, but many of the cases currently being focused on are asylum claims which cannot be resolved in mere weeks.

    Once again, there are no solutions, only tradeoffs.

    Asylum claims should be sounded out for merit. If there is any, asylum seekers should be bussed as a family straight to a facility nearest their border and housed in a special low-security prison/hotel until their case is adjudicated. 

    • #13
  14. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    TBA (View Comment):

    Umbra of Nex (View Comment):

    The (apathetic) King Prawn (View Comment):

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: Politely drop them back on the other side of the border and tell them to sign the guestbook on the way in.

    That only really works for the Mexican immigrants, less so for the Guatemalans and Hondurans.

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: None of that requires the emotional abuse of children.

    Indeed. I recommend reading what Senator Sasse posted on his Facebook feed about the matter. To ignore our laws and to ruthlessly enforce them in this manner both are beneath us as a people.

    The current options are

    1. Separate the children from their parents. (The one currently chosen by the Trump administration.)
    2. Leave the children in prison with their parents.
    3. Don’t put the parents in prison even though they’ve been caught committing a crime.

    It’s obvious that the ones screaming about the inhumanity of option 1 are really advocating for option 3. Option 2 is off the table thanks to previous generations of open borders advocates. Option 3 is a significant blow to both national security and the rule of law.

    There is a theoretical option 4, which is a speedy deportation, but many of the cases currently being focused on are asylum claims which cannot be resolved in mere weeks.

    Once again, there are no solutions, only tradeoffs.

    Asylum claims should be sounded out for merit. If there is any, asylum seekers should be bussed as a family straight to a facility nearest their border and housed in a special low-security prison/hotel until their case is adjudicated.

    I think every person who is complaining, should demand that those families are sent to their homes for them to care for them. 

    • #14
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