The Quote Below—More Misinformation form the Media
“In the vacuum left behind by Donald Trump, the ringleaders of the right-wing media ecosystem are finding new and old ways to keep stoking white hysteria.
“They’ve already found one winner: reprising the toxic, racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric that brought Trump to power in the first place, but which had ebbed as Trump turned to other grievances instead.
“Cue Tucker Carlson, stoking racialized fear the other night on Fox News, charging that under Joe Biden’s immigration policies ‘an MS-13 member arrested for drug dealing with previous convictions for say, theft, extortion, grand larceny’ could be released ‘maybe into your neighborhood.’
“Cue Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, darkly warning that immigrants will “swamp the voting power of all of you Americans out there who still know the country’s traditions, constitution and history,” and “overthrow everything we love about America.”
“Cue the former Trump ICE appointee prophesying to a receptive “Fox & Friends” host that ‘people will die, people will be raped, people will be victimized by criminals that shouldn’t even be here.’ . . .
“It’s filthy stuff — visceral appeals to the very worst elements of American pathology. It reduces immigration to one issue: race. It feeds fear and hatred. It incites violence. . . .
“And two years later, the media dutifully succumbed to hysteria about ‘caravans’ of migrants that Trump insisted were an existential threat to the country — until of course they were not, as soon as the midterm elections were over.
“So the big question now is: Will the mainstream media will once again allow right-wing demagogues to establish the framing for immigration coverage? Or, after all that has transpired, have newsroom leaders finally realized that their obligation is to be on the lookout for the next big lie and, rather than enable it, figure out how to counter it and then do so insistently and enthusiastically? . . .
“Rather than get distracted by the ginned-up panic of racists and the click-bait conflicts at the border, journalists need to tell the real, complex stories of immigrants and immigration. They need to encourage honest, fact-based debate. And they need to remind people that immigration strengthens the nation and defines us as a people. Newsrooms need to embrace the narrative of inclusion, rather than the narrative of invasion.” — Fox News Is Stoking Anti-Immigration Hysteria Again. Are We Ready to Defeat It This Time?, Dan Froomkin, Salon 2/26/21 [Link]
Fact Check of Above Quote: This article informs us that Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingram are terrible people because they buck the pro-immigration narrative of the “mainstream” media. That narrative maintains that immigration, in the words of author Dan Froomkin, “strengthens the nation and defines us as a people.” His claim, however, is far from self-evident. Would he have us believe that immigration at any numerical level would benefit us? Would it be wise to accept large numbers of impoverished people with no skills? These questions certainly suggest that limits on immigration are reasonable. But immigration advocates like Froomkin, don’t seem to want a discussion. They just want to demonize the questioners. These people, says the author, are “toxic, racist, and hysterical.”
But Carlson, Ingram, and some others are hardly unreasonable when they point to the perils that run-away illegal immigration poses to law-abiding Americans. One excuse that the Biden Administration uses for not enforcing most immigration laws is that it wants to focus its resources on catching and deporting dangerous criminal aliens. The reality is that even this kind of prosecution has declined under Biden. Yes, indeed, “people will be victimized by criminals that shouldn’t even be here.”
The author claims that concerns about caravans of illegal aliens crossing into America are “hysteria.” Really? Now we are seeing record numbers of illegal aliens entering the U.S., and the caravans keep coming. Invasion is not an unreasonable word to describe what’s happening.
Was Laura Ingram really peddling “filthy stuff” when she warned that mass immigration “will swamp the voting power” of Americans? Prominent Democrats have admitted that they wish to use immigration to impose their radial-left ideology on America. For examples, click here.
Froomkin ludicrously suggests that mainstream journalists aren’t pushing the pro-immigration line sufficiently. The truth is that they seldom push anything else—and like Froomkin, they exude moral snobbery toward all who disagree with them. Their pious posturing serves to obscure the true and sordid motives behind unending mass immigration: The Republicans want cheap labor, and the Democrats want cheap votes.