TV News Coverage of Southern Border Lacks Refugee Sources, Historical Context
TV news coverage of the southern US border largely ignores the experiences and voices of those most impacted by the immigration system.
Media ‘Border Crisis’ Threatens Immigration Reform
Establishment coverage has featured hyperbole about recent migration trends and an inexcusable lack of historical context. Worse yet, this style of reporting could sabotage prospects for a long overdue reform of the US immigration system.
For Sunday Shows, Border Is ‘Political Crisis,’ Not Humanitarian Emergency
Increasing numbers of migrants are attempting to cross the US/Mexico border, and unaccompanied children and teenagers are exceeding the capacities of government-run detention facilities. The right has declared a crisis, and national corporate media have largely followed suit. Department of Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas appeared on five of the six Sunday Beltway talk […]
Crediting Xenophobia—Rather Than Organizing—With Raising Workers’ Wages
It’s not really surprising that the Economist chose to focus on immigration policy rather than minimum wage regulations as an explanation for pay increases. Corporate media tend to be critical of calls to lift the wage floor, often citing exaggerated claims about unemployment.
‘We Have the World’s Largest System to Imprison and Exile Immigrants’
“I think we also have to be wary of not taking advantage of this moment, because it’s unveiling what the system truly is meant to do.”
Special Program on Trump & Immigration
In our final pre-election show, we use the lens of one issue, immigration, to look back at four years of Trump policy and of coverage.
ACTION ALERT: Newsweek Should Disavow Racist Insinuation That Kamala Harris Is Not a Citizen
Please contact Newsweek’s editors and demand that they retract the op-ed insinuating that Kamala Harris (like millions of other Americans) is not a US citizen.
‘We Have to Bust In and Insist That Power Be Shared in a Different Kind of Way’
“We try to bring you voices you might not hear elsewhere: activists, researchers, reporters and teachers, who can illuminate what big media are getting wrong—or missing entirely—why it matters, and what we can do about it.”
‘This Is Not a Troll. This Is Real Life.’
“If that’s what you’re trafficking in, day in and day out, isn’t it that much easier for someone like that to allow for the kind of cruelty that we’re seeing at our southern border right now?”
‘It’s an Attempt to Impose a White Nationalist Vision of What America Is’
“It gives tremendous discretion to people, basically, to discriminate, to discriminate knowing the government now has your back.”
Sasha Abramsky on Trump’s New Attack on Immigrants
Who, at this point, is served when corporate media consider Trump’s cruel attacks on immigrants in any context other than cruelty?
Media Downplay Climate Disruption’s Ever-Growing Role in Driving Migration
It would be easy for even a diligent news consumer to not know that climate change is one of the central factors driving refugees to cross the border, since it’s usually not mentioned at all in most alarmist reports about the so-called “border crisis.”
Mother Jones Is Failing Its Namesake
The real Mother Jones worked to stop cruelty toward children. Kevin Drum, Mother Jones writer, criticizes workers who protest the practice of child detention.
‘Journalism Is Helping to Normalize the Concentration Camps’
“What we have is a media…where reality is determined by who holds the most social power. If you can harangue the media enough, criticize the media enough, they will adopt the language that you use. And it’s especially the right that has gamed this system almost perfectly.”
Arun Gupta on No More Camps!, Zoe Carpenter on Oregon Power Grab
The US is facing humanitarian and political crises, and media will be judged on how they choose to respond.
On Child Concentration Camps, What’s Needed Is Not an Argument, but Action and Resistance
Repeated exposure to outrage, with no outlet, can give the impression that lots of folks are looking, but no one’s doing anything. That’s enervating and, more importantly, wrong.
‘There Are Ways to Uplift the Resilience of Communities’
“So what does prenatal care look like when you are subjected to indefinite detention? What does giving birth look like when you’re subjected to indefinite detention? What happens to your child after you give birth, when you have to return to the detention center?”
Tina Vasquez on Covering Immigration, Sina Toossi on Iran Sanctions
The immigration beat is multi-faceted, and media choices about what to look at, who to listen to, may be impactful, as the White House looks set to make its war on immigrants a key piece of Trump’s reelection drive.
Outlets Denounced as ‘Enemies of People’ Still Promote Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Narratives
If you keep up with all the various xenophobic “crises” and “threats” propagated by corporate media—depicting the United States as an overwhelmed nation, besieged by teeming swarms of scheming foreigners intent on stealing jobs and seizing scarce public benefits from across the southern border—you’ll recall that the United States has apparently been under “invasion” […]
Corporate Media More Worried About Avocado Toast Than Human Lives
Trump’s border policies display zero regard for human rights, but for several news outlets, as Trump foments xenophobia, what’s at stake is brunch.
