‘Data Needs to Serve a Public Safety Purpose’
“Data needs to serve a public safety purpose, or there is no reason to collect it. We can’t preemptively create a police state based on future crime. Can’t do it. That’s George Orwell.”
Tracy Rosenberg on ICE’s Corporate Collaborators, Patty Lovera on the Undercovered Farm Bill
The spotlight on the White House’s inhumane agenda on immigration and immigrants is exposing more than the devastatingly cruel practices in force at the border, but also the numerous big corporate and institutional players that are—often invisibly—enabling that agenda.
Papers Insist ‘We Need’ Secret Gang Databases—Just Like We ‘Needed’ Stop & Frisk
You’d think after being so spectacularly wrong on Stop and Frisk, the Daily News would take the lesson to be more skeptical and wary about police practices. Alas, no, the editorial instinct is the same: support the police department to the point of echoing its talking points.
WaPo’s Civility Fetish Delegitimizes Opposition to Trump
The propaganda effect of insisting on the need for civility is profoundly harmful, considering that virtually every gain won by workers, LGBTQ people, people of color and women—and the many who belong to more than one of these groups—has involved actions the Washington Post would call “uncivil.”
‘Democracy Means Everyone Counts’
“To suggest that now this administration is concerned about enforcement of the Voting Rights Act really is laughable.”
What’s a Non-Racist Way to Appeal to Working-Class Whites? NYT’s Edsall Can’t Think of Any
If you want the support of working-class whites without engaging in xenophobia or other forms of race-baiting, the obvious approach is to appeal to them as members of the working class. But Thomas Edsall seems to have another agenda.
Karen Hobert Flynn on Census & Citizenship, Jeff Cohen on Cable News Hawks
The administration that has announced and acted on its intention to root out, harass and deport black and brown non-citizens wants to add the question “Are you a US citizen?” to the census. The list of problems with that is long.
‘They Don’t Want Certain Voters to Participate in the Political Process’
“The state saw, almost immediately, tens of thousands of individuals whose voter registration applications were suspended, and blocked from registering, because they couldn’t come up with the documents that the state was demanding.”
Orion Danjuma on Voter Suppression Trial, Maha Hilal on CIA Choice’s Torture Record
The federal trial over voter fraud mouthpiece Kris Kobach’s effort to change registration laws in Kansas is a chance for corporate media to acknowledge the voter fraud pretense as part of the voter suppression effort.
WSJ’s Epic Distortion of Colombian and Venezuelan Refugees
In reporting that Venezuelans are leaving “in Numbers That Echo Syrians to Europe,” the Wall Street Journal picked the wrong country to compare to Syria.
Media Consensus: Dreamers Weren’t Worth a Shutdown
The opinions showcased during the recent government shutdown in three major US newspapers—the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal—showed a striking lack of concern for the fate of the Dreamers and many variations of the same take on the need for a “bipartisan compromise” for immigration reform.
‘These Plainly Discriminatory Policies Are Really a Wholesale Attack on Immigrants’
“When our elected and appointed officials, and those who aspire to be elected and appointed officials, poison the nation’s political debate…that indeed spurs violence against our communities.”
In Trump Era, ‘Both Sides’ on Immigration Includes White Nationalists
President Trump’s far-right immigration policies have US corporate media reaching to the white nationalist fringes of the faux-think tank world to provide “both sides” coverage on the topic.
‘Undocumented Immigrants Are Constantly Used as a Bargaining Chip’
“DACA…was very hard-won by young undocumented people, and it wasn’t just something that was given to them by President Obama.”
Tina Vasquez on DACA, Shaye Wolf on Harvey’s Toxins
While plenty of coverage is skeptical of Trump, are media really understanding what the DACA program does—and doesn’t—mean for recipients?
Before Trump Pardoned Him, Arpaio Was Promoted by Media
Media might also use the Arpaio pardon to examine their own role in giving a pass and a platform to a person who gleefully, purposefully flouted the law in order to carry out a racist campaign.
Media Are Literally Copy-and-Pasting ICE Press Releases
“Copy-and-pasting press releases” is typically used as a term of art to indicate that media are mindlessly repeating a corporate or government line. But recent coverage of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “gang raids” across the country has various outlets literally copy-and-pasting ICE’s press releases.
‘The Basis of a Humane Immigration Policy Is to Respect People as Human Beings’
“The exclusion and expulsion of particular groups of people who have been deemed a threat, or un-American, has very much been part of the whole project of nation-building since the very beginning.”
Mizue Aizeki on Criminalizing Immigrants
Resisting the viewing of immigration policy through a lens of criminality will be key in moving toward a humane vision of immigration.
Trump Supporters Support Trump: To Maintain ‘Balance,’ Media Resort to Tautology
the press parachutes into red-state diners, barbershops and grocery store parking lots to seek out Trump voters—and only Trump voters—to gauge their support for the ban.
