Media Manipulation: Tea Party and Border Patrol Spin the Story of Children in Detention

June 26, 2014
Media Manipulation

Tea Party and Border Patrol Spin the Story of Children in Detention

by DAVID BACON


Journalist Laura Carlsen, writing from Mexico City, has published on the Americas Program website an important article about the way the U.S. media covers the migration of children to the U.S. – Child Migrants and Media Half-Truths. Carlsen raises key questions – the cause of the displacement that leads to migration, and the way the story of migrating children is used for political purposes in the debate over immigration policy.

The story of children in detention is being manipulated by the Border Patrol and the Tea Party to kill any possibility that moderate Republicans will introduce any reform bill with legalization, to attack Obama’s executive action for the Dreamers (and any possibility he might expand it – the demand of many immigrant rights advocates), and to push for more resources for enforcement, the Border Patrol and expanded detention facilities.

Looking at the way the story broke into the press, and who broke it, this strategy is clear. The story began with a series of photographs, showing young people and children in detention centers all along the U.S./Mexico border. These photos were published on a website, breitbart.com, which has a long history with the Tea Party and extreme rightwing causes.

Many readers will remember the phony video that killed ACORN. That video was introduced to the media by Andrew Breitbart, who started the website that bears his name. John Atlas describes that role here.

In the case of the story on children in detention, the original photos were “leaked” by the Border Patrol to a writer with an extensive history with the Tea Party in Texas, Brandon Darby. Darby has run pieces before on behalf of the Border Patrol, and was a protégé of Andrew Breitbart, who died in 2012.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/