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You make it sound like there’s an ideological 50/50 ratio in US media. This isn’t even close to the truth. The ratio is likely closer to 90/10, if not worse.

You make it sound like there’s an ideological 50/50 ratio in US media. This isn’t even close to the truth. The ratio is likely closer to 90/10, if not worse. Simple example: A huge portion of the US population has no clue of the tragedy unfolding at the US/Mexico border. Why? Because the media is actively suppressing coverage. If they don’t talk about it, it doesn’t exist. Out of all the reporters in the White House briefing room, only one asks questions about this, and the answers are a study in political avoidance. Did you know kids are being found dead on a regular basis? Drowned, dehydrated in the desert, etc. And, of course, girls are being molested, abused, raped and trafficked. No, this didn’t come from Fox News. We watch the Hispanic new networks every morning. They are reporting some of this on a daily basis. Just a couple of days ago they found four little girls in the desert, one if them thought dead and later survived. These events alone should be reason for mass demonstrations against the abject incompetence and callousness of current border policies. And yet, because of the overwhelming alignment of the media with the current ideological bend, the death and suffering continues. Had this happened during the last four years you would have 24/7 coverage of the carnage, including live helicopter video of dead kids in the desert. That’s how bad it is. This is precisely what the quoted portion of Solzhenitsyn‘s speech was referring to. I understand his frustration. Having come from a place where military rule controlled it all, it is disheartening to see the US in the grips of ideology through a less centralized mechanism. This society is supposed to be “free” and yet people are afraid to speak up because their lives or livelihoods are at very real risk. This is sad to watch.

licebmi__at__ 5y ago
Is this happening on a different scale? Because I have heard/read about this happening since I was a kid, and I meant hearing tales from my uncles who did cross the border illegally, and certainly don’t remember anything other than the rhetoric about kids in cages by liberals and the “build the wall” chants by conservatives during Trump’s administration. I meant I could be wrong, but given the historical disinterest that the media has shown about the border drama, I would imagine this is more the same apathy than a concerted effort to suppress coverage, and I would in fact argue that the sudden interest by conservative media is only because this is something that can be blamed on Biden.
- redis_mlc 5y ago
  > I meant I could be wrong, ... Your post is remarkably un-informed. Even cnn.com, a leftist organ, says the following: The border states are facing record illegal immigration, to the extent all their police forces are buried in trying to do something about it. This was caused by 3 things: 1) Democratic policy is to not enforce immigration policy in the expectation that illegal immigrants will vote Dem later. (There was a study done in the Obama administration that 80% of illegals would vote Dem.) This subverts our immigration laws for the benefit of one party at the expense of the nation. 2) Biden telling illegal immigrants to come north in speeches. This is based on his policy team believing "it's compassionate to allow illegal immigrants in", but no well-governed country allows that. The EU tried unrestricted economic migration from Africa, and it's an unfolding disaster. We should learn from that. (Poland and Hungary avoided the ruinous expense of housing unemployed migrants by building walls to enforce their immigration policies.) Biden's stated policy is that he wants to solve the problem at the root, namely by improving the economies in Mexico and South America. It's laughable since we can build a wall, but we can't fix broken foreign economies. 3) Trump started building the wall because it was needed. But see points #1 and #2 about why Biden stopped that. There's somewhere around 100,000 children abandoned inside the US border because there is no wall, and the families hope the children will reunite with existing family members in the US.
- robomartin 5y ago
  I am not taking sides. As a descendant of genocide survivors I don’t care about sides, only life. What’s going on right now is way beyond kids in cages. It’s horrific. And, yes, it’s a lot worse that it has been in decades. I think we are at a run rate approximating 1.8 million a year. That’s just insane, particularly in an economy that is not creating 1.8 million extra jobs per year.
  - licebmi__at__ 5y ago
    I thought this was about the humanitarian catastrophe, not about economy or jobs, so my take is that US migration policy is not humanitarian with Biden, was not humanitarian with Trump, Obama and previous administrations; claiming that there’s a concerted effort to hide this now… well might be true, but I think it can be better explained with just a general apathy, after all, people were dying during Trump era like they are now, and as mention, while I remember a certain anti Trump rethoric, I don’t remember anti Trump media specially fixated on the worse part. Migration is a complicated business, and I definitely agree that uncontrolled migration can crash the economy. I don’t think conservative media cares about the border crisis more than just as a power grab.

licebmi__at__ 5y ago

Is this happening on a different scale? Because I have heard/read about this happening since I was a kid, and I meant hearing tales from my uncles who did cross the border illegally, and certainly don’t remember anything other than the rhetoric about kids in cages by liberals and the “build the wall” chants by conservatives during Trump’s administration. I meant I could be wrong, but given the historical disinterest that the media has shown about the border drama, I would imagine this is more the same apathy than a concerted effort to suppress coverage, and I would in fact argue that the sudden interest by conservative media is only because this is something that can be blamed on Biden.

redis_mlc 5y ago
> I meant I could be wrong, ... Your post is remarkably un-informed. Even cnn.com, a leftist organ, says the following: The border states are facing record illegal immigration, to the extent all their police forces are buried in trying to do something about it. This was caused by 3 things: 1) Democratic policy is to not enforce immigration policy in the expectation that illegal immigrants will vote Dem later. (There was a study done in the Obama administration that 80% of illegals would vote Dem.) This subverts our immigration laws for the benefit of one party at the expense of the nation. 2) Biden telling illegal immigrants to come north in speeches. This is based on his policy team believing "it's compassionate to allow illegal immigrants in", but no well-governed country allows that. The EU tried unrestricted economic migration from Africa, and it's an unfolding disaster. We should learn from that. (Poland and Hungary avoided the ruinous expense of housing unemployed migrants by building walls to enforce their immigration policies.) Biden's stated policy is that he wants to solve the problem at the root, namely by improving the economies in Mexico and South America. It's laughable since we can build a wall, but we can't fix broken foreign economies. 3) Trump started building the wall because it was needed. But see points #1 and #2 about why Biden stopped that. There's somewhere around 100,000 children abandoned inside the US border because there is no wall, and the families hope the children will reunite with existing family members in the US.
robomartin 5y ago
I am not taking sides. As a descendant of genocide survivors I don’t care about sides, only life. What’s going on right now is way beyond kids in cages. It’s horrific. And, yes, it’s a lot worse that it has been in decades. I think we are at a run rate approximating 1.8 million a year. That’s just insane, particularly in an economy that is not creating 1.8 million extra jobs per year.
- licebmi__at__ 5y ago
  I thought this was about the humanitarian catastrophe, not about economy or jobs, so my take is that US migration policy is not humanitarian with Biden, was not humanitarian with Trump, Obama and previous administrations; claiming that there’s a concerted effort to hide this now… well might be true, but I think it can be better explained with just a general apathy, after all, people were dying during Trump era like they are now, and as mention, while I remember a certain anti Trump rethoric, I don’t remember anti Trump media specially fixated on the worse part. Migration is a complicated business, and I definitely agree that uncontrolled migration can crash the economy. I don’t think conservative media cares about the border crisis more than just as a power grab.