Public trust in the corporate news media (a.k.a. the legacy media, mainstream media, etc.) may be at an all-time low. However, we can’t help but wonder if the political elite have been working hard to help the media reach its new stature. And we have questions. Consider these recent news items:
- “We are experiencing only transitory inflation.” Very happy to hear that the recent price increases are only transitory, and that the related loss of value for our dollars is temporary. When can we expect the prices of groceries, fuel, and other necessities of life to go back to previous levels, and the dollar to regain its strength? I think we know the answer.
- “Congress passed a temporary increase in the debt limit.” Congress voted to raise the debt ceiling through December, but it is not clear that the headline means what it says. So if the increase to the cap on our national debt is only temporary, will part of that debt be paid back so that the total can go back to the level it used to be? I think we know the answer to this one, too.
- “No crisis at the border.” Well, maybe tens of thousands of illegal immigrants are not a crisis, but we have a related but different question. News interviews with illegal immigrants revealed that they come from all over the world, including nations in Africa. At least a few thousand came from Haiti. That is a long way to swim, so how did they arrive on the North, Central, or South American mainland, and who paid for the trip? This one needs someone in the news media to ferret out the answers.
P.S. An article in this morning’s Wall Street Journal reports that a growing number of illegal immigrants are middle-class people who pay to fly as close as they can to the US border and then take a cab or a bus to the border to walk into our country. Most of them seem to be from Venezuela or Brazil. This does not answer our third question, above, but at least someone in the press is finally starting to ask the obvious.
A Cup of Brouhaha 