Journalists who oppose curbs on illegal immigration do two things when it comes to the construction of more border wall: They either insist it won’t work, or they belittle the very idea of any wall. The point is to make President Trump and his supporters look stupid for wanting it in the first place.
CNN did the latter on Tuesday, and in the cleverest of ways.
In a news package on Latinos who do support Trump, it’s about 35 percent, according to CNN itself, correspondent Miguel Marquez ended the segment in Hidalgo, Texas, with a shot of him standing by what appeared to be sweet little house gate.
“Now here in this area of South Texas, this is what the barrier looks like between the U.S. and Mexico, in large part, metal, about five feet high.”
That is, in fact, the barrier I saw in Texas with my own eyes. But I did it the way an actual journalist would if he wanted to seriously convey what it looks like. Marquez was standing on the side of the border that faces the city in Texas. On the other side, which faces south toward Mexico, there is a 20-feet drop. The steel barrier continues down that drop and is reinforced with concrete. That makes it a roughly 25-foot-high barrier.
Marquez did say, “To be fair, on the other side there’s about a 20-foot drop that you can’t see right now,” but why on earth would CNN’s camera show that part of the wall barrier if not to make the idea of a wall look foolish? Anyone with an inkling on how TV works understands that you show what you say. That little box you’re looking at has pictures for a reason!
It’s not hard to get actual footage or pictures that accurately demonstrate the border barrier. I put some on my own personal Instagram!
Is immigration out of control in this country? Yes. Do the walls that are currently already on the border work to deter illegal crossing? Yes. Both can be true.
But not for the news media. For them, a wall, like Trump and his supporters, is something just to be mocked.
[Also read: A pessimistic Ann Coulter concedes that ‘it doesn’t have to be a wall’]
