Now that the high flying patriotic rhetoric is packed away for another year and America's supposed pre-eminent place among modern democracies is proclaimed secure, most of the media will redouble its concentration on the political horserace among democrats for their party's presidential nomination. What will suffer will be coverage of the continuing outrages on our southern border, tRump's disastrous foreign policy and the worsening economic disparity between the rich and poor in our nation. I think the media giants who control much of what we see and hear like it this way, since they are beneficiaries of many of the policies being pursued by the present administration.
Alexandra Occasio Cortez, known more by her initials, AOC has pointed out the detention facilities in Texas, where up to 11,000 children are being held are "concentration camps". Cue the right wing outrage, led by torture advocate Liz Cheyney who pretends to believe these references cheapen the Holocaust history. Instead of educating Americans about our own history in this regard, the media resorts to both siderism once again.
The fact is, going as far back as the Civil War, we have abused prisoners in search of political victory. Andersonville, Georgia is the site of an infamous Confederate prison camp where up to 45,000 Union soldiers were held with no shelter through a Southern summer. Nearly 11,000 died and the commander of the camp was charged with war crimes. In the Phillipines at the turn of the century we did the same thing to freedom fighters in that country. Of course the Japanese internment camps of WW2 are another lasting stain on our country.
If all we are going to get for the remainder of the year is non-stop political coverage, I hope the candidates will use their bully pulpit to advocate for the refugees being abused by this administration and that they continue to shame the media into covering this outrage.
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