Myopia in Western Media Covering Refugee Crisis’ - Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting

Much of the serious reporting that does exist often presents refugees as the problem, rather than displacement and its drivers. The narrative is driven by the supposed inconvenience of Western citizens rather than the actual story of the refugees themselves. 

In scale and complexity, the crisis of the world’s displaced—65.9 million people, according to the UN Refugee Agency—is difficult to grasp. The need for a public reckoning, a working through of a societal response to this unprecedented circumstance, is clear.

Much of the serious reporting that does exist often presents refugees as the problem, rather than displacement and its drivers. The narrative is driven by the supposed inconvenience of Western citizens rather than the actual story of the refugees themselves.  We don’t get to hear the stories of why people leave, because it seems as if the public in the West is more invested in how to deal with the refugees than what their lives are about.

This leads one to wonder how much media help, not just in the fight to ensure that people’s humanity is respected, whatever their status, but in the effort to understand the roots of this global phenomenon and address it in a humane way.

The full article is available here.

Donald Trump's Behavior Is Abnormal - Chicago Tribune

I don't care what party Trump represents. If we were six months into a Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio administration, I'd have plenty of disagreements on policy, but I wouldn't be dropping other columns to highlight routine affronts to the basic decency of the office of the presidency.

What Trump said in Ohio on Tuesday night was not normal. What he said to the Boy Scouts was not normal. What he's doing to his attorney general is not normal.

The full article is available here

Trump Demonstrates He Is Unfit To Lead Our Troops - Washington Post

Trump’s impulsiveness and self-absorption make him incapable of thinking beyond his self-interest.

It is hard to think of any presidential act, before President Trump’s Twitter announcement Wednesday that he was banning transgender individuals from the military, that was so plainly designed to use the military as a pawn in a self-centered political stunt.

The act was among the most cynical and irresponsible of his presidency,  designed to save the president from his own scandals.

Never have we seen a president provoke such chaos in the military, acting with no regard for the welfare of the troops or the security of the nation, with no military justification whatsoever.  Trump’s impulsiveness and self-absorption make him incapable of thinking beyond his self-interest.

The incident reminds us that Trump’s impulsiveness and self-absorption make him incapable of thinking beyond his self-interest.  He would disrupt our military, create havoc among active service personnel and their families, and lie that this was all the military’s idea — just to create another issue to distract from his political woes.

The full article is available here

Trump Family Values - David Remnick in The New Yorker

The country is headed towards a constitutional crisis.  When will Republicans collectively say "enough?" Good question, however Republicans realize that Trump's base is still the core of the G.O.P. electorate, and they dare not antagonize it.

James Clapper, the former director of National Intelligence, said that the Donald Trump Jr Russia e-mails were probably “only one anecdote in a much larger story,” adding, “I can’t believe that this one exchange represents all there is, either involving the President’s son or others associated with the campaign.”

Now the country is headed toward a “constitutional crisis,” Clapper said, and the question has to be asked: “When will the Republicans collectively say ‘enough’?”

Good question. Mike Pence, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, business leaders such as Stephen Schwarzman and Carl Icahn, and a raft of White House advisers, including the bulk of the National Security Council, cannot fail to see the chaos, the incompetence, and the potential illegality in their midst, and yet they go on supporting, excusing, and deflecting attention from the President’s behavior in order to protect their own ambitions and fortunes.

However, they realize that Trump’s base is still the core of the G.O.P. electorate, and they dare not antagonize it.

The Republicans, the self-proclaimed party of family values, remain squarely behind a family and a Presidency whose most salient features are amorality, greed, demagoguery, deception, vulgarity, race-baiting, misogyny, and, potentially—only time and further investigation will tell—a murky relationship with a hostile foreign government.

The full article is available here

How To Sustain Perpetual War? Don't Let U.S. Public See The Bodies - Peter Van Buren

In 1969, Life magazine published a famous edition consisting entirely of portraits of the Americans who died in Vietnam that week. Many subscribers canceled, but many more looked for the first time outside the narrative. The war found its end.

Sustaining America’s state of post-9/11 perpetual war requires skillful manipulation of the public at home. The key tool used for this purpose is the bloodless narrative, a combination of policy, falsehoods and media manipulation that creates the impression that America’s wars have few consequences, at least for Americans.

The bloodless war narrative’s solution to the dead is a policy of don’t look, don’t tell.

Dick Cheney, as Secretary of Defense for George H. W. Bush, helped decide in 1991 the first Iraq War would play better if Americans did not see their fallen return home. He recalled the images of coffins from the 1989 invasion of Panama on television, transposed against the president speaking of victory, and banned media from Dover Air Force Base, where deceased American personnel would arrive from the Persian Gulf.

The ban at Dover lasted 18 years, past George Bush 2.0 and Iraq War 2.0, overturned only in 2009, well after the casualty counts dropped off. Even then, allowing cameras at Dover was left at the discretion of the families.

In 1969, Life magazine published a famous edition consisting entirely of portraits of the Americans who died in Vietnam that week. Many subscribers canceled, but many more looked for the first time outside the narrative. The war found its end.

We are no longer likely to see those nasty pictures. The military has become more skillful at manipulating the media.

The full article is available here

Please Stop Calling Donald Trump A Child - Ryan Stoller from Unfundamentalist Parenting

Children are better than the stereotypes we reduce them to in order to insult others.

The 45th president of America: a man who revels in selfishness, whines when he does not get his way, throws public fits when people anger him, tosses personal insults left and right, and boasts about his genitals.

For these reasons and many others, some people have taken to describing him as “childish,” “like a toddler,” or “like a child.”

This is unfortunate, because children deserve better. Children are better than the stereotypes we reduce them to in order to insult others. Comparing Donald Trump to children is unfair to children. I know many children who are more kind, respectful, and thoughtful than Trump has unfortunately been able to be thus far.

Additionally, when children act in negative ways that mirror Trump, such as throwing tantrums, they have legitimate excuses: they are still developing emotionally, physically, and psychologically.

They are children, which means they are still learning to regulate their emotions. They are still learning right from wrong. They are still adjusting to social mores and standards of communication.

The full article is available here