The Narrative of Trump’s Immigration Ban

The mainstream media has found their story. Nothing else could possibly compare to this horrifying executive action. President Trump has officially banned the citizens of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, and Libya from entering the United States for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days.

The way the media’s coverage is being displayed, one would think that the news cycle is extremely devoid of other issues or events in the world today. And the intensity of the coverage on this one issue, the examination of countless angles, and the many interviews of those directly and indirectly effected, leave the audience to feel that this is a monumental event in U.S. history. Taking a quick spin through the self-proclaimed ‘unbiased’ and ‘objective’ mainstream media’s websites, a dark and disturbing message is being delivered.

At CNN 9 out of 9 of their stories located on the top, left side of the page are dedicated to Trump’s ban. CNN has cleared their entire, highly coveted, top left space on the site to cover this one executive order. But this is not the only impactful executive order that Trump has signed in his first week as POTUS. Why aren’t his other executive orders given the same spotlight?

As of Monday morning, 1/30/2017, President Trump has signed 15 executive orders. Among those, Trump signed authorization to: minimize the economic burden of Obamacare, commence immediate construction of a border wall, withdraw from TPP, green-light the Keystone XL Pipeline, ban the administration’s appointees from lobbying  for 5 years following their appointment, freeze hiring for all federal employees except the military, etc. Yet, judging by the mainstream media’s websites, you would think Trump had only signed one executive order.

In similar fashion, ABC News has 5 out of 11 of their ‘Top Stories’ on the topic of the immigration ban. Moreover, their key article pictures a black-dressed, militant march of ISIS fighters in the background of the story titled, ‘Trump’s Travel Ban Heightens Risk of Attacks in US, Homeland Security Expert Says.‘ This image was chosen specifically for it’s scary, ISIS militant imagery, which is used by ABC News to associate the fear of an ISIS attack with the potential consequences of Donald Trump’s ban. In fact, this is yet another example of the perpetuated, mainstream media narrative that Donald Trump is the next Hitler.

Scott Adams, creator of the ‘Dilbert’ cartoon and self-proclaimed hypnotist, has gone into extensive detail in his blogs to explain the Trump/Hitler association. He explains that we all have filters in which we view the world in order to make sense of it. This is an ongoing ‘movie script’ that plays in our heads, and ever since the recent campaign, Hillary Clinton’s team, along with the mainstream media, have promulgated this narrative that Donald Trump is the next Hitler ascending to power. People who consciously or unconsciously subscribe to this idea are constantly in search of confirmation bias to support it. Trump’s many other executive orders, appointments, and actions up to this point as president have lacked that militant, dictatorial quality necessary for this narrative to manifest. That is, until this executive order.

When the media finally received it’s nugget of confirmation bias, they cleared their slate of all other stories, and they have now applied sole focus on ‘the ban.’

To illustrate the sheer absurdity and pervasive nature of this narrative, even ESPN (owned by the Walt Disney Company along with ABC News) has dedicated a significant portion of their show, “First Take,” to one NBA player’s opposition to Trump’s travel ban. There are hundreds of professional athletes that have a multitude of opinions outside of their sport. Yet, this one opinion has been deemed ‘news worthy?’ Steve Kerr’s disapproval of the president’s policy is not sports’ news; it’s a designed interjection of a political hot topic onto an unsuspecting sports audience.

“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed.” – Mark Twain

MSN, a news aggregator, likewise shows 4 out of 4 of their top stories inside the top, left window box to be dedicated to the ban as well.

As for MSNBC 9 out of 10 of their ‘Top Stories’ combining those from NBC and MSNBC echoed that of the rest of mainstream media.

All of this fear enabled, media attention on this issue would leave one to believe that this move is unprecedented for a U.S. president. In fact, beloved Democrat, President Obama’s “State Department stopped processing Iraq refugees for six months in 2011” as described by ABC News. There were no protests; there wasn’t a peep out these same people who today are literally shaking from Trump’s actions. Likewise, Democratic President Jimmy Carter banned “all visas issued to Iranian citizens for future entry into the United States” in 1980. Where was the outrage back then?

The narrative is clear. The people who swallow the volumes of articles, the emphasis and severity given to each one, and the manufactured, overall impact of this ban on the American landscape are being deliberately steered away from context and perspective. These readers are being made to believe that they have been informed of the truth, but the reality is that they are being conditioned to disproportionately respond to this executive action for a broader agenda, the demagoguery of the current president.

“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.” – Thomas Jefferson