{"id":346639,"date":"2018-02-03T14:40:29","date_gmt":"2018-02-03T13:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/media-consensus-dreamers-werent-worth-a-shutdown\/"},"modified":"2018-02-03T14:40:29","modified_gmt":"2018-02-03T13:40:29","slug":"media-consensus-dreamers-werent-worth-a-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/media-consensus-dreamers-werent-worth-a-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Consensus: Dreamers Weren\u2019t Worth a Shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"New<\/p>\n

Speaking for the media consensus, David Leonhardt (New York Times<\/strong>, 1\/23\/18<\/a>) wrote that “Democrats made a smart move to reopen the government.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The opinions showcased during the recent government shutdown in three major US newspapers\u2014the New York Times<\/b>, Washington Post <\/b>and Wall Street Journal<\/b>\u2014showed a striking lack of concern for the fate of the Dreamers and many variations of the same take on the need for a \u201cbipartisan compromise\u201d for immigration reform.<\/p>\n

Out of 34 op-eds and editorials from three days before to three days after the shutdown (1\/17\u201325\/18), only Times <\/b>columnist Michelle Goldberg (1\/22\/18<\/a>) criticized the Democrats for selling out the Dreamers\u2014young undocumented immigrants who had been granted limited protection by the Obama administration\u2014by agreeing to end the government shutdown in exchange for a vague promise for a future vote from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Most of the op-eds and editorials argued that giving up on the Dreamers was an inevitable or smart choice for the Democrats, or that securing a resolution for the Dreamers wasn\u2019t worth a government shutdown.<\/p>\n

Despite some criticism of President Donald Trump and the Republican leadership\u2019s unreliability and dishonesty as negotiating partners (New York Times<\/b>, 1\/19\/18<\/a>, 1\/23\/18<\/a>; Washington Post<\/b>, 1\/19\/18<\/a>, 1\/22\/18<\/a>), none of the opinion pieces advocated for the Democratic Party to hold out for a clean DREAM Act that would provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers that isn\u2019t tied to a concurrent clampdown on immigration.<\/p>\n

The 20 columnists and op-ed contributors were 90 percent white (and 80 percent male); none were Latino, the ethnicity most associated with the Dreamers. While corporate media allowed space for pundits, former government officials and editors of right-wing publications to opine on how both major parties should handle the US\u2019s immigration system, they couldn\u2019t find room for contributions from Dreamers themselves, immigration activists or any representatives from the left.<\/p>\n

\"WSJ:<\/p>\n

In the Wall Street Journal<\/strong> (1\/24\/18<\/a>), Karl Rove argued that “Democrats lost on the process question of closing the government.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

From the conservative end of the corporate media spectrum, the Wall Street<\/b> Journal<\/b>\u2019s editorial board could scarcely contain their glee at Democrats\u2019 failure to secure a better outcome for undocumented youth, calling the shutdown a \u201cfutile and stupid\u201d gesture, while simultaneously portraying the Trump administration as minimizing the negative effects of the government closure (1\/21\/18<\/a>, 1\/22\/18<\/a>). The Journal<\/b> allowed op-eds from Bill Galston (1\/23\/18<\/a>) and Karl Rove (1\/24\/18<\/a>) to repeat the same message in different ways by arguing that \u201cthe way forward is clear\u201d for a bipartisan compromise, and that both parties can get \u201csome of what they want\u201d as long as they \u201cdon\u2019t insist on getting everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though on the other side of the corporate media spectrum, the New York<\/b> Times<\/b> opinion pages were hardly different in substance. Even as they disagreed among one other, the Times<\/b>\u2019 columnists managed to concur that creating a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers wasn\u2019t worth a government shutdown. While David Brooks (1\/22\/18<\/a>) lambasted the Democrats as stupid and incompetent, David Leonhardt (1\/23\/18<\/a>) praised the Democrats\u2019 agreement to reopen the government as a \u201csmart move.\u201d Gail Collins found herself admitting that her dialogue with her racist, climate-denying<\/a> colleague Bret Stephens (1\/22\/18<\/a>) wasn\u2019t very substantive, because while she thought Trump\u2019s wall was \u201cstupid and offensive,\u201d she agreed that \u201cit\u2019s not worth shutting down the government forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WaPo:<\/p>\n

For the Washington Post<\/strong> (1\/22\/18<\/a>), the “true winners” were ” a bipartisan group of 25 senators spent the weekend talking instead of excoriating one another.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Washington Post<\/b>\u2019s opinion space didn\u2019t differ very much from the Journal <\/b>or the Times<\/b> in substance, as its editorials also called for bipartisan compromise\u2014\u201cwhy choke on a full loaf when half a loaf will do?\u201d (1\/17\/18<\/a>)\u2014and called the bargain to reopen the government a \u201creasonable one\u201d that \u201cmoderate lawmakers\u201d can build upon (1\/23\/18<\/a>). Post <\/b>columnist Fareed Zakaria \u00a0(1\/18\/18<\/a>) went so far as to characterize Democrats as \u201cextreme\u201d on the issue of immigration, and insisted on finding a \u201cmiddle ground\u201d despite Trump\u2019s discussing the issue \u201cin ways that seem, to me, racist.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Post \u00a0<\/b>(1\/17\/18<\/a>) even found room for an op-ed from Christopher Buskirk, the editor of a far-right website that called on Trump to overthrow<\/a> the US\u2019s political order, who pleaded for Trump not to \u201cbetray\u201d his base and to reject a clean DREAM Act. Strange how all the \u201cmoderates\u201d ended up taking the same position as the right-wing extremist.<\/p>\n

Corporate media opinion-makers internalize the political needs and priorities of both major parties\u2019 elected officials (Politico<\/b>, 1\/24\/18<\/a>), even when those officials\u2019 political instincts are actually remarkably bad<\/a>. Why should top papers relentlessly reiterate the same solemn calls for Democratic lawmakers to betray their base, even with major support<\/a> from the American public for a humane approach to immigration, while marginalizing the demand<\/a> that they represent the will of the people?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span>
\nThis piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission from FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaking for the media consensus, David Leonhardt (New York Times, 1\/23\/18) wrote that “Democrats made a smart move to reopen the government.” The opinions showcased during the recent government shutdown in three major US newspapers\u2014the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal\u2014showed a striking lack of concern for the fate of the Dreamers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2521,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-346639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}