As a rule of thumb in economics, it is generally accepted that what is good for the individual is bad for the group and what is good for the group is bad for the individual. If an individual saves up money and does not spend it, then that is good for that one person. However, if everyone does likewise (not spending), then no one is buying commodities and the economy goes into recession. If the government places a tax on gasoline, it will hurt the individual consumer, but will hopefully allow for the making of roadways that benefit everyone.
In journalism, some of this same thing occurs. Individual reporters are notoriously far Leftists. They go out into the world and try to find human interest stories. They will talk to people as individuals, then write up their hard-luck stories in the most sympathetic way possible. Meanwhile, the editor (who stays back in the office worrying about advertising revenue and making payroll) becomes a bit more conservative as he worries about practicality. How will it sell, what about the advertisers?
The other day, I was over at The Federalist, generally a good website for moderately conservative views. I saw that they had a podcast titled “Behind An Award Winning Documentary On The Border Crisis.” “Oh good,” I remember thinking, “Could this be a review of the Epoch Times documentary on the border?”
Sadly, I clicked on the podcast and discovered it was the exact opposite. It was about a movie called Missing in Brooks County. (Who’s missing? Deported illegals, that’s who.) It has all the hallmarks of left-wing propaganda and sadly, Federalist Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky [Tweet her] seems to have fallen for it.
To begin with, the movie focuses on two families who lost loved ones who tried to walk around the Border Patrol’s Falfurias Checkpoint in Texas. Right away, you know the filmmaker is going to be focusing on individual hard luck stories, the trope of left-wing indoctrination.
You know the filmmakers would never do a documentary on Angel Moms, those mothers who lost children due to illegal aliens (either being murdered, or in car accidents). You know that these far Leftists would never do a documentary on an American drywaller who lost his business due to being undercut by immigrants (both legal and not) who came in and underbid him on jobs. Even the left-wing media is forced to admit that Florida’s mandatory E-verify is raising wages of the workers who remain. No, the focus is going to be on trying to find the most sympathetic alien, then bashing the Border Patrol and anyone else trying to stop his entry into the country.
One of those missing, Homero, came to the United States as a five-year-old—brought illegally by his illegal parents. At age 31, a traffic stop led to his deportation. As far Leftist propagandist director Jeff Bemiss tells us in a cliché, “He was deported to a country he didn’t even remember.” Oh, the poor dear! The only solution is an Open Border to stop this madness! If I may point out, currently, there are 60-year-old people uprooting themselves from the only country they have ever known to come to the United States. Why? It’s not because they have a sudden burning desire to learn English. Again, it’s for the same reasons the barbarians went to Rome. It’s because we have a better economy and (for the time being) a lower crime rate. It’s not because they suddenly hear about our Bill of Rights, and it’s not because of rising tides.
