Unscrupulous

Back when I was a young reporter, both at the local college weekly and the daily paper where I cut my teeth, I caught flak for unflattering stories I’d written about the Greek community, mostly fraternities.

I was a higher-education beat reporter back then and regularly wrote about their antics, from run-of-the-mill shenanigans to serious incidents, including multiple cases of near-fatal binge-drinking and a hazing ritual that ended a young man’s life.

When folks bemoaned the fact that I didn’t cover enough of their do-goodery efforts, I explained that raising money for charities was something they were supposed to do—it went along with their stated values and was expected of them. So it wasn’t as newsworthy as, say, a fraternity whose members had sex with adult-film stars for a college-themed video sold on the internet. Yes, that really happened. And yes, I broke the story.

I always kept my cool when talking to those who charged that my reporting was too harsh, but what I really wanted to say was, “Stop doing dumb shit!” After all, that’s the only sure-fire way to keep your organization’s name out of the local press—or worse, have the story picked up by national news outlets. That happened, too.

These days, I still catch flak—mostly for news and commentary based on the antics of the president of the United States. This week, for example, I’ve heard from readers of my last column who are twisting themselves into knots trying to defend the president’s short-lived but nonetheless devastating policy of separating children from their asylum-seeking parents, mainly mothers.

In doing so, they use propagandist talking points likely picked up from far-right sources or POTUS himself. Like Trump, they say the president chose to prosecute immigrants as a method of dealing with the flawed “catch-and-release” law Democrats had put into place. Untrue. Essentially, a court ruling during George W. Bush’s administration determined that indefinitely detaining people, irrespective of their legal status, is illegal without due process.

Another talking point: that President Obama had done the same thing. Also misleading. Yes, families were separated during his presidency, but only in limited cases—such as when there were concerns about child trafficking or when family detention centers were filled to capacity. In fact, in 2016, due to yet another court ruling, most families were released with a notice to appear in immigration court (some were even fitted with ankle monitors). But there was never a blanket policy of criminal prosecution, which, in a month’s time under the Trump administration, has resulted in the government taking more than 2,300 children, including infants, and placing them into detention facilities without their parents.

Trump signed an executive order last week that, at least for now, calls for detaining families together. A statement from Homeland Security over the weekend lacked details of its reunification plan. Meanwhile, 2,000-plus kids remained in captivity as of deadline.

As for my Trump-supporting critics: Well, they’ll just have to suffer through commentary that addresses the overwhelming array of stupid, dangerous, cruel and anti-democratic shit born of his unscrupulous administration—including the discriminatory “Muslim ban” SCOTUS upheld this week, the banking deregulation that could jeopardize the economy, and, of course, caging refugee children.