Well, folks, it looks like the media have gotten their marching orders. Putting migrant children in “cages” was outrageous enough, but now it’s happening at the site of a former Japanese internment camp. Swarm! Swarm!
Trump administration plans to use Fort Sill, which previously served as a Japanese internment camp, to house 1,400 migrant children https://t.co/2IYALnbtmC
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) June 12, 2019
Immigrant children will reportedly be housed at a former Japanese internment camp https://t.co/c6DXc8SoO3 pic.twitter.com/p4cCRdRqrv
— Splinter (@splinter_news) June 12, 2019
NEW: Trump admin to hold migrant children at base that served as WWII Japanese internment camp https://t.co/iiePhBbnjc pic.twitter.com/ehHNf6yknN
— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) June 12, 2019
JUST IN: Trump administration to send migrant children to former Japanese internment camp: report https://t.co/UsdSmYuKoe pic.twitter.com/6cWPuj9mNg
— The Hill (@thehill) June 12, 2019
Trump administration to hold migrant children at base that served as WWII Japanese internment camp https://t.co/5nu8DjtSYy
— TIME (@TIME) June 12, 2019
Admin Housing Migrant Kids At Army Base Once Used As Japanese Internment Camp https://t.co/c7uKV6wiqK pic.twitter.com/1QisYZDPqD
— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) June 12, 2019
Migrant children will be kept at Army base used as a Japanese internment camp in World War II https://t.co/eWMmTEvOsx pic.twitter.com/f57mw234T6
— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 12, 2019
This is basically history repeating itself, right? Well, not so much. See, what those breathless headlines fail to mention is that those migrant kids aren’t being detained at a former Japanese internment camp, per se:
Recommended
The "former Japanese internment camp" is also just a U.S. Army base that's been continually operating since the 1860's. https://t.co/EHu7Si2jaO
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) June 12, 2019
Uh, it's Ft. Sill. You know, home of the Army's Artillery School and it was established 70 years before WWII https://t.co/dA60xwejUn
— DaveinTexas (@DaveinTexas) June 12, 2019
It's an Army base but enjoy the rage clicks and retweets.
— Lyndsey Fifield (@lyndseyfifield) June 12, 2019
Now, knowing that so many people don’t bother to click the links and go by what they read in headlines, why on earth would they leave that out? We can’t for the life of us figure it out.
Whoever wrote your headline should be fired.
— Mark “BBQ addict” C ?? (@UntraceableMC) June 12, 2019
Whoever wrote their headlines left a little something else out, too:
Liberals: Trump is sending migrant children to a Japanese internment camp!
FACT CHECK: Actually, it's a U.S. Army base.
Also, Obama sent people there for shelter in 2014 too.
— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) June 12, 2019
At least Al Jazeera’s tweet mentioned that this is just another carryover from the Obama administration (though we get the impression that they did so only grudgingly):
The Trump admin picked a military base that served as a WWII Japanese internment camp to now house up to 1,400 unaccompanied migrant children. Fort Sill in Oklahoma also served as a temporary shelter for unaccompanied children in 2014. pic.twitter.com/ZEWu0rBUrd
— AJ+ (@ajplus) June 12, 2019
But to learn that from the other outlets above, you’d have to read past the headline and scour the article for the buried sentence mentioning the Obama administration’s policy (it’s worth noting that some of the outlets failed to include Obama’s name at all). The Daily Beast couldn’t even be bothered to put it in their article at all.
Just continuing an Obama Administration precedent. But let’s leave that out of the headline
— Brian Piña (@BrianPina) June 12, 2019
2014: Oklahoma Republicans to Obama: No More Child Migrants at Fort Sill https://t.co/fRMPOtjlha via @RollCall
2019: Trump Administration to Hold Migrant Children at Base That Served as WWII Japanese Internment Camphttps://t.co/VAWXabJLJX pic.twitter.com/soGRSwSchN— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) June 12, 2019
"Obama Sends Migrant Children to Former Japanese Internment Camp," right The Hill? pic.twitter.com/SbFzIXAJmu
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) June 12, 2019
Search of Twitter before 2015 for "fort sill japanese internment"
Zero hits.
Search of Twitter since 6/10/19 for "fort sill japanese internment"
Dozens and dozens of hits.https://t.co/r2iQIqdJunhttps://t.co/TlYDSYcadO pic.twitter.com/AVqbMLSpK0— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) June 12, 2019
So, what have we learned today? We’ve learned that the media haven’t learned a damn thing.
This headline vs article is why conservatives get furious at news orgs.
When Obama did this, not a single major news org reported it this way. pic.twitter.com/MhtdorUqy8— PoliMath (@politicalmath) June 12, 2019
The Obama administration stated outright that the reason for putting families in these camps was to deter illegal immigration pic.twitter.com/KCcZGoeHfI
— PoliMath (@politicalmath) June 12, 2019
The more loudly the press bitches about Trump, the more obvious it becomes that Trump's policies aren't really that much different than Obama's.
Certain people have simply discovered they didn't like those policies now that they don't like the guy in charge.— PoliMath (@politicalmath) June 12, 2019
That’s it in a nutshell.
Editor’s note: This post has been updated with additional text and tweets.
***
Update:
Nice job, firefighters! Liberal outrage machine takes the bogus 'Japanese internment camp' narrative and runs with it https://t.co/6uPB6R6Fu2
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 12, 2019
***
Related:
“Who’s the real dummy?” Don Lemon forgets who pioneered putting kids in cages
Join the conversation as a VIP Member