Beware of Trump’s made-for-TV immigration arrests.

5 suggestions for how the mainstream media can counter Trump's coming propaganda blitz

Buckle up, America. The Trump propaganda machine is cranked up and ready for action, powered by unprecedented help from oligarchs like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg and their enormous media platforms. If you think the lies and conspiracy theories raging through the open sewer lines on twitter about the North Carolina hurricanes, New Orleans terror attack, and the LA fires were reprehensible and dangerous, just wait until you see the Trump spectacle that’s meant to storm through our media next.

Pity anyone who voted for Trump because he promised to get grocery prices down. That was never a priority nor even a possibility. Instead we are going to see very quickly what Trump the demagogue had in mind all along: an overwhelming propaganda blitz meant to divide his adversaries, throw the country off balance, and leave people feeling as if submission is their only real choice. It’s all meant to cement his position as the President King. That starts with the made-for-tv immigration crackdowns resulting in endless loops of graphic, brutal images.

Chicago is meant to be the epicenter of Trump’s state violence. Initial reports revealed ICE agents are gathering here to mount a series of arrests beginning Tuesday and lasting for days. Other blue cities like Denver, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. are also being targeted by Trump’s deportation theater. Apparently the ‘shock and awe’ plot was supposed to be a surprise but now that word has leaked about the Chicago focus, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan is suggesting the arrests may happen somewhere else.

Wherever it happens, the right wing media will be right there to capture the captures and beam them to the world on an endless video loop. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Trump team is “planning to work with several right-leaning media outlets to amplify its efforts.” Oh really. Does that mean Fox cameras will do ‘ride-alongs’ with ICE agents to get exclusive video of arrests? That Facebook will live-stream families being torn apart? That Twitter will lie about every single thing related to the arrests in an effort to help Trump solidify his narrative?

Photo credit: Getty Images

The answer is a resounding yes. Fox is the most popular cable news outlet by far and more than half of the country relies on social media for ‘information.’ So when Rupert Murdoch, Musk, Zuckerberg and others allow Trump’s immigration propaganda to swarm those platforms, the public relations myths will take hold with far too many of our fellow Americans.

In the past, the mainstream media has too often played Trumpian propaganda as real news through mindless stenography, images that tell only select parts of the story, and a failed notion of balance that just normalizes the unthinkable. This time, they should at least try to get the story right. Here are several key areas to focus on:

1. Refuse to use Trump talking points

Trump wants the headlines that scream raids. But they aren’t likely going to be raids and the news media should not be afraid to say so. As immigration lawyer Matt Cameron writes:

"Raids" imply squads going house-to-house at random through immigrant neighborhoods. But this is NOT A THING THAT HAPPENS. Let me just say that again: ICE does not do random sweeps of homes in immigrant neighborhoods (or anywhere else). People really need to know this. I'm suggesting that we call these things "arrests" because they are always focused around a targeted list of people with deportation orders and/or criminal records. Most of the people they will be bringing in are already known to ICE, and have reason to know that they are in danger of arrest.

The one place where the word "raid" is appropriate is when ICE comes to workplaces. This stopped under Biden, but every president before him did it. Anyone who works in a place with a majority-undocumented workforce could be at risk, but this is still a very different thing from "raids" on homes

These arrests are also not going to be the unprecedented assault Trump has promised. His PR pitch has been: “On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history to get the criminals out.” While terrible in its own right, experts say the truth is that a few hundred ICE agents arresting dozens of people is not a mass deportation effort. It could turn into that over time but these early efforts are more of a reality-show PR ploy. As Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of American Immigration Council says “it is going to take time for the Trump administration to ramp up immigration enforcement. In the meantime, however, they are going to basically slap a “mass deportation” logo on the side of every regular ICE operation.”

2. Don’t trust anything the Trump team says about the arrests

After immigration arrests are made, we can’t trust the Trump team to tell the truth about the scale of the effort nor who was arrested and why. As I’ve long argued, journalists should not present anything Trump says as fact. As with every story, it’s critical to find other sources, talk to experts, stop putting Trump talking points in headlines & social posts and do journalism, not stenography. Longtime Chicago journalist Joan Esposito says reporters should also:

“...question and double check everything told to them by a person in a position of power. Since we know these arrests are coming I think it also behooves news managers to make sure their reporters are educated about the law. Finally, if there is a press release handed out, you cannot report the press release as established truth.”

Immigration law professor Michael Kagan adds this about those coming Trump press releases promoting the deportation theater:

“Read the texts closely. Very closely. During the first Trump Administration, it was routine for ICE to issue press releases describing an “operation” with impressive numbers of arrests or deportations over several days or weeks, with the strong impression that most were dangerous, violent criminals. But when read closely, these press releases were really just mash-ups of a cluster of separate arrests, with manipulative language that seemed fact-based, and yet impossible to pin down as to the facts that matter most.”

3. Stay on the story

Trump is counting on lazy reporting to sell a false story about his immigration efforts. For far too long, the infamous Steve Bannon strategy of ‘flooding the zone with sh*t” has given journalists an excuse to move off important stories to cover the next Trump outrage. This time, it’s vital that news organizations stay on the story. Go beyond the headlines to tell us what really happened, the impacts on families and communities and how reality measures up with the Trumpian claims and campaign promises. The Cato Institute’s David Beir has examples of the press getting the story terribly wrong during Trump 1. Journalists can and must do better than this.

4. Hold Trump accountable

Holding Trump accountable will require on-going coverage of his well-documented promises vs actual actions. The press should also note how he moves the guideposts along the way.Of course, any and all problems- including people getting hurt- is all on Trump.

All of Trump’s accomplices also require accountability. That includes calling out lies on Fox and other right wing media and pointing out when the tech titans allow their platforms to spread dangerous disinformation. Any corporation writing Trump a big check or even an entertainer singing a song at Trump’s Inaugural events should also have to answer for the likely fallout from this coming immigration effort.

5. Ask the experts

As always, it will be critical for news organizations to seek out actual experts on immigration to help inform the news coverage. Don’t rely on Trump and his anti-immigration acolytes. There are lawyers, subject matter experts and immigration-focused journalists you can and should rely upon for background, context, facts and more. You can find solid resources in these Blue Sky starter packs on immigration news sources, immigration policy experts, legal scholars and asylum experts. Use them.

This is a critical first test of how the news media will cover Trump 2’s raging propaganda storm. The challenge is made even tougher now that Trump has captured the powerful megaphones of Twitter, Facebook and more. I’m afraid that media giants like CBS, ABC and the Washington Post have already shown us they do not intend to do much news reporting that pushes back. Fortunately, there are many smaller, yet fearless news organizations that will speak to truth to this frightening power. That’s a start.