Last week, I countered two editorials in the Camas Post-Record corresponding to the coordinated journalistic response across the nation to President Trump’s charges of fake news.
As I noted, an illegal alien, wanted for murder in Mexico, was arrested as he drove his wife to the hospital to deliver their baby. My post addresses the specific examples of this misreporting by the media.[1] In addition, I highlighted another method in which the media engages in fake news – the use of euphemisms:
“How many times does the media employ euphemisms? An ‘undocumented immigrant’ doesn’t sound as bad as ‘illegal alien’.”[2]On August 22, the following report appeared on Good Morning America’s website:[3]
The term “alien” simply means foreign, i.e. from another place.[4] The term tells us nothing except the person is from another country. The adjective “illegal” describes an act that circumvents an enacted law. [5] So, an “illegal alien” is someone from another country who is in this country without proper legal authorization.
An “immigrant” is someone or something that comes from elsewhere to take up permanent residence in a new place.[6] The adjective “undocumented” describes something or someone that doesn’t have the supporting evidence to support their claim.[7] So, an “undocumented immigrant” is someone from another country that doesn’t have the paperwork to affirm their presence within the United States.
See, the “undocumented immigrant” isn’t a bad person. He’s no different from all the immigrants that make up this country’s population. After all we are a nation of Immigrants. He just doesn’t have some paperwork. That’s all.
But why doesn’t he have his paperwork? Because he circumvented the very legal process that would provide him with the proper documentation! Thus, the euphemism “undocumented immigrant” sanitizes the truth.
As I stated in my previous post:
“The media are professional journalists. They make their living in the use of language. And they know when they manipulate that language.”[8]If there was no difference between “undocumented immigrant” and “illegal alien”, then the media would have continued using the latter. The fact that they changed shows the media understands very well that there is a significant difference.
Every media outlet that uses the term “undocumented immigrant” is not reporting, at least on this subject, in a manner that corresponds to the Truth. They have manipulated language to further an agenda.
[1] Larry Rambousek, “US Newspapers Coordinate Response to Trump's Charge of Fake News and Provide Evidence of Fake News”, https://ncontx.blogspot.com/2018/08/us-newspapers-coordinate-response-to.html
[2] Ibid.
[3] Good Morning America, ABC, “Undocumented migrant charged with murder of missing Iowa woman”,https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/news/video/undocumented-immigrant-charged-murder-missing-iowa-woman-57328557.
[4] Merrian-Webster Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alien.
[5] Merrian-Webster Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/illegal.
[6] Merrian-Webster Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/immigrant.
[7] Merrian-Webster Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/undocumented.
[8] Rambousek, ibid.
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