The Media Research Center’s Nicholas Fondacaro huffs in a June 20 post:
With the stroke of a pen, President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday that would officially end the policy of separating parents and children who come across the southern border illegally. It’s what many on the right and left wanted to see happen, but for the liberal media it wasn’t enough, as CBS anchor Jeff Glor demonstrated by opining about how Trump was trying to “ put out a big political fire with a few drops of ink.
In his rush to fulfill his job description of blaming the “liberal media” for everything, Fondacaro seems to have forgotten that his employer actually touted criticism from the right of Trump’s family-separation policy. Not to cast aspersions on Trump, of course — the MRC is still very much loyal pro-Trump state media — but to defend anti-abortion activists.
The MRC published a pair of posts attacking celebrities claiming that anti-abortion activists don’t care much about children after they’re born, including those separated from their families at the border. Katie Yoder started her June 19 post by declaring, “Separating children from their parents is wrong – including when they’re in the womb. But don’t expect actress and producer Lena Dunham to understand that.” Not that forcible separation by a government agency and abortion are in any way analogous.
Yoder insisted that “Pro-life politicians and others actually have denounced the separation of parents and children as it’s currently happening (think: Sen. Ben Sasse),” adding:
The argument goes both ways. Imagine, for a moment, Dunham responding to her argument in reverse: “My mind simply can’t comprehend that the same people who claim to care so much about immigrants’ children care so little about American children in the womb.”
But she won’t.
Yoder followed up the next day by attacking more celebrities making the claim in addition to a repetition of her attack on Dunham. This time, though, she found more people on her side criticizing the policy, including “pro-life leaders like Live Action President Lila Rose, pro-life media like National Review editor-at-large Kathryn Jean Lopez, and pro-life religious leaders like Pope Francis. The list goes on.” Yoder concluded by declaring: “But no, too often the media and Hollywood see only one way. And instead of investigating solutions, they’re pointing fingers.”
Of course, pointing finger instead of investigating solutions is pretty much the mission statement of Yoder’s employer. Indeed, Yoder’s archive shows that she hasn’t broached the subject since Trump issued his executive order — which tells us that the issue is moot as long as the “liberal media” can be blamed for things and conservative opposition to family separation can be shoved back down the memory hole.