Great post! Our country has two opposing news sources that tell only part of the story to their base. That part is what defines each political party's key talking points. Right-wing media constantly reports on how dangerous illegal immigrants are to our safety and highlights the threats they pose to our communities. They focus more on how much of your tax money goes to support and make life easier for these people at your expense.

Sadly, the liberal media has its own problems with reporting stories accurately. Rarely can you find the police being portrayed as doing their jobs correctly. I remember one article with the headline, “Police kill unarmed man during traffic stop.” The article’s tone throughout is one of questioning if race motivated the police to use deadly force for a traffic stop. Only at the bottom of the article do we learn that the driver refused to exit the vehicle when asked, ran over one officer trying to stop him, and was shot and killed by an officer the driver was aiming the car at. The officer who shot the driver was standing in front of children playing at a daycare that would have been run over had the driver not been stopped. The driver was “unarmed” only if you do not think a car can kill someone.

Sadly, it takes work to get a true picture of what is occurring in news stories today. Sometimes it is nothing short of shocking to see how different each side reports on a single story.

Many of those deemed “illegals” are folks who entered the country legally but who stayed after their visas said they had to leave. They stayed longer than they were supposed to, but they have the paperwork that says that they are cleared to work here. That is how they are able to get hired.

Now, of course, this means that Florida Man is officially endorsing illegal behavior. One cannot legally hire someone who is undocumented. Why are roofers exempted from all this law and order?

Yup. Just so. And there are two, not one "televisions" that the rest of the Americans watch: the more generally open and honest network or moderate cable channels, and the right-wing propaganda channels that only show footage that echoes the Republican administration's party line of the day.

From my more right-wing friends or acquaintances, for days now I've been hearing lines like "What about those riots in LA?" or "Who'd have thought we'd need troops to suppress all the violence - thank goodness they're there."

So, if to win the "public opinion battle" means "Highlight the outrageousness and brutality of the tactics", etc. - just how do we do that, absent the use of mass media that only some of the people actually watch? There's no way Fox and the gang are going to highlight the outrageous and brutal tactics" - they're going to frame it all as justified against hardened criminals and violent rioters, just as the administration does.

Trump will overreact again and again in the weeks to come. He always does. But half the country doesn't ever see or learn that he is 'overreacting' - they see that he's strongly leading the nation against crime and anarchy etc. etc. blah blah blah.

The big question as the president increasingly turns to fascist-style tactics to suppress opposition and free speech, is how to get Americans to even realize that that is what he is doing, when they explicitly don't want to know that?