Caged kids were Obama’s, not Trump's
Caged kids were Obama’s, not Trump's

First we read, from The New York Times and other sources, that some 1,500 migrant children had been separated from their parents and were missing.

Thus ran the headlines – “The US government lost track of 1,475 immigrant children.”

Not true. They came here unaccompanied. They were tracked and as many as possible were placed in foster homes…a procedure going back to previous administrations.

But it got worse. Pictures of some of these kids being caged in detention centers made all the rounds to offer evidence that Trump is heartless and cruel.

Turns out those images were from 2014 – under the Obama administration.

What happened to fact-checking? Not much. Everything is fit to print and good enough to broadcast if it can nail Trump…whether true or false.

As noted, largely false…so what we have here is failure to communicate.

That’s troubling, really a crisis when the media we rely on to accentuate day from night, war from peace, can’t be trusted.

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue,” wrote King Solomon. Words to ponder when at this time the power is in the wrong hands.   

Wishful journalism. That’s how we named it in a recent column, citing the coverage that blamed Israel for Gaza fatalities, when in fact it was Hamas that was totally at fault.

That came out later, but meanwhile it was Israel that got the black eye – because the media wished it so.

Likewise when Trump referred to the MS-13 rape and murder gangs as “animals,” but the media accused him of painting all infiltrators with the same brush.

Not true – but the media wished it so.

If the media had gone after Obama as they go after Trump, no chance Obama would have won a second term, and small chance even a first term.
Now the media wishes that those “lost and caged migrants” belong to Trump. No, those kids belong to Obama.

Obama they embraced, Trump they Resist, and because they have the power of print and broadcast, they dare you to call them liars.

If the media had gone after Obama as they go after Trump, no chance Obama would have won a second term, and small chance even a first term.

They make it up as they go along and we are left to fend for ourselves between what’s true and what’s false…though in two books we clarify and illuminate.

The Sages warned about gossip and talebearing. Not only because tattling is impolite, but can cause enduring harm and confusion, the lesson from the Tower of Babel.

Each person gets to speak his own language. Then nothing makes sense.

Such news by gossip and innuendo is pretty much what we have today and this news consumer finds that positively alarming.

New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes regularly for Arutz Sheva.

He is the author of the international book-to-movie bestseller “Indecent Proposal” and most recently the two inside journalism thrillers “The Bathsheba Deadline” and “News Anchor Sweetheart, Hollywood Edition.” Engelhard is the recipient of the Ben Hecht Award for Literary Excellence. Website: www.jackengelhard.com