The headline reads: “7-Year-Old Immigrant Girl Dies After Border Patrol Arrest.” This is such a disingenuous header. A more truthful and neutral headline might have read: “7-Year-Old Girl Dies After Desert Border Crossing.”
The child was severely dehydrated after eight days in the desert. She was also malnourished, making it extremely difficult for her to keep both food or fluids down. By the time she and her father were found, she was in coma.
Even with immediate intravenous rehydration, her chances of survival were minimal. While children tend to compensate better than adults in such situation, once decompensation begins, it’s nearly impossible to halt the downward process.
While I am terribly sad for this little girl, her pain, her suffering, the near-torturous existence she endured in this desert crossing, to present a news article with such a headline is more akin to propaganda than the truth and this is why we have the term ‘fake news.’
Finally, local news agencies – local newspapers, TV and radio stations can change the headlines to ‘national stories,’ which was not done in at least three places within the Reno and Sparks, Nevada area. Furthermore, this deep-seeded ‘hate Trump movement’ is going to destroy what is left of your career, locally, regionally and nationally.
It’s time to quit treating the reader, the viewer and the listener as ignorant and it’s time to provide a proper middle ground with language that resonates truth and not exaggerates the horrors that happen on a daily basis around this globe, by using it to divide.
The Old Blog in the Desert 
Leave a comment