patrick.net

In the wake of ongoing extreme violence and vicious attacks in Mexico, including the slaughter of innocent U.S. citizens this week, cable news networks spent more airtime breathlessly covering the plight of the failed states in the Middle East than on the failed state that shares nearly 2,000 miles of the U.S. border.

Just miles away from U.S. territory, drug cartels have claimed de facto control of parts of Mexico. In October, drug cartels outgunned the Mexican military in the city of Culiacan, ultimately seizing the major regional capital city in broad daylight as state officials were forced to retreat. “There is now no doubt about who is in control of Sinaloa, let alone the rest of the country,” writes Federalist Political Editor John Davidson. ...

Producers and anchors at CNN and MSNBC have spent more minutes discussing never-ending wars and victims like the Kurds with little strategic importance to the United States than they have the victims of the violence unfolding close to home.

In a search of network transcripts covering the two days following President Trump’s announcement he had ordered the withdrawal of U.S. forces from northern Syria, hosts and guests on MSNBC mentioned the word “Kurds” 219 times. CNN mentioned “Kurds” 311 times in the same time period.

In a search for a combination of the words “Mexico” and “killed” in the last 36 hours, after the Mexican cartel’s slaughter of 9 U.S. citizens on Monday, MSNBC mentioned the combination of words 23 times, and CNN said them 47 times.

It’s not just the news channels. Even Americans who get their only news from the new class of hyper-political late-night hosts like John Oliver, Jimmy Kimmel, and Trevor Noah might think Turkey is our next-door neighbor if they were to judge by the amount of mentions the Kurds received on late night.