I once had a colleague who shared a similar interest in politics and public affairs.  One morning I popped over to chat with him.  I had a something on my mind and I shared my thoughts with him.  Oddly, where I thought we had similar views on this topic, I saw a nearly blank stare back at me.  He had no verbal response to what I had said.  He either did not agree with my assessment or was indifferent to my take on the issue.

Two days later, the same colleague came over for a visit and spoke to me about the same topic I had shared with him two days earlier.  There was an enthusiasm in his voice and body language.  He recited to me almost the same points I had raised.  It was almost as if we had not had the original conversation, but he did reference the fact that I had spoken about the issue with him.  I discovered that his newly-found interest in the topic was the result of listening to radio talk show host, Mark Levin.  Turns out, Levin was reacting to the news of the day as I was and brought the same issue up on his daily talk show.  Mark Levin shares my view on this topic and it is no surprise that he raised the same legal and historical arguments that I shared with my colleague.

The difference in my colleague’s level of interest – from zero to interested in two days – had to do with who gave voice to the issue: Mark Levin was a trusted source.  It was not that he did not believe what I was saying to him – he was aware of my knowledge of legal and constitutional matters.  He just did not understand the level of importance I placed on the issue; or just did not see me as a figure of authority.  He is a consumer of talk radio and the Drudge Report.  If he did not get it from either source, it simply was not news to him.  I was not his trusted source of news and analysis.

Over recent years, when I share with family or friends my thoughts on issues that I find important, I get similar non-responses.  I often bring up topics that I feel get ignored by mainstream media sources.  While I rarely get any disagreement with what I am sharing, I do not anywhere near the enthusiasm I feel, if I get a reaction at all — unless Wolf Blitzer or George Stephanopoulos is reporting it, it’s not news.

The media has lots of control over what we discuss with friends and family, how important an issue is, and, very often, what we think.  The media – television especially – shapes public opinion.  To the extent that there is a political bias in how an issue is presented, the media can greatly affect how we vote.

In recent days, we have heard and read a lot about the separation of families at the border.  Specifically, young children are taken from illegal alien parents, who cross the southern border of the United States.  When U.S. authorities arrest parents with children for unlawfully entering the country, the children are placed into detention centers.

It is unfortunate when children, especially young children, are separated from their parents.  U.S. border officials are enforcing the law.  The adult foreign nationals are violating the law.  They are aware that they are violating U.S. sovereignty when they enter the country without permission.  If adult illegal aliens want to keep their families intact, they should not enter this country unlawfully.  This is a problem of the illegal alien’s own making.  Apparently, the fact the U.S. officials have not been very serious about securing the border over the past few decades has inspired foreign nationals to feel that coming to the U.S. to live is an entitlement.  There is no doubt that some come here for a better life (jobs, personal safety, etc.), but that does not entitle anyone to come here without the permission of the U.S. government.  They make matters worse by involving children in their decision to trespass into the United States.  Each of these acts is an abuse of children.

Our media does not report this violation of U.S. sovereignty.  Reporters simply report on the “inhumanity” of the family separation and our country’s role in that inhumanity.  Former First Lady Laura Bush calls the policy cruel and immoral.  Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, also a former First Lady as well as a U.S. Senator, calls the border situation a moral and humanitarian crisis.  Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele compares detention centers to concentration camps.

This story will continue to be covered.  It will be covered to paint President Donald Trump and his administration as evil.  Many in the media find Trump’s presidency an offense.  This story, among others, is a way to fight back.  They will use their platform to shape public opinion in the runup to the mid-term Congressional elections in November.

The fact that some Americans are killed by some illegal aliens, including MS-13 gang members, gets very little media coverage.  The fact that many Americans, even young children, in urban centers are victims of violence is virtually never discussed on cable news shows.  The fact that American children are separated daily from their law-breaking American parents does not create the same level of outrage.

Our media today has created noble victims at our southern border.

The question remains whether the American people will continue to be the gullible dupes of television anchors.