Photo Courtesy of Disovery
Add Discovery to the list of networks who are about to overdramatize and propagandize us with
“dramatic” journalism from the U.S.-Mexico border. As a media release shared with outlets this week, here comes “‘BORDER LIVE’ a Six-Part Multiplatform Series, Premieres Live on Wednesday, December 5, From 9-11 PM ET/PT on Discovery”
After telling us that the series will have “serious” journalists in the series, the release says this:
The network and production company Lucky 8 have secured filming with the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Transportation Security Administration and Customs and Border Protection. Crews will be embedded out in the field with officers and special agents at key border sites from Nogales, Ariz., in the west to the Rio Grande Valley and points east. Discovery will also be on-the-ground with law enforcement offices in Texas including the City of San Juan Police Department and Cameron County Sheriff’s Office as well as in Arizona with the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office. The series will also have a team of experts to provide context and insight including Lenny DePaul, a retired Chief Inspector with the U.S. Marshal Service, and Dr. Victor M. Manjarrez, Jr., a retired Chief Patrol Agent who served in both Tucson and El Paso Sectors.
Seriously?
That’s not journalism. That’s called “working for the Trump administration and the federal government.” All in the name of access?
We are sure Discovery will insist that we are overreacting but no, we aren’t. The moment you embed with the government, you are state-run media. Sorry. Take you propaganda elsewhere, Discovery.
https://youtu.be/DzZLRccqots
As our friends at Remezcla wrote: “Aiming for a thrilleresque aesthetic and giving us blink-and-you’ll-miss-it glimpses of, among other things, night cam raids, seized drugs, sniffer dogs, aerial views of the border, daytime arrests, and, of course, a US flag, the trailer amps up the tension about this most contested of regions. There’s little, in fact, that points to Border Live being any kind of news show at all; if you’d told us this was all made up of Sicario B-roll we might have been inclined to believe you. Add in needlessly cheeky tag lines like ‘This is the fine line that divides a country. What side are you on?’ and the show’s marketing starts to look much more sensationalized than the synopsis Discovery is touting.”
We doubt it, though. This looks like Trump TV already.
Hit it, Gollum:
