The Magic Election Caravan Returns

You have to love the timing. Suddenly, social media feeds are flooded with dramatic, high-rotation videos of a purported "caravan of immigrants" marching toward the U.S. southern border.

It is a fascinating phenomenon: for the past few years, the major networks and cable news outlets have barely uttered a word about migrant caravans. But like clockwork, right on the doorstep of another critical election cycle, the mysterious caravans are back in heavy rotation.

You would certainly hope that the mainstream media isn't gullible enough to swallow this recycled playbook whole yet again. Yet, here we are, watching cameras roll on footage designed to trigger panic rather than deliver actual, verified reporting.

Even Marjorie Taylor Greene saw right through the transparent political theater, taking to X to call out the obvious timing. "We have not seen a caravan headed to the U.S. southern border in several years, why now?" Greene posted. "Oh yeah, there is an election coming and the GOP needs to scare you into voting because nothing else is working."

When even MTG is pointing out that you are dusting off a hollow, manufactured crisis, it is time for newsrooms to take a hard look at what they choose to amplify. It is a direct rerun of the exact strategy Barack Obama called out back in 2018, when he noted that right before an election, political operatives try to scare the heck out of the electorate because their actual track record won't do the job.

News directors and assignment desks have a choice: they can act as a firewall against manufactured election-year panic, or they can act as free public relations agents for a political party's desperate closing argument. It's time to stop taking the bait.

Yes, we already know what Fox News and NewsMax will do.

Be better.