Portland Debrief, Day #3: The Journalism Industrial Project
There was some reporting last night down at ICE. I didn't love what I saw. I like it a lot less this morning
Strap in, this is not going to be pretty, and I am probably going to name names, and I am having a side of two-penny nails with my coffee at 7am…
Last night at Portland’s Immigration and Detention Center looked as it has most nights since I have been here. I am going to ignore any insinuation that, since I have been back on the ground only four days, I cannot understand the situation. (See above nail chewing reference.) People are people are people are people are people. There is nothing exceptional going on in front of ICE. It’s people acting out their differences, differences brought to a boil, and deliberately so, by various political and social factions that see gains for their side if the action plays out their way. It’s boring and gross but also unpredictable. For the forty-thousandth time: all movements create an incandescence, and you cannot control who is attracted to that incandescence. Most of the players will be benign, even scared; they like disappearing into a crowd while still feeling they are part of a movement. Some are lone wolves and will bring a gun.
What I saw on the ground last night, and what I am seeing all over Twitter this morning, are journalists doing seriously partisan reporting. Do they ever consider where this might lead? Or is the sole point to get people’s blood up? This sort of shortcut is appalling, to say nothing of showing just about zero interest in one’s fellow humans. There are as many stories as you want in front of ICE. Who’s the kid in the frog suit? Why did he pick a frog suit? Does it make him feel safe?
What about you, young man in the complicated wheelchair? How do you know so much about various types of noxious pepper sprays? And why do I sometimes see you walking? Hello man who served in the army in Germany in the 1970s, down here just to see what’s going on, and since your adult son died in police custody, maybe you have feelings about police overreach and want to talk about them. Or maybe you, Ojibwe boy who took inspiration from the American Indian Movement, or you big man in the too-small football jersey who, just after throwing a few punches, shouted “I AM CHARLIE KIRK!”
See what I did there? It’s called reporting. And when a few people of the maybe 60 people in attendance gathered around a tiny flame, I too walked toward it. Someone had lit a tiny American flag on fire. It gave off an acrid smell. The fire was out within 30 seconds. A few people hooted and the end.
But of course, not the end. Because this one tiny moment then becomes a big story on Twitter from FOX News reporter Bill Melugin. In what universe is this the most dynamic and important part of what is going on here? Oh, silly me. It’s the grand optic, one that is so threadbare - I recall writing in 2020 that I wished protesters could do better - and yet sure to get a rise. The viewers will get mad! Heroic work will have been done!
Really? Of all the things we can hone in or or dig into? Do we not have a responsibility to show people more? You can have an opinion; I have lots of them. I can get extremely irritated by protesters squeezing piggy toys in cops’ faces; I think it’s juvenile and obnoxious and boring. I want them to think harder! But also? The people doing this are often 19; they will hopefully learn. You know what helps them learn? Providing them with good work, not shoving into their faces what horrible little morons you think they are. And if anyone reads this and thinks, “Oh, so she’s for those little Antifa fuckers,” you do not know what I am talking about here. Let’s talk about it.
Answer me this: What is being learned by an adult making a tiny cheap flag set on fire *the* story? How/who has been helped? Everyone complains about media on all sides pushing their preferred narrative. Well then don’t do it.
I was about to write, “How do we get out these political and human messes if we don’t, and with as much calm and grace as possible, show people larger truths?” Or is the idea that that takes too long, and is in service to some foolish old journalism ideal, and does not get the 1.2 million clicks, and does not get the people vibrating in their Barcaloungers and vomiting up “gotcha!” posts on BlueSky?
See all those journalists getting the sunshine and the cheers as they blow on an ember of a story until it glows, until it mesmerizes and numbs and, maybe, helps enact policy? I’m the one behind them, quietly watching and taking notes.
Nancy, I asked this on Twitter but in case you don't check mentions there.... to what degree does the neighborhood around the ICE building look during the *day* compare to how the federal courthouse area looked during the day in 2020?
In 2020 downtown was a complete mess and you could tell day or night something had been happening. Is that true for the ICE thing or, if you were unaware, would you have to be told there had been a protest the night before?
By Portland standards, the town has improved in the last two-three years. On Twitter I keep seeing the same footage from the same area and it just looks like normal protestor activity, but it gets caption as a warzone. I should go downtown to check things out but the last time I was there it wasn't the same boarded up dump that I had last seen in person (though not GREAT it was far from its worst).