The Atlantic occasionally employs a unique and ingenious way to engage their readers’ perception of hot-button issues in a manner framed around their agenda: The “A and Q,” which flips the standard Q and A format to pose more detailed questions than answers. The concept provides a sentence or two about a commonly proposed solution to a polarizing problem before asking seemingly valid questions that change the reader’s perception. This allows the magazine to editorialize on an issue while providing minimal information on opposing arguments, cloaking it in objectivity.
On March 8, their A and Q addressed immigration. Two particular rhetorical questions in the article can be addressed substantively and effectively, which the author declines to do. The first addresses border security and the second misleads readers about the history of immigration in America.
Concerning border security, the magazine poses a brief solution before tearing it down in a more detailed manner, dismissing concerns over a porous border:
Atlantic’s answer: “If one thing is certain, it’s that [illegal immigration]has been an ongoing problem. The government needs to secure the border and build a wall.”
Atlantic’s question: Where does the money to pay for the wall come from, and how would it get built? To completely block off the U.S.-Mexico border, the wall would have to extend roughly 2,000 miles, from California to Texas’s Gulf Coast. In 2006, President George W. Bush signed the Secure Fence Act into law, authorizing the construction of a 700-mile wall of double-layer fencing on the U.S.-Mexico border. Covering a mile of the border averages between $2.8 million and $3.9 million, according to the Government Accountability Office. And the Department of Homeland Security has already paid millions to maintain existing fences.
The second question presents a false pretense that compares immigration levels today to those of the past:
Atlantic Question: “U.S. history is rooted in immigration, so how would the country morally justify blocking immigrants?”
It is very important that immigration is covered by the media. However, it is imperative that they do so without a manipulative agenda. Americans crave honest and balanced journalism, and the mainstream media has again failed to deliver.