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Editorial

The big news Monday was a goof-up on Sunday's 'Fox and Friends' broadcast.  The chryon (that message and ticker at the bottom of the screen) declared, "Trump Cuts U.S. Aid to 3 Mexican Countries".  In the fallout of this news it was unclear whether Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala were more outraged about losing U.S. aid, or to learn that they are Mexican countries.

The President-elect of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, was quick to post a picture of himself and the President of another Mexican country -- Mexico -- shaking hands.  Competitors CNN, MSN, and just about everyone else gleefully reported on the mistake.  And of course the Internet went wild.  As for 'Fox and Friends', Fox News reporter Ed Henry apologized for the gaffe later in the broadcast.  Sure, mistakes like this are fun.  But are they news?

Evidently, yes.  All the major news outlets reported on the mistake, some politicizing it by linking it to President Trump and the various mistakes he has made in various speeches and -- heaven help us! -- tweets, others just using the goof to shout out their Fox News hatred as if nobody ever makes a mistake on their networks.

My morning attempts to parse actual news from all the stories the various outlets rain on us every day is a disheartening morning ritual, appropriately carried out in the throne room (the one where the throne has a handle).  Most of the stories these days are 'someone reacted to something someone did' like the myriad of stories about how people reacted to the Mueller Report.  Nobody seems to actually know what the Mueller Report says, but everybody knows what people are saying about it.
Mexican Countries
There is actual news about events such as the story Thursday morning about the Ethiopian Airlines pilots following procedures and, thus, the tragic crash was not due to pilot error.  But have you noticed that almost no news about Washington DC is actual news?  All the tweeting and accusing, and name calling, and reacting has obfuscated the actual stuff that is happening in that city.  That is worrisome, considering the impact the things that happen there has not only on the rest of the country, but on the whole world.

Oh well, who needs to know what's happening in Washington when we can all get a laugh at a major news outlet's expense?  I'm thinking that the US countries (the U.S. and the Canadians, right?) should get together and have a good laugh.

The takeaway: if the chryon had blared, "Trump Cuts American Aid to 3 American Countries" it would have been 100% accurate.  Not as funny, though...

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