If Facebook is good for one thing that would be the dissemination of fake news, such as the viral fake news story about the Pope endorsing Trump in 2016, which was written by teenagers in Macedonia before being lapped up by millions of Trump supporters in the U.S. as the gospel truth.
Where you don’t expect to see it is in the local paper but sure enough last week the Sea Coast Echo ran, “Report: Illegal immigration costs taxpayers $116 billion annually; Californians, Texans, Floridians pay the most” which was a collaborative effort between a anti immigration organization founded by a white supremacist that has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center called the Federation for American Immigration Reform and a right wing propaganda outlet now known as Center Square aka the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity.
The links in the above paragraph took me all of 10 seconds to find using google. The next one took me 3 seconds:
4 myths about how immigrants affect the U.S. economy ~ PBS Newshour
Myth #1: Immigrants take more from the U.S. government than they contribute
Fact: Immigrants contribute more in tax revenue than they take in government benefits
A 2017 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found immigration “has an overall positive impact on the long-run economic growth in the U.S.”
I figure the reason the Nation’s dysfunctional immigration system has not been reformed despite two attempts over the past 12 years is because there is so much misinformation out there that people accept as the gospel truth, including the whopper that the immigrants that come here are mooches and freeloaders when such is not the case.
The Echo does a fine job reporting on local issues. Maybe they should stick to that and leave the national topics alone.
