Leading up to the midterm elections, it felt like Fox News (and conservative radio and talk shows) covered nothing but the migrant “caravan” heading to the United States. Without a doubt, President Donald Trump had a lot to do with this, as he demonized the caravan countless times in speeches and addresses to the press. Among other things, he doubled down on calling the caravan an “invasion:”
The caravan hysteria was, of course, just that: hysteria. Rooted in xenophobia, racism, and anti-immigrant sentiment, conservatives followed Trump’s lead and ramped up as much vitriol as possible for people, mostly women and children, who are fleeing poverty and political violence.
But now that midterms are over? So, apparently, is caravan coverage.
MSNBC first spotted the drop-off in coverage about a week ago. Joe Scarborough pointed out that in the weeks approaching the midterms, Fox had sent reporters both to the border and all the way to Central America to get this caravan coverage. Even when the bulk of these asylum-seekers were a solid thousand miles away, the fearmongering was relentless. Then, as the midterms came and went, the screen time evaporated.
How significant of a change are we talking? According to Fast Company, it’s pretty startling. The Monday before the midterms, Fast Company reports, based on transcripts found on Nexis, that the word “caravan” was said 86 times between Fox News and Fox Business Network. How did it look on election day? “Caravan” dropped to merely 42 mentions.
And the day after the election? Just 23 mentions, between both networks.
Previous caravans received minimal media coverage, and certainly not comparable hysteria. From the beginning, ramping up anti-immigrant rhetoric seemed like a means of scaring conservatives into hitting the polls and voting red, even though Trump himself wasn’t explicitly on the ballot. It also served as a strategy to distract from the midterms, period, as many major media networks covered this caravan instead of, well, real issues.
Caravan hysteria aside, immigrants continue to face backlash (if not outright terror) from the current administration. For example, ICE has detained a record number of people, deportations are still happening, and over one hundred days out from a judge’s orders, migrants kids are still separated from their parents. Hopefully, since this inflated caravan hysteria has died down, people can focus on the real issues that immigrants face.