Where’s the Denominator?

[Draggingtree]

City Journal :

THEODORE DALRYMPLE

 

Where’s the Denominator?

 

A newspaper peddles spurious claims about the cruelty of American immigration policy.

 

October 19, 2015

The following headline on the website of theGuardian, said to be the third most-visited newspaper site in the world, caught my attention: US GOVERNMENT DEPORTING CENTRAL AMERICAN MIGRANTS TO THEIR DEATHS. The following was printed in large letters: “Guardian investigation into consequences of Obama’s migration crackdown reveals US deportees have been murdered shortly after return to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, with study saying as many as 83 killed since 2014.”

 

Then came a picture of a young man in a hospital in San Pedro Sula waiting to be treated for a stab wound. It showed only his hand resting on a white hospital surface surrounded by smears and drops of blood. The caption reads: “A man who was severely injured with a knife by unidentified assailants waits for medical treatment at the emergency room of a public hospital in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.” There was no claim that he was a deportee from the United States. The photo was used only to raise the emotional temperature of the reader. Since San Pedro Sula is the city with the world’s highest annual murder rate