What is Trump really doing with all the DIE stuff?
I can already hear the howls of DIE advocate Al Sharpton. I’ve never been able to understand why MSNBC keeps a proven liar on the air.
This simple paragraph describes what federal employees may and may not do regarding DIE:
Top Pentagon personnel received an email mandating that, effective immediately, they may no longer dedicate official resources, including man-hours, to cultural awareness months. ... Service members and civilians will still be permitted to attend these events in an unofficial capacity and outside of duty hours.
So, no, DIE is not gone. It may still be practiced. But it cannot be practiced or funded in any way by any federal employee or program.
The Trump administration has made it a top priority to eliminate any programs perceived to be related to promoting diversity, inclusion, and equity in the federal government.
However, despite the best efforts of windbag Al Sharpton, a perfect storm is brewing regarding the honest reporting of DIE.
Here is an NBC News headline: “Federal agencies bar Black History Month and other ‘special observance,’” followed by “A number of federal agencies have banned celebrations related to MLK Jr. Day, Women’s History Month and other such observances to comply with Trump’s executive orders.”
The article headlines contain the words “bar” and “banned,” which convey the idea that Trump’s DIE executive order prohibits observances of these days or months. Buried in the tenth paragraph is this: “Service members and civilians will still be permitted to attend these events in an unofficial capacity and outside of duty hours, the memo added.”
The above directive was issued by the Pentagon. I’ll wager the directive is the same for the entire federal government, but that’s not the point here.
This is an example of NBC News “slanting” DIE news reporting to cast its elimination as unfavorable. The article implies that observances are banned or barred. That is a case of dishonest reporting.
CBS News? Here’s an article headline: “Pentagon agency pauses celebrations for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Black History Month and more.”
CBS is more honest in its article headline, using the word “pauses.” However, buried in paragraph twelve (and following a lengthy X post) is this by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt: “As far as I know, this White House certainly still intends to celebrate, and we will continue to celebrate American history and the contributions that all Americans, regardless of race, religion or creed, have made to our great country.”
So celebrations are allowed. Is this an example of honest reporting?
ABC News? It published an article with this headline: “Pentagon intelligence agency pauses events, activities related to MLK Day, Black History Month.”
Again, more headline honesty, but the honesty was soon curtailed: “In response to President Donald Trump’s executive order banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives ...” It published the words “banning diversity” in the first line of the article. ABC made it appear as if Trump had banned DIE. ABC also offered a link to an article that equates banning DIE with doing away with Civil Rights laws, that will “put policies and programs targeting discrimination — some that go back decades — on the chopping block.”
Whatever honesty ABC had was quickly thrown away with its article and link.
Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.