ArcaMax

Deportations continue in America, and news organizations continue to do stories. Conservative organizations do stories about the immigrant with 16 arrests in 10 years, and how wonderful it is that he's been zip-tied and thrown on a plane home. Their readers will never get sick of this story because it represents a fulfillment of President Donald Trump's promise to deport terrible people.

Liberal news organizations specialize in the story about the innocent, employed illegal immigrant who got snatched up on the job or at home.

Here's how that story goes.

Honest illegal Frank came to America 10 years ago with no paperwork, no visible means of support and no English. He got a construction job, got a girlfriend, learned some English and now has a little daughter. The daughter is 5 and her name is Rosie.

Frank is no trouble to anyone. He's never been arrested. If he lives on your block, you have no idea about his legal status. The cops are never at his house, and he mows his lawn regularly. His kid goes to school with one of your kids.

If you're a reporter, and you've either been assigned to or have volunteered for the innocent deportee beat, you go to work as soon as they slam the cell door on Frank.

You find out he has no paperwork that allows him to be in the country. You find out he has no police record. You find out he's spent most of the last 10 years hanging drywall.

You find his girlfriend and daughter and, with a camera running or a photographer shooting, you do an interview. The girlfriend shows you her tear-smeared face and says Frank was a good boyfriend and father. If you're a lucky reporter, little daughter Rosie lisps out either, "Where's my daddy?" or "Daddy's gone."

You go back to your home office or your news studio and you call someone who works for an immigrant advocacy group who is outraged and saddened.

And you write the story, and it's a good story. An editor headlines it "Where's my daddy?" and you've got 1,000 words that would make a marble statue cry.

Trouble is, you gotta write the same story again in three days, except this guy's name is Ray, or maybe it's a woman. If it is a woman, the same editor will headline it "Where's my mommy?" and you've got a story that would make a marble statue cry.

You'll write that story again in two weeks. Two thousand reporters are writing that story right now.

And the marble statue is running out of tears.

I'll say it crudely.

How many times do I have to read this story?

The news business has a number of lessons to teach. One of them is that Americans will not read the same story over and over and over again unless the story is about sports, sex, food, coffee or a celebrity's descent into and rise from the hell of drug addiction.

Be honest, do you read all the way to the end of stories about mass shootings?

"Five dead in Louisianna," the headline reads and you're on to a trendy story about new things trendy people put in their trendy coffee: butter, olive oil, paprika, number 2 diesel. You never even get to the quote from the grieving mother.

Once the algorithms show declining readership for the "Where's my daddy?" story, reporters will be reassigned or an editor will say, "Go a little shorter on this one."

The human soul builds up callouses fast, and outrage has an expiration date.

========

To find out more about Marc Dion and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com. Dion's latest book, a collection of his best columns, is called, "Mean Old Liberal." It is available in paperback from Amazon.com, and for Nook, Kindle and iBooks.