The Guardian tells us that Orange Man Bad. For here is the Trump Administration throwing American Indians off land that they have owned forever!
Trump administration revokes tribe’s reservation status in ‘power grab’
Sign of willingness to use discretionary powers to attempt to take lands away from Native American tribes, advocacy group says
Tsk, eh? And of course, Orange Man Bad!
Except, actually, it’s not that at all:
The US Department of the Interior, which oversees Native American affairs, is obligated by a recent federal court decision to remove the special land designations, which were bestowed in 2015 under then President Barack Obama, according to Conner Swanson, an agency spokesman.
Actually, the courts – not the administration and not the Orange Man – decided that St. Hussein had acted illegally in the original designation.
And it doesn’t even take the land away, it just takes the precise legal definition of the land away:
Swanson stressed the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe retains its federal recognition, which it earned in 2007.
The tribe’s more than 300 acres – about half of which are located in the town of Mashpee and the other half in Taunton near the Rhode Island state line – also remain in the tribe’s ownership, as it had before the federal government took them into trust, he noted.
Exactly the same people own the same land as they did before. So, no land was taken away. The previous administration erred – at best – and the courts have insisted the error be reversed.
But, you know, Orange Man Bad, thus the headline.
Err – since both quotes appear in the same article, an example of balanced reporting, no?
Meanwhile, in other news (which actually makes it into the World news section of the Guardian’s UK print edition, which can’t be said for the US piece):
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/31/costa-rican-president-pledges-to-protect-indigenous-rights-after-activists-murdered
Many people don’t read past the headline. For Trump-haters it reinforces what they already know so they don’t need the details.
Balanced reporting would have had a headline ‘Court reverses decision of Obama Administration’.
Balanced reporting would have had a headline ‘ Court upholds NIMBY appeal on tribe’s status: Trump continues to block their casino bill’.
Unfortunately Tim’s habit of riffing on some other journalist’s take on an issue has led him up the garden path again.
Reminds me of when we loathsome NIMBY’s voted no on the local pubs desire for loud music. It’s a pity the Guardian didn’t give some of their viewpoints.
‘Of course, no one can know everything and we do that Smithian division and specialisation with knowledge just as we do with labour. The thing is though, it’s possibly better not to write columns on such areas of non-knowledge.’
“Advocacy group says”…
The Guardian knows what is doing.
Presumably this is less about ‘taking land away’ from anyone, and more about taking away special privileges to build casinos and the like?