Link: https://time.com/article/2026/07/31/ceuta-spain-morocco-africa-explainer/

A Spanish territory in northern Africa is experiencing a humanitarian and security crisis after thousands of migrants continue to swim across the border from Morocco, with at least 34 dying in the chaos.

Where do they ever answer their own headline?

Yeah, they never say anything solid.

Sounds like it's a variety of factors but no one definitive thing, since they mention past mass migrations and policy changes affecting immigration.

Maybe they don't want us to think about it.

Who doesn't want us to think about what?

In general: the mainstream media doesn't us to understand the world we are living in. A few people have a self-imposed moral responsibility "to be informed" and so the media does the bare minimum to say "what happened", but it seems they are studiously avoid reporting any information that would help their readers build any kind of narrative about the major currents shaping the world.

When you read an article, ask yourself, "Why did this happen?" and see if the article answers it.

How does that explain the further information that's come out since the initial articles?
Sometimes surface level describes all the information they have at the moment.

I don't believe for a second that there's some kind of widespread conspiracy between all journalists to only provide inadequate reporting, especially when sources like Unicorn Riot and Propublica are providing first-hand accounts and in-depth investigations.

I think I offended someone on here recently when I asked if they´d read their Chomsky. Was that you?

Probably not. I'm not easily offended.

Ah, well, Chomsky's theory is that there is a successive winnowing process in media to weed out anyone with a counter-narrative to select those who are friendly to the power structure. It's simply a matter of not hiring or promoting problematic journalists to the next level. The people who are promoted assume they are being promoted on merit, but really, it is their natural obeisance that gets them promoted.

The HBO Comedy VEEP is widely praised not only as being wickedly funny but also scarily accurate in portraying how power is exercised in Washington DC, including through the media. There it IS quite explicitly people understanding the game and currying favor, but that is not necessary for the system to function.

I haven't read all of Chomsky and I don't watch VEEP.

But there are reasons I started my news coms, and part of that is in the sidebar. Journalists with editorial independence (in my independent news communities) and a plurality of sources can help someone understand the narratives of the world a little better than no information at all. That's why I post from a variety of sources to add to the options here.

I misread your comment earlier, now I see that you pointed to mainstream media and not media as a whole. I'd have to agree that the major media conglomerates do conspire around the kinds of stories they provide, and politics favors a certain kind of person.