The media’s attention on the reflecting pool and what it tells us
By Easton Martin | June 23, 2026
The national news cycle right now is deeply telling regarding the deep disconnect between what the corporate media prioritizes and the actual crises that are affecting everyday Americans. The news coverage of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool has been a parade of nonstop, negative coverage for the liberal media.
Every angle is analyzed, every political statement is magnified, and the coverage runs around the clock. The focus is entirely on managing a national political narrative that they want to prove.
Meanwhile, the daily reality of violent crime and systemic instability in our inner cities is met with deafening silence. The safety of families in these neighborhoods rarely makes the front page unless it can be weaponized for a specific political agenda. This selective coverage makes it clear that the media apparatus does not care about ordinary people or the genuine suffering in our communities. They want to cover what they think makes the president look bad, not what actually needs to be covered.
The primary goal of modern journalism has shifted away from informing the public and toward protecting a preferred ideological framework. National political spectacles like the problems of the reflecting pool are elevated because they are profitable and easy to control. Mainstream media outlets can and do easily divide the country into opposing camps, allowing them to demonize anyone who dares to disagree with the established narrative.
This constant push for polarization serves corporate interests and political elites, but it completely abandons the public. The press chooses to obsess over political battlegrounds while ignoring the direct threats to human life in urban communities. What does that say about their value system?
