Jesus Christ. Between this tweet and the ongoing defensive freakout over the mildest of online criticism, the New York Times is having almost as bad a time as, say, CHILDREN IN CAGES:

The Border Patrol, whose agents have gone from having one of the most obscure jobs in law enforcement to one of the most hated, is suffering a crisis in both mission and morale. Earlier this year, the disclosure of a private Facebook group where agents posted sexist and callous references to migrants and the politicians who support them reinforced the perception that agents often view the vulnerable people in their care with frustration and contempt.

It’s not that, you know, I’m in favor of yelling at people doing a job over the people ordering them to do it but at a certain point you decide what you’re willing to do as a job and if it’s “enforcing Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell’s fascist orders” maybe you look for other work.

But let’s talk about the decision to give A1 top story status to the plight of the poor border patrol, because that WAS a decision. Someone assigned “poor border patrol, they’re hated so much” over, you know, literally any other story including what the Kardashians are up to.

I mean, let’s look at just that nut graf up there:

The Border Patrol, whose agents have gone from having one of the most obscure jobs in law enforcement to one of the most hated, is suffering a crisis in both mission and morale.

They sure as shit weren’t “obscure” to the migrants they were chasing, but I suppose something only exists if they’ve heard about it in Greenwich.

Earlier this year, the disclosure of a private Facebook group where agents posted sexist and callous references to migrants and the politicians who support them reinforced the perception that agents often view the vulnerable people in their care with frustration and contempt.

Um, it demonstrated the reality that agents viewed the most vulnerable people in their care with frustration and contempt. The head of the goddamn agency was a member of that racist hate group. It’s not like this was five people and it was blown out of proportion.

Let’s continue:

Overwhelmed through the spring and early summer by desperate migrants, many agents have grown defensive, insular and bitter.

Overwhelmed by migrants deliberately putting this terrible pressure on them by — checks notes —  fleeing violence and persecution, many agents have given in to their inner brownshirts, confident that the nation’s largest newspaper will describe their deliberate actions as the weather.

Let’s ask the agents why their job has become so awful:

The difference between doing the job now and when I started is like night and day. Before, it was a rush of adrenaline when you caught people with drugs. You were doing more police stuff. Now it’s humanitarian work. If you ask anybody about being in Border Patrol, they’re playing a movie scene in their head, jumping into a burning building and saving people. Now, it means taking care of kids and giving them baby formula.

Reality of job at odds with childish fantasy! Also, agents horrified by having to feed hungry babies. STOP THE PRESSES.

Some of those who worked at the agency in earlier years said that it had changed over the past decade, and that an attitude of contempt toward migrants — the view that they are opportunists who brought on their own troubles and are undeserving of a warm welcome — is now the rule, not the exception.

Again with the passivity.

It had changed. Not “it had been weaponized by a racist GOP that saw an opportunity to turn the American Southwest into the new antebellum South by whipping up loathing toward poor frightened women and children.” It just, all by itself, changed.

The way we talk about these things matters. Prioritizing the agency’s pain and suffering over those who’ve suffered under that agency and obscuring the fault involved when selfish politicians demand police action where humanitarian work is needed, is an editorial choice, and the New York Times is making it.

A.

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