A handful of media outlets, both locally and nationally, are doing stories advising illegal aliens of their rights.
President Trump's mass deportation plans for criminal illegal aliens began soon after he took office just over a week ago. Plenty of mainstream media outlets and even local TV stations have shown themselves to be advocates for illegal aliens
Jeff McCall, a media studies professor at Depauw University, says there should be a fine line between fair reporting and journalistic activism.
"Stories that focus on the rights of immigrants can indeed be helpful, but we should all have an interest in making sense that the enforcement activities are being done by the book," McCall said.
The story of immigration enforcement has many different aspects to it. It includes human beings that are being detained, but also the rights of people who live in those communities and the rights of American citizens to be protected in their own neighborhood.
McCall said it is important for journalists to be fair and balanced in their reporting. There are times where journalists can comfort the afflicted, but in this case, there are multiple afflicted people.
"I would encourage all journalists to report this information as accurately and fairly as possible and to keep in mind the interests of all the parties," said McCall. "It's important to define who the afflicted people are and sometimes, those afflicted people are the victims of people who are in this country illegally."
The idea of journalists and media outlets taking on more of an activist approach to some topics started to pick up and become more common during the first Trump presidency. As a media studies professor, McCall tells his students that the best thing you can do as a journalist is to remain balanced, be fair and report on the facts.
"Let the facts speak for themselves, gather the facts and put those out there without trying to put spin and if there's going to be analysis or interpretation that it'd be analyzed and identified as that," McCall explained.