Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Biting "Fake News" Satire from The New Yorker
Ann Garrison, BAR contributor
30 Nov 2016
🖨️ Print Article

by Ann Garrison

 

Could a drug kingpin be a worse choice for a U.S. cabinet position than the villains we’ve already known?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biting "Fake News" Satire from The New Yorker

by Ann Garrison

Oh my God, is The New Yorker, the urban sophisticates' journal, indulging in "fake news"???  On Monday morning, dateline 8:29 am, they published "Trump Picks El Chapo to run D.E.A."  I nearly choked on my coffee and called the Washington Post, or its unassailable "fake news" source, "Is it Propaganda or Not?"  Then, however, I realized that this is just the biting satire that we should all know to expect from The New Yorker:

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—Just days after picking Betsy DeVos to run the Department of Education, President-elect Donald Trump has tapped another wealthy outsider by naming Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán to head the Drug Enforcement Administration.

In an official statement, Trump said that El Chapo’s “tremendous success in the private sector” showed that he has what it takes to “shake things up” at the D.E.A.

Trump’s appointment of the former drug lord surprised many in Washington, in no small part because acrimony between the two allegedly prompted El Chapo, in 2015, to put a hundred-million-dollar bounty on Trump’s head.

But, appearing on CNN, the Trump surrogate Kellyanne Conway said that the selection of El Chapo should surprise no one. “Mr. Trump always said that he would surround himself with the best people,” she said.

When asked why Trump had readily offered a job to El Chapo while still mulling the fate of another former adversary, Mitt Romney, Conway said, "El Chapo might not have voted for Mr. Trump, but that’s because he’s Mexican and in jail, and Mitt Romney is neither.”

The appointment of the former drug kingpin is far from a done deal, however, as associates of El Chapo report that he is “concerned” that being a member of the Trump Administration would be bad for his brand.

Dayum, Andy Borowitz.  El Chapo, as Trump's D.E.A. would be almost as bad as Generalissimo Hillary Clinton, Obama's Secretary of State, who never saw a war she didn't like and recently inspired Vladimir Putin to show off Russia's new Satan 2 nuclear missile. Almost as bad as subprime home mortgage architect Penny Pritzker, Obama's Secretary of Commerce. Almost as bad as Interventionists extraordinaire Susan Rice, Obama's top National Security Council advisor, and Samantha Power, Obama's Ambassador to the UN. Almost as bad as bank bailout overseer Timothy Geithner, Obama's Secretary of the Treasury. Almost as bad as Keystone XL pipeline and fracking champion Ken Salazer, Obama's Secretary of the Interior. Almost as bad as Eric Holder, the Wall Street defense lawyer who ignored spectacular fraud, tax evasion, market manipulation, money laundering, and bribery committed by a long list of bankers, Obama's Attorney General.

Thanks to The New Yorker for this incisive stroke of the satirist's pen.

Ann Garrison an independent journalist based in Oakland, USA.

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • PACA
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Community Control DC, A People’s Platform for Collective Self-Determination
    27 Mar 2026
    Pan African Community Action (PACA) recently released a plan for political empowerment in Washington DC, "Community Control DC, A People’s Platform for Collective Self-Determination." Oliver Robinson…
  • Combating Lies thumbnail
    Solomon Comissiong , Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist , Netfa Freeman , Jacqueline Luqman , Gus Griffin
    Combating the Lies and Propaganda that Fuel the USA-Israel War on Iran
    25 Mar 2026
    Jacqueline Luqman, Margaret Kimberley, Netfa Freeman, and Gus Griffin were among the panelists joining Your World News Media to discuss the lies and war propaganda that fuel the brutal war of…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Donald Trump and the Truth About Robert Mueller
    25 Mar 2026
    Donald Trump is not lying about Robert Mueller. Mueller was the point man for a plot involving the Democratic Party establishment, intelligence agencies, and corporate media. Russiagate was a…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Black Folks and Foreign Policy, June Jordan, 1983.
    25 Mar 2026
    “Who will we become if we remain the silent partners to this white arrogance?”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor , Dan Kovalik
    U.S. Takes Aim at President Gustavo Petro, but He's Akin to a Rock Star in Colombia
    25 Mar 2026
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor, spoke to attorney and author Dan Kovalik, President Petro’s legal representative in the US and in international courts. 
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us