On January 27th, just days after being inaugurated the President of the United States, Donald Trump made an executive order. This order suspended the travel of people from six predominately Muslim countries into the United States for 120 days. The executive order itself states that the government and Donald Trump himself  are "Protecting the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States". Many people have mixed reviews of this specific order and why it is controversial. The order has received the nickname of "Muslim Ban", obviously something that hasn't been sitting well with people across the U.S. and other countries. But others believe that this is just an order to keep the people that do not agree with the U.S. constitution and what we stand for as a country, out. But the media has a big part in this issue as well. With the recent resurfacing of the term "fake news", there have been many news articles that have come out about this order. Many have used the term "Muslim Ban" to explain Trump's new order but some have just stuck to the order's name itself. The specific artifact I am taking a look at is a news article called "Why Trump's travel ban is still a Muslim ban". In using this artifact I will use Burke's Pentad to evaluate the article and the issues surrounding this specific topic. I believe that the Pentad will be of most significance to this artifact because it almost communicates itself as a storyline. It focuses on the background and the present situation of a piece of work and communicates its significance through those means. I believe this type of criticism is going to be most significant to me because of the nature of this executive order. The United States and the countries that have been listed in the order have had a past with each other. This will provide significant background information for the criticism and allow us to also look in the past while focusing on the present situation. Using the act, agent, agency, purpose, and scene I can draw conclusions from this piece of work and make an informed conclusion about the rhetoric used in this article. As I have explained, this method is most appropriate because of the context of the executive order. There is a lot of plot behind this order because of our relationship with these specific countries over the past couple of decades. This form of criticism will help me dissect the background, who did or said what,  and then eventually lead up to the present situation and the executive order that has been talked about so heavily.

Fake News

Donald Trump becoming the nations President has been the topic of conversation ever since he decided to run. No matter what political party you side with, you can agree this election has been one of most controversial and most talked about elections to date. But what about Trump gets people so riled up? Maybe it's his unfiltered thoughts or maybe even the fact that he stands tall and true to his beliefs. Trump is known by some Americans for being oppressive and very opinionated in nature. His supporters praise him and his enemies criticize with every move he makes. One thing that emerged during the Trump era was a term by the name of "fake news". Fake news, according to Google, is " a type of hoax or deliberate misinformation, be it via the traditional news media or via social media, with the intent to mislead in order to gain financially or politically." So what does that mean? Anything that gets posted into the mainstream media is fake news? Obviously not, but everything you read isn't true. This sounds way too familiar, like something we were taught in 5th grade, so why are we still being reminded about it? Ever since Trump took office he's been using this term to stray people away from the news sources that haven't been portraying the correct information. He takes to Twitter and exposes prominent news media outlets such as NBC News and The New York Times, calling them "fake news", suggesting that topics they write about aren't as factual as people should assume. Obviously Trump will have some bias considering these are predominantly left-wing opinions on his presidency but Trump does shed some light and awareness to this issue. With that being said, Trump has some firm views that he sticks to which makes him so controversial. With so many scandals that came out during his candidacy, it was hard to ignore the harsh things Trump said about some groups of people. Calling Mexicans rapists, criminals, and drug dealers was one instance. "Grab her by the p****" was another. So there is no doubt that Trump has a history of targeting a group of individuals and stereotyping them as a whole. One of the first things Trump did at the start of his presidency was an executive to protect the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States. This executive order was revised from a previous one, stating that it would suspend the entry of refugees from seven predominately Muslim countries for 120 days. The order also excludes Iraq from the list of suspended countries. Many news media outlets and people around the country were outraged by this order and gave it the name "Muslim Ban". If the executive order that President Trump enacted only suspends these people for 120 days, why is it called a ban? Also, Trump understands that the nations that are suspended are predominately Muslim, but not all citizens are Muslim, so why is everyone stereotyping these countries as such? This is one example of fake news that has stirred up a lot of commotion concerning Trump. Twisting up the words executive order has messed up the meaning of the order itself.