Another Bogus Border Story Goes Viral and Most Outlets Aren't in a Hurry to Issue Corrections

AP Photo/Felix Marquez

The left wing response to the border crisis can be summarized as a series of misleading viral stories designed to vilify anyone who believes border control is a basic operation for a nation. It started under Trump with the panic over “kids in cages.” Unfortunately for a lot of the progressive dopes who shared this image below, it was taken in 2014 when Obama was president and Joe Biden was Vice President.

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This next photo of a little girl crying also went viral the same year.

Time cut her out and made her part of a cover montage about border separation.

But she was never separated from her mother. She was just tired and hungry from being dragged hundreds of miles from home.

Then there was the AOC-led campaign to re-label Border Patrol facilities “concentration camps”

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This was also briefly popular with the left including some elected Democrats. But it faded and ever since Joe Biden was elected AOC hasn’t repeated that language.

And lets not forget the viral claim that Border Patrol agents on horeseback were whipping Hatian migrants. This was such a big deal that President Biden promised the people who did it would pay.

Once again, it never happened. Even the photographer said so. Sec. Mayorkas knew it hadn’t happened even before he went to the White House and claimed it had.

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Given how often the media has jumped on these stories only to have them fall out from under them, you’d think they might learn to be more careful. But it seems that’s never the case. Two days ago another story went viral. The AP headline read, “US says Texas blocked border agents from entering park to try to save 3 migrants who drowned.”

The U.S. Homeland Security Department said Saturday that Texas denied federal agents access to a stretch of border when they were trying to rescue three migrants who drowned.

The federal government’s account came hours after U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar said the Texas Military Department and Texas National Guard “did not grant access to Border Patrol agents to save the migrants” Friday night. Mexican authorities recovered the bodies of a woman and two children Saturday across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas.

“This is a tragedy, and the State bears responsibility,” said Cuellar, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee for homeland security, in a statement.

Some version of this story was published at nearly every major news site, but once again it turns out the headlines were wrong. Unfortunately, a woman and two children did drown in the Rio Grande that night but it happened a full hour before Border Patrol showed up. By the time they arrived it was far too late to matter.

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The rest of Melugin’s tweet reads:

“On Friday night, a woman and two children drowned near Eagle Pass, and Texas officials blocked U.S. Border Patrol from attempting to provide emergency assistance.”

DOJ filing: The migrants had already drowned at 8pm, and Border Patrol didn’t inform Texas until an hour later at 9pm.

This, like the horseback patrol “whipping” claims – took off as a false narrative, generating headlines that claimed Texas blocked a federal rescue effort, leading to the drownings of three migrants. The DOJ now confirms, those migrants had been deceased for an hour before Texas was even alerted about it.

Drew Holden points out that lots of outlets ran with this story and only a few have corrected it since.

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Credit where it’s due. The NY Times at least got the underlying facts right in the story.

Some outlets were just outright dishonest.

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Anyway, you get the idea. The media is always ready to jump with both feet on any story that has the right villains. Cleaning up the mess later when it turns out they got it wrong isn’t something they seem to worry about.

In fact, with immigration becoming a big issue in an election year, I’m willing to bet this will happen at least once or twice more between now and November. It wouldn’t be that hard to get it right but they just don’t care.

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Jazz Shaw 6:40 PM | October 14, 2024
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