Why didn’t the media try to verify whether state officials were actually villains in the case of migrant drownings?
Why didn’t the media try to verify whether state officials were actually villains in the case of migrant drownings?
I f you think the corporate press learned its lesson from that embarrassing border-agents-horsewhipping-migrants story, you’re sorely mistaken.
They’re at it again, this time falsely accusing Texas authorities of what amounts to manslaughter.
“Texas ‘physically barred’ Border Patrol agents from trying to rescue migrants who drowned,” CBS News reported on January 13, citing “federal officials.”
Sounds terrible. What a stain on the reputation of Texas!
The only problem is that state officials did no such thing.
CBS reports now that no one was “barred” from rescuing the migrants.
“The Justice Department said the three migrant drownings had already occurred when Border Patrol requested access to Shelby Park to help other migrants,” CBS conceded in a lengthy editor’s note.
The irony of the update is that it cites the Biden administration, which is responsible for the original false claim.
CBS’s story claimed originally that “a woman and two children drowned in the Rio Grande on Friday while trying to enter the U.S. near a section of the southern border where Texas National Guard soldiers have prevented federal Border Patrol agents from processing and rescuing migrants.”
The report continued, citing its sources: “Federal officials and a Texas congressman said National Guard soldiers deployed by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott did not allow Border Patrol agents to attempt to rescue the migrants.”
The congressman is Democratic representative Henry Cuellar.
“A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press, said Cuellar’s description of the events was accurate,” CBS reported.
The CBS report also highlighted a statement produced by the Department of Homeland Security, which claimed that “a woman and two children drowned last night in the Shelby Park area of Eagle Pass, which was commandeered by the State of Texas earlier this week. In responding to a distress call from the Mexican government, Border Patrol agents were physically barred by Texas officials from entering the area.”
Lastly, the CBS report quoted White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández, who accused Texas officials of “block[ing] U.S. Border Patrol from attempting to provide emergency assistance” to the migrants.
“While we continue to gather facts about the circumstances of these tragic deaths, one thing is clear: Governor Abbott’s political stunts are cruel, inhumane, and dangerous,” Fernández Hernández said.
The rest of the corporate press was not far behind CBS. Here are just a few examples, as helpfully compiled by my friend Drew Holden:
Politico: “US says Texas blocked border agents from entering the park to try to save 3 migrants who drowned.”
PBS: “Texas blocked border agents attempting to save 3 migrants who drowned, U.S. officials say.”
Even foreign-based media got in on the action. The Guardian: “Texas officials block US border agents from helping three drowning migrants.”
Now, however, the Biden administration agrees with the State of Texas, which has denied the record of events as originally reported by CBS News.
“In a filing before the Supreme Court late Monday, the Justice Department said Border Patrol was notified by Mexican officials that the three drownings had already occurred when it asked Texas officials for permission to enter the area,” reads the updated version of CBS’s story (emphasis my own).
That’s a bit different from what was originally reported, isn’t it? Are we just going to forget that “physically barred” part? Are we going to forget the part where the White House accused Texas officials of physically preventing border agents from rendering aid, thus contributing to the drowning deaths of a woman and two children? Apparently so!
Though the Justice Department admits that the first version of events was incorrect, it maintains anyway that Texas is guilty of something.
“It is impossible to say what might have happened if Border Patrol had had its former access to the area — including through its surveillance trucks that assisted in monitoring the area,” the Justice Department said in a statement after it conceded the “physically barred” narrative was false.
The statement adds, “At the very least, however, Border Patrol would have had the opportunity to take any available steps to fulfill its responsibilities and assist its counterparts in the Mexican government with undertaking the rescue mission. Texas made that impossible.”
Oh, come on.
It’s pretty obvious what is going on here: Washington is fit to be tied because Texas is flexing its muscles at the southern border, bypassing and, in some cases, superseding federal immigration authorities. For the folks in the nation’s capital, this is totally unacceptable. For starters, it’s embarrassing. Texas is implicitly accusing Washington of being either unwilling to manage or incapable of managing the migrant crisis. Worse still, Texas is challenging Washington’s authority. And if there’s one thing the feds hate more than unpaid taxes, it’s having their authority challenged. By deploying troops to Eagle Pass and elsewhere, thereby sidestepping Homeland Security’s supposed management of illegal immigration in the Lone Star State, Texas has directly challenged Washington’s authority.
It’s unsurprising, then, that scorned D.C. bureaucrats would be primed to believe the worst of Texas state officials. It’s unsurprising that they would rush to share that supposed information with the press — even with no proof it was accurate.
But why did CBS and others take Washington at its word? Allegations are one thing, sure, but how deep did anyone dig into Texas’s denials? And why is it that we know the truth of the matter only because of a Justice Department filing? Why didn’t we learn about what really happened from CBS, the Associated Press, etc.?
Real mysteries!
As of this writing, CBS’s breaking-news tweet, alleging that border agents were “physically barred from rescuing the migrants,” is still live. It’s been viewed more than 2.4 million times.