MSM Twists Itself Into Pretzels Over Illegal Immigrant Murder Case

There was a time when the word "journalist" would not be used as a pejorative. I'm not sure how far back in time you would have to go, but I am certain that such an era and such people existed. Are we talking about Edward R. Murrow? Walter Cronkite? While Murrow and Cronkite both leaned Left, at least their listeners and viewers did not have to sift through their reports to see if they could find any nuggets of truth. 

Today, we have selfie-stick journalism. I know that in terms of popular culture, the selfie stick has gone the way of the hula hoop and the triceratops. But today's writers (I cannot bring myself to call them journalists) use their craft, at least, in part, to showcase their social elitism. That is maybe a quarter of the equation. The balance is made up of the now-ingrained inability to think analytically and deliver pertinent information. In the minds of these writers, whatever confirms their biases must be true by default. That which challenges those biases must be either untrue or irrelevant. 

Laken Riley was murdered by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela named José Antonio Ibarra. He was released from custody because of a lack of detention space. Had the borders been secure and a proper vetting process in place, chances are that Ibarra would not have murdered Riley. Because the U.S. has more than enough murderers, rapists, and assorted criminals as it is and there is no reason to add to their ranks with foreign imports, Ibarra's immigration status is an extremely salient point. 

Of course, the people who write for the mainstream media cannot even consider that. Various media outlets have practically discovered new yoga poses to downplay or ignore the Ibarra's immigration status. CNN took time to mention the fact Republican leaders were commenting on the tragedy, which intimates that conservatives are trying to co-opt the matter as an election-year talking point. The piece states that Latino student groups at the University of Georgia are receiving hate comments. As to the fact that Ibarra was a criminal left to roam the country unimpeded and unsupervised, CNN writes:

In a recent Pew Research Center report about the US southern border, 57% of Americans said they believe the large number of migrants trying to enter the US leads to more crime – even though many researchers have found no such connection.

Perhaps this is because people across America are better eyewitnesses than the researchers CNN cares to cite. Not to be outdone, the Associated Press published an article that ignored Ibarra's criminal record and immigration status and focused on the danger to female runners. And I can sympathize. 

My wife used to run, and I would often go with her to the high school track to watch her or ask her to run at a fitness center or with a friend, simply because society is becoming more savage. So that point is well taken. However, the media would rather have us ignore the fact that mixed in with the dreamers and those simply yearning for a better life are hordes of evil people looking for fresh hunting grounds or new markets to ply their trades. 

American Wire had other examples:

“Farm worker found guilty of killing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts,” CNN wrote as a headline at the time, as reported by Fox News.

 “Farm laborer convicted in 2018 stabbing death of Iowa runner,” the AP meanwhile wrote as a headline.

 “Iowa Farmworker Found Guilty of Murdering Mollie Tibbetts,” The Daily Beast’s headline read.

X users took to their accounts to upbraid the various media outlets for inartfully and quite obviously dancing the immigration component. You can see some of the responses here and here.

The backlash was well-deserved but may be to no avail. As the Blaze noted, Charles C. W. Cooke posted, "They can't change because this is what they think their job is." And Cooke is correct. At one point, Winston Smith realized that he was struggling in a sea of metal tubes to write propaganda for the inner party of Oceania. Today's writers cannot even make that leap of logic. Writing propaganda is not merely preferable to them. It has become an autonomic response.