Accuracy in Media

The New York Times failed to provide vital context in its criticism of conservative media, a failed attempt to smear conservative media by tying it with the psychotic actions of the confessed El Paso shooter.

The article “How the El Paso Killer Echoed the Incendiary Words of Conservative Media Stars,” by the Times’ Jeremy Peters, Mike Grynbaum, Keith Collins, Rich Harris and Rumsey Taylor, even admitted an enormous gap in their hypothesis, yet still chose to run with the premise: “It remains unclear what, or who, ultimately shaped the views of the white, 21-year-old gunman, or whether he was aware of the media commentary,” they wrote.

In making their broad-reaching claims, the Times writers fail to mention anywhere in the piece that President Trump has spoken positively about legal immigrants while being concerned about the erosion of the rule of law due to illegal immigration.

“Sometimes the hosts are repeating the president’s signature phrases. Sometimes the president appears to take his cues from television pundits,” the Times writers asserted. “The cumulative effect is a public dialogue in which denigrating sentiments about immigrants are common.”

The Times then makes the same fallacy that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden took (which Politifact labeled “false”) by failing to provide critical context about how President Trump has been specific in speeches when discussing violent MS-13 criminals, not all immigrants.

“At rallies, he has injected terms like ‘predator,’ ‘killer,’ and ‘animal’ in his descriptions of immigrants,” the Times wrote, failing to mention that the President has used such monikers when describing violent criminal gang members of MS-13.

“MS-13 is a violent transnational gang with members primarily in Central America and the United States,” wrote Politifact’s  Jon Greenberg when calling out Biden’s false claim.“Trump’s words were clearly aimed at gang members, not all immigrants.”

The Times also brings up “the racism inherent in Mr. Trump’s critical remarks about Baltimore,” failing to mention that the president’s same critiques of Baltimore had been issued by both black and white Democrats, including Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who expressed concerns about Baltimore’s “drug infested” problems.