In my last post, I wrote that Republicans are Liars about Immigration, and We Let Them.  What sadly appropriate timing.  On the first anniversary of Trump’s inauguration, the GOP has gone full “Willie Horton” with their “Complicit” ad.  I try not to just repeat lies, so I’m not including a link to it.  If you’re interested, it’s an easy search.  The gist of the ad is that all brown people are evil murders.

And the news coverage on this advertisement repeats every lie, over and over, while barely touching the substance.  Republicans have become the party of liars, and this is just another gory lie.  It’s not just my opinion; that’s the reality.  We know the truth about immigrant crime; the ad is a lie.  We call the people who routinely and casually lie to us, you know, ‘liars.’  Republicans are liars.  Am I going too fast with this?

Apparently, I am.  The press, frightened by criticism, refuses to say when Republicans tell them lies.  Even though Republicans routinely spout risible lies, the press never admits that truth.  Instead, they let the Republicans who tell the lies leave without so much as a mild question.

Doesn’t work, CNN.  Republicans still call you names at recess.

All right, so the ad.  Miserable bit of agitprop that it is.

The Washington Post published “In the campaign ad, Trump says Democrats are ‘complicit’ in crimes by illegal immigrants.”  The very first thing in the article, before any actual article, is a thumbnail with the screaming headline “STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION NOW” and a link to the GOP video.  I wonder if the GOP paid money for that placement?  Call that paragraph one.  Paragraph two — the first writing — only said the ad was ‘provocative’.  There was no description like “wrong” or even “misleading”, much less “openly racist”.  The next two paragraphs repeated the ad’s content and racist claims, sometimes word-for-word.  Again, nothing about whether it was, you know, true or anything.  Paragraph seven repeats Trumps claims that Immigrants are all dangerous international gang members.  Without comment.

In paragraph eight, the Post finally, shyly suggests:

But some studies have shown that immigrants, including those here illegally, commit crimes at lower rates than do native-born Americans.

“…Some studies…”.  How ringing.  They go on to list the facts about immigration growth, so the Post can’t pretend they don’t know what the facts really are.

The Reuters article is “Trump campaign ad on murder raises heat in shutdown fight.”  The headline positions ‘murder’ against ‘raises heat’.  Doesn’t seem like a fair fight, does it?  The first three paragraphs repeat the claims in the ad, repeating each point — without comment — as if it was known fact, not unproven accusations.  In paragraph four, they get to this:

The new ad is likely to anger Democrats and immigration advocates and could inflame tensions over the issue on Capitol Hill….
— Reuters, January 20, 2018

OK.  Accusing all brown immigrants of murder, verses “…Inflame tensions”.  Huh.  The next paragraph repeats more Republican claims (that are demonstrably false) without comment.

In paragraph five, Reuters repeats the Republican attack against Chuck Schumer (that Schumer is personally causing the Republican House, the Republican Senate, and the Republican President to shut down the government).  Paragraph six has Schumer’s email denial.  Again, no suggestions about which statement might be more plausible.  Instead, they wrote a full paragraph about Trump filing early for his re-election, an odd fact they clearly felt was more important.

Look, Reuters, I get that you won’t even consider using “liar”.  Is it too hard to even suggest doubt?

The New York Times continues their false equivalence with the alliterative “Bitter Bickering Muddies the Path to Ending the Government Shutdown“.  Because ‘bickering’ isn’t prejudicial or editorial.  Remember, though, that they can’t say ‘liar’ because partisan critics might call them editorial.

The article starts with a video showing Chuck Schumer looking down, possibly guiltily, under the headline “Who’s to Blame for the Shutdown?”  They describe Republicans and Democrats as equally at fault.  They say the Senate and the House are also equally at fault.  Then the coverage is a string of “he said/she said” paragraphs, invariably quoting they lurid and questionable Republicans accusations first, and then the Democratic denials second.  Then they gave up and just quote Republicans.

Here’s a classic Times paragraph:

Earlier Friday, Mr. Trump and Mr. Schumer had closed in on an agreement, but those talks eventually fell apart, and Mr. Schumer later blamed the president for backing away from a possible deal.
— New York Times, January 20, 2018

Yes, President Trump rejected the deal.  Was it that hard to say?  Instead, we get the “Mr. Schumer later blamed…” nonsense.

One more and I’m done.  How about ABC?  (I’m just following Google search results.)

The ABC News article is Trump campaign ad says Democrats ‘complicit’ in murders committed by undocumented immigrants.  They quote Republicans in the headline, so that’s hard to beat.  Sure, you can say that’s true that Trump’s ad said that. You can also say “Republicans make controversial advertisement.”  Or, you know, “Republicans issue openly racist lies and dog whistles.”  Those are also true.

Here’s how ABC starts:

The Trump campaign came out with an explosive new campaign ad Saturday night that implies the Democrats could have blood on their hands because of the shutdown — arguing they will be “complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants.”

So they repeat the Republican ad ‘talking points’, such as they are, then ABC raises the ante with ‘explosive’ and a gratuitous ‘blood on their hands’ provocation.  The second paragraph is just the link to the ad, the third repeats the ad’s claims without question, the fourth has more detail about the alleged murder (which hasn’t gone to trial yet).

Oh, look.  The next paragraphs quote dubious Republican accusations at face value, followed by Democratic denials further down.  I’m sensing a trend.

Then they include a Trump tweet that (big surprise) was factually wrong and misleading.  Without comment.

And the very last ABC paragraph is:

A 2015 study from the National Academies of Science actually found that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born citizens and that areas with a large population of immigrants have lower crime rates.

Which is to say, Republicans are liars.  Except without actually saying that, or making it clear.

The number one job of any reporter is to find the truth, and then clearly report it.  Who, what, when, where.  Extra points for ‘why’.  Find the truth, and report it.  When reporters don’t tell the truth they know, they’re not skipping some esoteric part of the job.  Their entire reason for existing is to tell us accurate information about things we don’t know.  This is literally the most important part of their jobs.

And the news is not telling us the truth about anything political.  That’s a severe problem!  And it’s not like they didn’t notice.  After the last election fiasco, news organizations across America saw that their coverage had been bad in just this way, and swore they’d change.

I’m not seeing it.  This is the same mistake newspapers and networks have been getting wrong since Lee Atwater vomited up his first Willie Horton ad for George H. W. Bush, way back when.  They’re not going to fix this by themselves.  Not unless we make them.