Curtis Houck continues the Media Research Center’s false conflation of an immigrant wrongly deported with the murder of a woman by an illegal immigrant in an April 17 post:
On Wednesday afternoon, the White House called a last-minute press briefing featuring “a special guest,” which turned out to be Patty Morin, the mother of Marylander Rachel Morin, who was raped and murdered in 2023 by an illegal immigrant. Patty spoke in graphic detail about Rachel’s murder to a mostly liberal press corps that were left stone-cold silent.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins was the only reporter to speak up aside from the perfunctory condolences of “sorry for your loss”:
[…]But hours later on her own show The Source, Collins never paid tribute to Rachel or Patty Morin. The former conservative reporter never even brought up the surprise briefing by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Collins further showed her priorities (or at least what the CNN borg wants talked about) with over 18 minutes (18:34) lamenting the plight of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the illegal immigrant deported to an El Salvadoran jail the liberal media have affectionately called a “Maryland man” or “Maryland father and husband.”
[…]Rachel Morin left behind five children and now a grandchild. Unfortunately, it sure seemed as though Patty discussing Rachel’s violent murder wasn’t even enough for Collins to feel like Rachel was worth mentioning on her show as it would have taken precious seconds away from the liberal media’s real priority: defending illegal immigrants.
Houck didn’t explain why an immigrant whose rights were violated does not deserve to be defended.
Nicholas Fondacaro spent an April 18 post complaining that the bogus conflation was called out:
The White House press room was left speechless on Thursday after Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt invited Maryland angel mom Patty Morin to speak about her daughter Rachel, who was raped and murdered by an illegal immigrant (a story largely ignored by the liberal media until the briefing). But during Friday’s CNN This Morning, host Audie Cornish scoffed and chuckled at Morin as she chided the White House for their “use of the victims’ families.”
Before writing off Morin’s story from discussions of illegal immigration, Cornish did play a soundbite of the grieving mother’s reaction to her Democratic Senator, Chris Van Hollen flying to El Salvador to be with an alleged MS-13 gang member instead of meeting with her:
[…]But as she was noting that the cases were not directly related, Cornish couldn’t seem to help herself as she openly scoffed and chuckled.
“So, just to be clear, she was not raped or murdered by Kilmar Abrego Garcia. So, two completely different crimes [scoff and chuckle] different times,” she argued. “And Garcia does not actually have a criminal record.”
Fondacaro seems weirdly offended that these truths were pointed out. We thought media watchdogs cared about the truth.
Mark Finkelstein clung to the narrative in another April 18 post:
Of all the news outlets you wouldn’t expect to be supplying vital information indicating that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was a gang member, the notoriously lefty BBC has to be near the top of the list.
And yet . . .
On today’s Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough went on a rumbling, bumbling, stumbling defense of Abrego Garcia–check the video beginning at 35 seconds for Scarborough doing his best bumbling Biden impression.
But Scarborough ended by emphatically exclaiming: “This whole idea that he’s a gang member: no he’s not! It was never proved.”
Scarborough also stressed that Abrego Garcia had not been convicted of a crime in the US. But no one denies that he was an illegal alien. Add to that his apparent gang connection, and he was ripe for deportation. Adios, amigo!
But Abrego Garcia’s alleged gang affiliation really hasn’t been proven. As the Washington Post pointed out, his name appears on a defunct database, and it was added by a corrupt cop.
Houck returned for an April 18 post angry that a congressman met with Albrego Garcia:
On Friday, the “Big Three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC had full segments on their flagship morning news shows heralding Maryland Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen for flying down to El Salvador and meeting with alleged MS-13 gang member and former illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the liberal media are acting as though he’s an early frontrunner for the 2025 Time Person of the Year.
ABC’s Good Morning America had an interview later in the show with Garcia’s wife (which was weird), so they made sure to set the table. Co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos began: “We’re going to get the latest now on the showdown over the Maryland man who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador. Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia as he presses for the prisoner’s release and an appeals court weighs in.”
“Maryland man”? Check. “Wrongfully deported”? Check.
[…]Shifting to NBC’s Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie said Van Hollen was “meeting in El Salvador with Maryland man whose mistaken deportation has taken center stage in that battle.”
Senior White House correspondent Garrett Haake gushed that “Garcia’s wife said overnight that her prayers have been answered now that she knows her husband is still alive, but he’s also still not coming back to Maryland.”
Acknowledging “the White House is embracing the political contrast created by this visit and those photos,” Haake called Van Hollen’s visit “proof of life” for Garcia.
[…]CBS Mornings spent the least amount of time on Abrego Garcia at 91 seconds, but it still made sure to commiserate over him.
[…]After quoting from a statement with his wife’s name on it, reaction from Bukele, and the White House blasting Van Hollen and Democrats as the party of illegal immigrants, he ended by insisting “Abrego Garcia’s legal team strongly denies any ties to MS-13” (despite the facts put out by the White House).
Houck didn’t detail what those “facts put out by the White House” supposedly are.
Tim Graham rehashed his subordinates’ previous narrative-pushing in his April 19 podcast:
The networks demonstrated biases by their choice of anecdotes. They completely skip murders by illegal aliens, like the newly convicted killer of Rachel Morin. Instead, they’ve gone all in to advocate for illegal alien Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, despite his gang connections and domestic-violence accusations. Geoffrey Dickens and Bill D’Agostino discuss their studies on the TV coverage.
Graham didn’t mention that those purported “gang connections” are dubious at best.