As part of its status as official Trump Regime Media, the Media Research Center spent a good part of this year heavily attacking deported immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, baselessly smearing him as a member of the MS-13 gang and denying that he was never supposed to be deported. As his story has continued, so have the MRC’s attacks. Alex Christy huffed in a June 7 post:
On Friday it was announced that Kilmar Abrego Garcia would be returning to the United States to face human smuggling charges, including of MS-13 gang members. However, if you only watched CBS Saturday Morning or NBC’s Today, you might come away with the impression that there were no gang members.
On Today, co-host Laura Jarrett brought back “Maryland man,” as she introduced White House correspondent Kelly O’Donnell, “The Maryland man who was mistakenly deported and held for months at a notorious prison in El Salvador is back in the United States this morning, but not a free man. Now Kilmar Abrego Garcia is facing human smuggling charges.”
Christy served as Trump Regime Media again by parroting the government’s indictment against Abrego garcia:
As for O’Donnell’s statement about “gang affiliation not in the indictment,” it was not clear what she meant. The indictment clearly says Garcia “was also a member and associate of the transnational criminal organization, La Mara Salvatrucha, otherwise known and hereinafter referred to as MS-13.”
It also alleges Garcia “used his status in MS-13 to further his criminal activity. Over the course of the conspiracy, the co-conspirators knowingly and unlawfully transported thousands of undocumented aliens who had no authorization to be present in the United States, and many of whom were MS-13 members and associates.”
[…]Why was it so hard for CBS Saturday Morning and Today to cover the MS-13 details? ABC’s Good Morning America managed to do it, as did their Friday evening show colleagues. The indictment also claims the reason why Garcia helped traffic drugs and abused women and therefore wasn’t exactly an upstanding “Maryland man” or “Maryland father.”
It might have been hard to do because no actual evidence had been provided that Abrego Garcia was, in fact, a member of MS-13, and simply claiming it in an indictment does not necessarily constitute a statement of fact.
Mark Finkelstein contributed to the narrative the same day:
In addition to the “Bad Boys” song, COPS always opened its episodes with the disclaimer: “All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.”
So let’s put that on the record for Kilmar Abrego Garcia [AG], aka, “Maryland Man.”
[…]
AG has now been extradited to the United States, and is facing a variety of serious charges relating to the smuggling of illegal aliens.
And based on what one of his lawyers said—and didn’t say—on Saturday’s edition of MSNBC’s The Weekend, things aren’t looking too keen for Kilmar.Attorney General Pam Bondi has described Abrego Garcia as “a full-time smuggler who made more than 100 trips, transporting women, children, and MS-13 gang-affiliated persons throughout the U.S.”
Being convicted on only one of those 100 trips could land the “Maryland man” in federal prison for many years.
We can imagine that Republican ad makers are already busy at work, sketching out clips featuring Van Hollen and other Democrats sticking up for Abrego Garcia. Call it the 2028 variation on the devastating “they/them” ad on Kamala’s support for taxpayer-funded transgender surgery for illegal alien inmates!
The MRC then took a break from Abrego-bashing until August, when Craig Bannister checked in from the propaganda ghetto that the MRC’s former “news” division CNSNews has been reduced to, whining that a purportedly “unhinged judge” is keeping him from being deported:
- ICE Arrests Abrego Garcia, But Still Faces ‘Unhinged Judge’ Protecting Him from Deportation – Again
- ‘Unhinged Judge’ Who Released Abrego Garcia from Jail Blocks His Deportation After ICE Takes Him into Custody
The MRC then whined that non-right-wing newscasts covered the Abrego Garcia story instead of its preferred partisan narratives. First up was Jorge Bonilla:
The legacy evening newscasts made an awful editorial choice tonight. Faced with a decision to spotlight families of our fallen service members or continue to cast “Maryland Dad” Kilmar Abrego García as a victim, they chose the latter.
[…]Abrego’s attorneys may have denied the evidence of his being a gangbanger, but there is the confidential informant evidence that never seems to find its way on to the legacy nightly news- as is the case with the domestic violence allegations. There is somehow never enough time to air any of this when it comes to coverage of “Maryland Dad.”
ABC and CBS weren’t much better, although ABC’s Pierre Thomas did note that Abrego was previously offered a plea in the human trafficking case that included deportation to Costa Rica as a resident or refugee. That’s far nicer on its face than deportation to the unknown unknowns of Uganda, and a far shorter margarita run for Sen.Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).
The networks gave this story preferential treatment while at the same time deliberately choosing to ignore President Donald Trump hosting the Abbey Gate Gold Star Families on the 4th anniversary of the terrorist attack that claimed 13 of our brave service members.
Bonilla then dutifully cited Fox News as a “news” organization that promoted the conservatively correct narrative.
Geoffrey Dickens huffed:
On Friday, Kilmar Abrego-Garcia was released from custody in Tennessee. He returned to Maryland where he was allowed to visit with his family.
On Saturday, the illegal immigrant truck driver — who allegedly killed three people by making an illegal u-turn in Florida — was denied bail and charged with three counts of vehicular homicide and immigration violations.
Care to guess which story ABC, CBS and NBC chose to cover and which one was completely censored?
The case of the truck driver, who came to the U.S. illegally in 2018 via the Southern border, obtained a commercial driver’s license (CDL) in California and Washington, failed an English test and whose work authorization was rejected by the first Trump administration, has YET to be covered on any of the broadcast evening or morning shows.
However, an illegal immigrant case ABC, CBS and NBC can’t get enough of, is their favorite cause celebre of the year.
From Friday (August 22) evening through Monday (August 26) morning ABC, CBS, NBC spent 17 minutes and 21 seconds on the alleged wife-beating, human-trafficking, MS-13 gang member.
Bonilla returned to cheer that CNN followed his preferred narrative:
In an interesting editorial choice, CNN NewsNight host Abby Phillip elected to keep credibly-accused human trafficker, wifebeater and MS-13 gangbanger Kilmar Abrego García off the table and away from any meaningful panel discussion. Phillip instead elected to do a brief blurb on Abrego García to close the show.
[…]Instead, Phillip and company spent the night throwing chaff at Brad Todd and Arthur Aidala. Immigration, via its martyr-designate Abrego García, was only addressed at the end of the night, safely away from the panel- covered under a Thunder-lid instead of in the “Thunderdome”. Once again we are reminded that if it weren’t for double standards, there would be none at all.
Clay Waters served up his own narrative-pushing in an Aug. 30 post:
On Monday’s PBS News Hour, co-anchor Amna Nawaz discussed the latest arrest of the media’s favorite Maryland man, illegal immigrant and alleged gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia, mistakenly deported to El Salvador and held in prison there before being ordered returned to the United States:
[…]Keith made an interesting, unwitting admission about how the media emphasizes liberal “sob stories” in its coverage of the illegal immigration crackdown.
This may the first time (or at least the first in a long time) that the MRC has conceded that Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported in the first place.