National Review
Media Prove Incapable of Covering Tragedies Involving Gender, Immigration
By BRITTANY BERNSTEIN
February 26, 2024 2:47 PM
Welcome back to Forgotten Fact Checks, a weekly column produced by National Review’s News Desk. This week, we look at the media’s failure to objectively cover two tragic deaths, criticize NBC’s efforts to rehab the reputation of former U.S. intelligence officials, and cover more media misses.
Media Try to Shape the Narrative in Deaths of Nursing Student from Georgia, Nonbinary Student from Oklahoma
The mainstream media have time and time again shown an inability to objectively cover immigration and gender ideology. As such, the fact that many news outlets have dropped the ball in covering the recent deaths of nonbinary teen Nex Benedict and Georgia nursing student Laken Riley come as little surprise.
In coverage of Benedict’s death, the media quickly adopted the narrative that the 16-year-old died after an attack at her school that was motivated by anti-LGBT hate.
But the existing facts hardly sustain this narrative.
While Benedict did have an altercation in the girls bathroom of Oklahoma’s Owasso High School, it was not clear whether she was beaten because of her gender identity. Additionally, police said preliminary autopsy results found that the teen “did not die as a result of trauma.”
Benedict told police three girls beat her after Benedict poured water on the girls for laughing at her and her friend. She claimed the girls had previously mocked her and her friends “because of the way that we dress.” Benedict’s grandmother Sue Benedict said Nex hit her head on the bathroom floor during the altercation.
Benedict can be seen on camera walking through the school’s hallways after the attack. The teen later went to the hospital and was discharged, before passing away the next day.
But the facts of the case didn’t stop the New Republic from quickly running with a headline blaming GOP lawmakers: “Oklahoma Republicans Passed a Bathroom Bill. Now a Trans Kid Is Dead.”
Several Democratic lawmakers ran with that version of events as well.
“The killing of Nex Benedict is gut-wrenching and underscores the danger of extremists who are dehumanizing kids with anti-trans hate in Oklahoma and across the country. Every student should feel safe at school and supported for who they are. Nex deserves justice,” Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) wrote in a post on X.
California state senator Scott Wiener chimed in: “Nex Benedict, a non-binary kid, is dead after being bullied and attacked in a school restroom. The anti-trans laws sweeping the country – including aggressive gender policing in restrooms – have real-world, deadly consequences.”
Meanwhile, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi shared a post from the Advocate with the headline, “Oklahoma transgender student dies after allegedly assaulted by students at school.”
“Nex Benedict’s death from a brutal assault in their high school bathroom is outrageous and heartbreaking. The anti-trans fervor fueled by extreme Republicans across the country is having deadly consequences for our children. We must stand up against anti-trans hate,” Pelosi wrote.
But perhaps no media coverage last week was more shameful than that surrounding the killing of an Augusta University nursing student by an illegal immigrant.
Laken Riley went for a jog on Thursday morning and was later found dead with signs of blunt force trauma on the University of Georgia campus, which is located in the sanctuary city of Athens.
Jose Antonio Ibarra, who allegedly killed Riley, is an illegal immigrant from Venezuela who entered the country in September 2022 and was released into the U.S. via parole, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
He was arrested in New York City in September 2023 for acting in a manner to injure a child under 17, but he was released by local police before a detainer could be issued.
Now Ibarra has an ICE detainer against him in Georgia related to Riley’s murder.
Republicans have decried the immigration policies that allowed Ibarra to be on the school’s campus that morning to carry out what police called a crime of opportunity as the pair did not appear to know each other.
“The blood of Laken Riley is on the hands of Joe Biden, Alejandro Mayorkas, and the government of Athens-Clarke County,” Representative Mike Collins (R., Ga.) said. “The Venezuelan suspect in Laken Riley’s murder is one of millions of illegal aliens that the Biden administration has released into this country to be welcomed with open arms by Democrat-run sanctuary jurisdictions. This man had no business being in America, much less the UGA community to brutally murder this young American while she was on a run.”
Yet the Associated Press’s takeaway was that the murder “highlights the fears of solo female athletes.”
While the Atlanta Journal Constitution described the killer as an “Athens man,” leading to a community note on X clarifying that the assailant was in fact an illegal immigrant.
Yet the outlet had no problem identifying the man as an illegal immigrant when using that detail to criticize Republicans.
“Top Georgia Republicans quickly tied the killing of a student on the University of Georgia campus to President Joe Biden’s immigration policies, decrying what they see as lax border controls after a suspect from Venezuela was charged with murder,” the outlet reported.
As NR’s Charles C. W. Cooke said, “Classic media pattern. When reporting on the story per se, the murderer was an ‘Athens man.’ When writing the ‘Republicans pounce’ piece, they allow that it was an illegal immigrant, but only to criticize those who noticed.”
Meanwhile, CNN reports there is “little evidence” linking illegal immigration and crime.
“Ibarra’s status as an undocumented Venezuelan migrant is now being touted by several state and national GOP leaders to support their calls for tighter border security – though there is little evidence indicating a connection between immigration and crime,” CNN reported.
And Axios chose an unusual time to repost an October 2023 article that claimed the border is “more fortified than it’s ever been.” The piece also argued the term “open border” is a “myth.”
Headline Fail of the Week
NBC News published a real head-scratcher this week: “Former U.S. spies warned in 2020 that the Hunter Biden scandal had Russian fingerprints. They feel vindicated now.”
Why do these former spies feel vindicated, you may ask? Because the Department of Justice said informant Alexander Smirnov fabricated his claim about $5 million bribes paid to Joe and Hunter Biden and “is actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials” as recently as last fall.
“The Justice Department’s assertions this week that a longtime FBI informant was seeking to ‘spread misinformation’ designed to hurt President Joe Biden after speaking to Russian intelligence operatives has put a new spotlight on an old debate: To what extent, if any, has the Russian government manufactured or amplified unproven allegations of corrupt Ukraine dealings by Joe and Hunter Biden?” the report asks.
Apparently, Smirnov’s arrest means the 51 former intelligence officials who signed a letter in 2020 warning the Hunter Biden laptop story was likely Russian disinformation were vindicated – despite the laptop clearly not having been Russian disinformation.
As the story explains: “The allegation that Smirnov was spreading new falsehoods about Joe Biden with an election looming hearkened back to an episode from the 2020 election, when the question of whether Russian spies were trying to smear Joe Biden was first raised.”
“No public evidence has emerged pointing to a Russian government role in how the laptop materials were made public. But the former officials say the materials fueled stories consistent with Russian efforts to accuse Biden of corruption that persist to this day — and that therefore they were justified in sounding the alarm,” the story adds.
Media Misses
• “As with its booking of Nikki Haley,” writes a Los Angeles Times guest columnist, “SNL’s olive branch to Shane Gillis reflects a dangerous failure to learn from the hate movements that blossomed during the Trump era.”
• Politico reporter Heidi Przybyla does not appear to have ever read the Declaration of Independence. “The thing that unites them as Christian nationalists — not Christians by the way, because Christian nationalist is very different — is that they believe that our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don’t come from any earthly authority. They don’t come from Congress. They don’t come their Supreme Court. They come from God,” she said during a recent appearance on MSNBC.
• The View co-hosts cannot leave Nikki Haley alone. Last week, Sunny Hostin claimed Nikki Haley’s emotions about missing her husband who is deployed in Africa were “inauthentic.” “There’s something that military families come through. I come from a military family as many of us do, and I don’t trust her authenticity . . . I didn’t feel that it was authentic,” she said.
• Heartland Signal, whose slogan is “where facts matter,” posted a video on X of Republican Eric Hovde along with a misleading caption: “Announcing his bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Wisconsin, Republican Eric Hovde says he understands the tragedy of children being trafficked through Central America because he owns three homes there.” In fact, Hovde was not discussing personal homes, but was talking about several safe houses his Hovde Foundation runs in Central America that are largely focused on helping victims of trafficking and exploitation.
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