The spiraling crisis on America’s southern border is spreading, rippling to all parts of the country with impacts on crime and national security. But you wouldn’t know that if you watched the networks in January. Total coverage by ABC, CBS, and NBC’s evening newscasts decreased to a surprising ZERO minutes and ZERO second for January. Fox News obtained a court file from Fox News that showed unofficial figures of 153,941 interactions at the border south in January. This amounts to double the January 2021 figure and quadruple that of January 2020.
The networks, however, eagerly reported on one country’s immigration policy. This was Australia. From January 1 to January 31, ABC’s World News TonightThe CBS Evening News The NBC Nightly News It took 26 minutes and 14 second to complete this task. to tennis star Novak Djokovic’s ultimately failed bid to play in the Australian Grand Slam and his fight not to be deported from the country over a refusal to vaccinate. ABC offered 9 minutes 3 seconds. NBC was second at 8 minutes, 58 seconds. CBS permitted 8 minutes and 13 second.
The drama with Djokovic included a deportation struggle, the revoking of his visa and a discussion of whether a country’s immigration laws apply to all who want to enter. The evening newscasts were fascinated with this story on the other side of the world, but don’t seem to care about a sprawling, ongoing crisis right here in America.
Apart from the constant high level of border apprehensions, January has seen specific examples that illustrate how serious the situation. Two illegal immigrants were arrested last month for the murder of three victims. Alabama police found bullet holes in an SUV containing the charred bodies of three victims of murder in their Alabama home.
FoxNews.com in January reported the highly disturbing story of U.S. Border Patrol nabbing a child sex predator as he was about to cross the southern border. Fox’s Adam Shaw and Bill Melugin explained, “El Paso Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez announced that the Ecuadorian national had previous convictions for aggravated sodomy, child molestation and rape from Atlanta, Georgia.”
Perhaps the most surprising thing about January was that Fox News only covered illegal immigrants being detained in New York. This shocked local authorities. Fox’s Melugin on January 26 explained, “A source within ICE tells me that the agency has in fact been releasing some illegal immigrants who have misdemeanor criminal record, some things like assault, or drunk driving.”
January’s zero coverage on the evening newscasts sounds shocking, but it’s simply part of a pattern for ABC, CBS and NBC. Their December performance was only slightly better at 297 seconds. CBS and ABC both allowed less than one minute, with only 17 seconds. World News Tonight 20 seconds for the CBS Evening News.
It NBC Nightly NewsHowever, he managed to manage 3 minutes 43 seconds. But still, that’s better than November when the networks were back at a depressing zero seconds. It took 297 seconds to complete December. The zero coverage in January and November equates to 4 minutes and 5 seconds respectively.
It’s not as though the networks are incapable of covering the crisis at the U.S. border. In March 2021, ABC and CBS offered a remarkable 113 minutes of coverage for 173,281 border encounters. By August, the coverage had plummeted 96 percent.
It continues to be a disaster at the border. But the networks, ever fearful of harming Joe Biden and the Democratic Party’s dimming midterm chances, are burying the story. They’re too busy covering Australia’s immigration policies.
About Post Author
