00:00You've got to keep in mind that more than likely, an agenda is at play among the partisan media.
00:05We're going to talk about ICE today, something many people have strong opinions on.
00:10But I'm going to really challenge some of those perspectives today.
00:13You've got to ask yourself, are you really willing to peel back the politics to see the facts?
00:19It's probably easier staying in the media echo chambers that are telling you the news through a lens that you agree with.
00:25But you're not doing that because you're here.
00:28We've got a lot to talk about today when it comes to getting the full picture
00:32and how ICE operations are a legal tool the government uses to expedite deportations,
00:38but also how they're not without flaws.
00:41Welcome back to Bias Breakdown.
00:44ICE operations have consistently stayed part of our news cycle since President Trump's inauguration.
00:49But the way the stories are told sharply differ depending on the outlet you're watching.
00:54Let's start with one of the latest high-profile ICE arrests.
00:57The superintendent of Des Moines Public School District was arrested on Friday.
01:02Let's hear how Fox, on the right, started their report.
01:05Ian Andre Roberts is, quote,
01:07a criminal illegal alien from Ghana in possession of a loaded handgun.
01:11Roberts was working as the superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools,
01:16despite being an illegal alien, with a final order of removal and no work authorization.
01:21And this is how CBS News started their coverage.
01:28Protesters rallied outside of the U.S. citizenship and immigration offices in Des Moines Friday,
01:33stunned by the arrest of public school superintendent Ian Roberts, an immigrant from Guyana.
01:38The general public, I think, is not okay with what's happening.
01:42The consensus from how Fox reported it?
01:45Wow, good thing ICE got this guy.
01:47The takeaway from the CBS report?
01:49Whoa, now ICE is going after immigrants in schools.
01:53And did you pick up on that language there, too?
01:55From illegal alien to immigrant from Guyana?
01:58These labels provoke a reaction out of an audience.
02:01They're intentional and a form of media bias.
02:03Media watchdog group All Sides describes it like this.
02:07Words and phrases are loaded with political implications
02:10and can reveal an outlet's perspective or ideology.
02:14Illegal alien is commonly used by the right.
02:17And immigrant, without acknowledging illegal status, is often used by the left.
02:22Now let's also compare how the stories wrapped.
02:24First, back to Fox.
02:26And so the question is, did he provide a fraudulent social security number
02:30and was operating as someone else?
02:32And if not, I think there's a lot of questions that that school system has to answer.
02:39And the question is, are there others there as well?
02:41And here's CBS.
02:43Roberts, a former Olympic athlete, had been well-liked by many in the community.
02:47And while some are now questioning what background checks were done by the school district,
02:52others are questioning the motivation behind the arrest.
02:55He was targeted specifically because he won't give access to ICE to arrest our kids.
03:01We are 100% behind him.
03:04Fox's focus was questioning how the school district could have allowed this person with
03:09deportation orders and a prior weapons charge to become superintendent.
03:14While CBS humanizes Roberts, reminding its audience that he was a former athlete and well-liked.
03:22They do acknowledge questions around background checks, but lean in on questioning ICE's motives.
03:28This is a great recent example of how if you watch the same story, but from different left-right networks,
03:35you'd likely walk away with a very different conclusion.
03:38While we compared how left and right media covered the same ICE story differently,
03:43we honestly can't do that very often.
03:45Because a lot of times the left and right media are platforming very different ICE stories.
03:49They strategically select what stories to cover based off of what supports their political narrative.
03:56There's two media vacuums.
03:58On the right, coverage focuses on ICE operations that take criminals off the streets.
04:04Major takedown by ICE agents in Nebraska as they bring in an MS-13 kingpin who has been on El Salvador's 100 Most Wanted for nearly a decade.
04:14In Philadelphia, ICE recently arrested this suspected al-Qaeda member previously released into the U.S. by the Biden administration.
04:23ICE officers arresting a three-time deported convicted pedophile who was found living in an at-home daycare run by his wife.
04:32The suspect, a Mexican national and confirmed gang member, has a lengthy rap sheet.
04:38All of these stories are factual.
04:40Arresting MS-13 gang leaders, suspected terrorists, and convicted child predators show ICE doing exactly what they're set out to do.
04:49But when looking through the big three networks' coverage, both broadcast and online articles,
04:55left-leaning ABC, CBS, and NBC, none of the networks highlighted any of these arrests.
05:01Instead, these news outlets often feature stories on ICE interactions that go completely wrong or cases where agents misidentify their targets.
05:11So an ICE officer is relieved of current duties after a violent confrontation with a woman whose husband had just been detained in New York.
05:20The agent then lashing out, slamming her into a wall before shoving her to the ground.
05:25This is the moment an ICE agent smashed the window of the vehicle to remove 29-year-old Juan Francisco Mendez.
05:33His lawyer tells CBS News the agent was looking for a man named Antonio and mistook him for the wrong person.
05:40Marcelo Gomez de Silva is 18 years old, attending high school in Massachusetts.
05:44He came to this country on a visitor's visa at just seven years old, later getting a student visa.
05:49He was detained on May 31st on the way to volleyball.
05:52The agents, it turns out, were looking for his father, but took him in when they realized his visa had expired.
05:58These cases are also factual.
06:00An ICE agent was suspended after shoving a woman to the ground at an immigration courthouse.
06:06And these two individuals were cases of mistaken identity, but neither had legal status in the country, so they were still taken into ICE custody.
06:15We couldn't find any coverage from Fox News broadcasting any of these cases.
06:19This is biased by omission, and it shows up in both left- and right-leaning news outlets.
06:26Sure, national media can't cover every single story about ICE across the country.
06:31But when there's a clear pattern in the types of stories they choose to cover, it can reveal a political bias either for or against ICE.
06:40You know the editorial decision-making crosses the line into media bias when certain stories that don't support a political narrative are neglected, as media watchdog group All Sides puts it.
06:53This also means that if you're only consuming news through partisan outlets, you're likely not getting the full picture.
07:00You're only getting select stories, either ICE nabbing the worst of the worst or agents nabbing the wrong targets.
07:06There's a case to be made that the partisan media is further fueling the division over ICE, given how split and intentional the coverage is.
07:17And that makes me think of this.
07:19I have a strong belief that perception is reality.
07:26I grew up with Dr. Phil playing in the background thanks to my mom and grandma.
07:29But this statement, perception is reality, I think it's a strong one.
07:33And I think it applies here.
07:35Because the news we consume that is driven by a narrative shapes our perception of ICE.
07:40And these opposing left versus right perceptions are the reality of each side.
07:45And maybe by exposing how the media is framing the story, it can help us understand, we don't have to agree with each other,
07:51but it can maybe help us understand why people have polarizing views, based on what they're consuming.
07:59Americans nowadays really don't agree on too much.
08:02And someone commented on YouTube, either last week or the week before this episode, that we don't need to agree on issues.
08:09Reminding me and my scripting to not frame stories that way.
08:13Like we all need to agree here, because we definitely don't.
08:15But rather, it's okay and actually good to not agree and have diverse opinions.
08:21That's what makes us great.
08:23What weakens us is when those differences turn into sharp division.
08:27And there are new polls that show anywhere between 70 to 80 percent of Americans do agree that our differences are making our society more divisive,
08:37polarizing, and even dangerous, more at risk of political violence.
08:41Political opinions shouldn't strip away our compassion for one another.
08:47And let's not give the media control over our emotions through their not-so-hidden agendas.
08:53And that's your Bias Breakdown.
08:55Thank you for watching this week's episode.
08:58I appreciate you being here with us.
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09:24We had hundreds of viewers send in feedback last week, which honestly was amazing to see.
09:30What I love most is the honest and respectful dialogue we have in the comments when talking about really sensitive issues.
09:37So thank you for your kindness and contributions to the conversation.
09:41Thank you to Ian Kennedy on our video edits and to Allie Caldwell for her help on graphics.
09:47Thank you for watching and I'll see you next week.
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