Reuters Headline About Border Patrol Shooting Is Missing a Very Important Fact

Public Domain via USCBP Flickr Photostream Credit: Mani Albrecht

Reuters used to be considered a pretty unbiased source for straight news.

Then, so did CNN, once upon a time.

But Reuters put out a clickbait title today that was clearly pushing a narrative.

U.S. border patrol officer kills suspected undocumented immigrant https://t.co/y3R8NzOUq8 pic.twitter.com/f4Gy6vVpx7

— Reuters (@Reuters) November 5, 2019

Those evil border patrol people! Sounds pretty bad, right?

And it completely triggered some.

Arrest the agent. Investigate. Indict.

— Professing Professor (@Professing_Prof) November 5, 2019

Genocide!!!!!!! #ImpeachTrumpNow

— Brunno🚩🚩🚩🔴🔴🔴XIII (@brunnodangelo) November 5, 2019

Of course it was another reason to impeach President Donald Trump, because isn’t everything?

But, naturally, there’s more to that Reuters story that the headline in the tweet doesn’t reveal.

The Customs and Border Protection officers were investigating in an area close to the border between the United States and Mexico, which is when they encountered the suspect and chased him on foot, the New Mexican state police said in a statement posted online.

“At some point during the chase, the suspect fired a weapon at the two border patrol agents,” officials said.

One of the agents then shot back at the suspect, fatally wounding him, officials added.

Oh.

Just killed him. Not “Was Killed after shooting at Border Patrol agents”. A+ once again @Reuters https://t.co/YwtV9bz3tA

— Jack (@MrBeagleman) November 5, 2019

Plus “suspected undocumented immigrant” as opposed to “suspected illegal alien” or “suspected illegal border crosser.”

Now to be fair, people should read. But they don’t and they make assumptions. You know what they say about that. But media plays into that fact with this type of a headline. This stokes the left’s narrative of the evil CBP officers (who strangely enough are mostly the same people who were CBP under Obama but weren’t “evil” then).

Exactly how much longer/more space does it take to say “killed after allegedly shooting at officers?”

The problem is that we see so much of this from CNN, the WaPo and other media. It’s no longer just about conveying facts, but about shaping our opinion.