The media-driven narrative over the fake “border patrol agents on horseback seen whipping Haitian migrants” story continues to crumble, with the latest example coming from the New York Times who over the weekend quietly issued a correction of sorts to one of their stories on the issue.
In the story they published Friday on President Biden’s declaration that the agents will be punished for something they didn’t do, Times White House correspondent Michael D. Shear wrote the following paragraph (bolded emphasis added):
The images of agents on horseback chasing, and in some cases using the reins of their horses to strike at running migrants, came as Mr. Biden’s administration moved to forcefully round up and deport more than 2,000 of the 15,000 migrants who gathered in a makeshift camp in Del Rio, Texas. Thousands more have been moved to other parts of the country or have been released with orders to appear in court later.
Such reporting needlessly added fuel to an already out-of-control fire in which predictable comparisons were made by some Biden administration officials including Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats between border patrol agents and plantation overseers who violently abused slaves.
The paragraph in question was quietly updated at some point after the story went up Friday to remove references to “striking”:
Images of Border Patrol agents on horseback waving their reins while pushing migrants back into the Rio Grande have prompted a torrent of criticism from Democrats and civil rights groups who have accused Mr. Biden of continuing some of the most aggressive approaches to immigration put in place by President Donald J. Trump.
The formal correction itself, which appears at the bottom of the page, reads as follows:
Correction: Sept. 24, 2021
An earlier version of this article overstated what is known about the behavior of some Border Patrol agents on horseback. While the agents waved their reins while pushing migrants back into the Rio Grande, The Times has not seen conclusive evidence that migrants were struck with the reins.
Here’s a screengrab of it in case they delete it or alter it:
"An earlier version… overstated what is known about the behavior of some Border Patrol agents on horseback. While the agents waved their reins while pushing migrants back into the Rio Grande, The Times has not seen conclusive evidence that migrants were struck with the reins." pic.twitter.com/yJ84moz9ET
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) September 27, 2021
Clearly, the Times is still hoping against hope that their early reports about migrants being “struck” by CBP agents might turn out to be true, but all available evidence is not in their favor. For starters, here are contrasting images taken at roughly the same time:
— ☆ Kelly Fest ☆ (@kellyfest) September 24, 2021
There was also this alternative clip released Friday, which showed no whipping taking place at the moment the controversial photos were taken. At the beginning, we see one agent doing the “twirling” thing the CBP sometimes do with his horse reins in close proximity to a migrant and just a few seconds later the same agent grabs a migrant’s shirt to try to get him to move:
Sorting through my footage from the border. I was in the river during the viral incident between a Haitian migrant and mounted CBP agent. It's shaky – but here's what I captured. pic.twitter.com/fnvxSU83tO
— Sarah Blake Morgan (@StorytellerSBM) September 24, 2021
Perhaps most importantly, the photographer behind the photos that went viral has gone on record to say they were “misconstrued“:
The photographs, which were taken Sunday, appear to show agents on horses with a whip in hand. The photos caused outrage because from certain angles, it appears to show Border Patrol whipping migrants, but photographer Paul Ratje said he and his colleagues never saw agents whipping anyone.
“Some of the Haitian men started running, trying to go around the horses,” Ratje said.
[…]
“I’ve never seen them whip anyone,” Ratje said. “He was swinging it, but it can be misconstrued when you’re looking at the picture.”
On a related note, Axios, too, has done some “correcting” on some of their reporting on this story, though the words “whipping” and whips” still appear throughout their write-up because of course they do:
We deleted a previous tweet that referred to Border Patrol agents as whipping at Haitian migrants.
The story has been updated to include comments from some journalists on the border who did not see whipping occur.
— Axios (@axios) September 26, 2021
As I said before, irreparable harm has been done to the agents and their profession, all because this White House and the mainstream media are more beholden to wokesters and online outrage mobbers who see racism around every corner than they are the inconvenient facts.
In fact, the only people here who will face punishment are the ones who didn’t do anything wrong, the latter of which was very obvious from the start. Meanwhile, the people who did do wrong – all those in the media and on the left who knee-jerk reacted instead of waiting for the facts with some only “correcting” themselves after the damage was already done – will keep on keeping on with no apologies and no mea culpas issued.
Shameful.
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