CNN Accused of Staging Border Crossing for Television Cameras

CNN has been outwardly obsessed with defending themselves against accusations of being “fake news”, most indignantly during the primetime slots occupied by Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo, who’ve scoffed and chuckled at the insinuation as thought their network would never publish false information.

The pair have also lambasted those who believe the network is biased in their coverage, often paraphrasing the old Dragnet staple, “just the facts, ma’am”.

And the reason they spend so much time on this defensive drivel is that they keep getting caught lying to you.

The American Prospect scrutinized a report that aired March 12 on “Outfront with Erin Burnett,” in which CNN correspondent Ed Lavandera witnessed the dramatic crossing from a motorboat near Hidalgo, Texas.

“The Rio Grande Valley has been ground zero for the latest surge in migration and here you see the operation unfolding right in front of us,” Lavandera told viewers. “After the first raft crosses, the magnitude of this moment reveals itself. Dozens of migrants emerge and walk down to the river’s edge. You can see that this is a serious operation.”

As the Prospect pointed out, the smuggler guiding the boat of migrants across the river in the CNN report “wears fatigues and a black ski mask.”

But…

“Smugglers typically attempt to blend in with the migrants, to avoid more severe punishment should they be caught,” The American Prospect writing fellow Marcia Brown observed. “Smugglers also don’t normally provide face masks and life vests, nor ferry six boatloads of people across in broad daylight. Migrants also don’t typically line up single file along the shore to cross.”

Former Border Control agent Jenn Budd told the publication that seeing the smuggler’s face mask told her that he “knew he would be filmed and he didn’t want to be set up.”

The article also cited Marianna Treviño Wright, the executive director of the National Butterfly Center and a vocal migrant advocate, who alleged that her organization makes trips down the river “at least four times a week” and “never sees any kind of trafficking operation like this.”

Worse still – locals have indicated that the section of the river depicted in the footage is accessible only to US Customs and Border Patrol authorities.