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US government imposing severe restrictions on news outlets covering border crisis


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2021 Mar 23, 5:30pm   494 views  15 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (55)   💰tip   ignore  

https://nypost.com/2021/03/22/news-outlets-battling-restrictions-to-cover-border-crisis/?utm_campaign=patrick.net


The ability of news outlets, including The Post, to document the crisis at the US-Mexico border has been severely restricted in recent weeks, despite repeated assurances from the White House that President Biden is committed to “transparency.”

Tens of thousands of Central American migrants — including thousands of unaccompanied children — have flocked to the crossing since Biden took office and repealed former President Donald Trump’s more stringent immigration policies, creating troubling humanitarian and security concerns.

But journalists traveling to cover the chaos have encountered levels of restrictions not seen under prior presidential administrations, Republican or Democratic.

During a ride-along last week with Texas’ Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office, a Post reporter witnessed Border Patrol agents investigate a home thought to be used as a stash house for stolen cars and migrants secreted over the border.

The agents explicitly told The Post not to take photographs of them.

Deputies from the Hidalgo County Constable’s Office later explained that the camera-shy policy was handed down just last month, and that taking photos and videos of Border Patrol operations had not previously been seen as a problem.

“It’s just orders they have also, because I guess they don’t want to admit it’s a crisis going on,” speculated one deputy.

When a Post reporter attempted to visit a detention facility in Donna, Tex. on Saturday — using a walkaway that was not marked with any clearly visible signs stating that the area was off-limits — a security guard rode up on a golf cart and ordered the journalist to leave.

When the reporter then walked onto an adjacent property — also not marked with any clearly-visible signs — where another facility is under construction, the same security guard threatened to call law-enforcement unless the journalist left.

“They don’t want anything leaking out,” the Hidalgo County Constable’s Office deputy said. “But it is already.”

The Post’s experience is part of a larger media blackout effort corroborated by other journalists trying to cover the crisis.

Award-winning Getty Images photographer John Moore has tweeted that the media has been granted “zero access” in recent weeks, noting that conditions are more restrictive under Biden than under former Presidents Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

The lack of access was so bad, Moore wrote, that he found the easiest way of snapping photos of conditions on the US’ side of the border was crossing onto Mexico’s side and using a telephoto lens.

Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday sparred with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over press access, with Mayorkas blaming the blackout on a need to maintain social distance amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

And last week, Dan Shelley, executive director of the Radio Television Digital News Association, sent an open letter to Mayorkas demanding better access, noting that a shroud of secrecy only gives a greater platform to potentially biased sources who don’t necessarily prioritize objectivity.

“The lack of information and collaboration from the Border Patrol and Department of Homeland Security has also created a vacuum of sorts that traditionally biased sources are filling with information that serves only their political interests,” wrote Shelley in part. “This dynamic is not conducive to efforts by journalists to communicate unbiased information to the public nor is it constructive to the heated dialogue of elected officials both locally and nationally.

“At a time when the southern border of the United States is undergoing a historic surge of migrants, it is more important than ever that journalists be allowed the necessary access to report accurately and independently on the Border Patrol’s response to the increased arrival of migrants and the wellbeing of those housed in Border Patrol facilities,” Shelley continued.

Through it all, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has repeatedly maintained that the Biden administration is dedicated to transparency, and assured reporters for weeks that accommodations would be made for press tours of the cramped detention centers where migrant children are held for days at a time while awaiting transfer elsewhere.

“We are working to finalize details, and I hope to have an update in the coming days,” said Psaki during her latest assurance at a Monday afternoon briefing. “We are working through [it] with the Department of Health and Human Services, and also the Department of Homeland Security, to ensure privacy and ensure we’re following COVID protocols.

“We remain committed to transparency,” she continued. “We certainly want to make sure that the media has access to these sites.”


Isn't it a direct violation of the First Amendment for the government to "abridge the freedom of the press", as the US Constitution puts it?

Comments 1 - 15 of 15        Search these comments

1   RC2006   2021 Mar 23, 7:13pm  

HunterTits says
Love how tyrannical shit that the Left accused Trump of doing (which he didn't) they themselves are doing and not a peep.

Must be grand to have a (D) after one's name.


It's sickening. Average Ds know but don't care, hope they are first to go when things go to far.
2   RWSGFY   2021 Mar 24, 8:26am  

Who's fascist now?
3   Patrick   2021 Mar 24, 6:08pm  

Democrats are already fighting each other now that they don't have Trump.

This is going to be fun to watch.
4   Patrick   2021 May 12, 9:53am  

https://republicandaily.net/2021/05/the-number-of-migrants-apprehended-at-the-border-in-april-is-downright-terrifying/

The border crisis under Joe Biden is far worse than most Americans know.

According to newly released data, a whopping 178,622 were stopped by federal law enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border who were trying to illegally enter the country.

That number is the highest amount in more than two decades.

The April total is up 3% from 172,331 in March, which was a 20-year high for the number of people who tried to get into the United States by sneaking over between land crossings or were denied entry at border checkpoints.
5   Tenpoundbass   2021 May 12, 11:07am  

HunterTits says
Love how tyrannical shit that the Left accused Trump of doing (which he didn't) they themselves are doing and not a peep.

Must be grand to have a (D) after one's name.


When this Log rolls over...
6   Patrick   2021 May 12, 5:42pm  

https://republicandaily.net/2021/05/bidens-border-texas-sheriff-says-illegal-migrant-crisis-unlike-anything-hes-seen-in-35-years/

Introducing the segment, co-host Ainsley Earhardt showed video of migrants nonchalantly strolling through shallow segments of the Rio Grande River, many with children in arms or in tow, being helped out by American law enforcement officials like Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe who say Border Patrol agents are spread so thin there’s no way they can handle the massive influx he says is the worst he has seen in more than three decades.

After acknowledging that the situation has been worsening for some time already (like almost immediately after Biden ‘won’ last November), Coe went on to assess what he and his deputies are witnessing.

“It’s a huge influx of alien smuggling going on around here,” he said. “Every night it’s always something. Over the weekend, in one incident, we stopped four vehicles. All four vehicles were traveling together; all four vehicles had aliens in them.”

“It’s just nonstop. I’ve never seen anything like this in 35 years here,” Coe continued.

He went on to say that the situation “is getting more and more dangerous all the time” as well.

“Now we’re encountering more and more firearms,” he said. “Used to, you’d catch an alien smuggling a load, they were passive. They’d get out of their vehicle. Now, they want to run. They’re driving through fences. And they’re startin’ to carry firearms.”

Meanwhile, President-in-waiting Harris, our ‘border czar,’ hasn’t so much as set foot within a mile of the U.S.-Mexico border’s most problematic hot spots, even as state and local officials are pleading with the Biden regime for more help.

But that help isn’t going to come, of course, because the objective all along by the Democrats has been to inundate the country with future voters.
7   Patrick   2021 May 12, 5:45pm  

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/crisis-worsens-178-622-attempted-illegally-cross-border-april

Federal law enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border stopped 178,622 people trying to enter the country illegally in April, the highest amount in more than two decades.

The April total is up 3% from 172,331 in March, which was a 20-year high for the number of people who tried to get into the United States by sneaking over between land crossings or were denied entry at border checkpoints. Roughly 5,160 of the 178,622 people encountered were denied entry at a port of entry, while the remainder went across the border in unfenced areas.
8   Eric Holder   2021 May 12, 5:59pm  

Patrick says
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/crisis-worsens-178-622-attempted-illegally-cross-border-april

Federal law enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border stopped 178,622 people trying to enter the country illegally in April, the highest amount in more than two decades.

The April total is up 3% from 172,331 in March, which was a 20-year high for the number of people who tried to get into the United States by sneaking over between land crossings or were denied entry at border checkpoints. Roughly 5,160 of the 178,622 people encountered were denied entry at a port of entry, while the remainder went across the border in unfenced areas.


"Fake, manufactured crisis"
9   Patrick   2021 May 13, 9:47am  

https://republicandaily.net/2021/05/breaking-joe-biden-breaks-campaign-pledge-now-building-trumps-wall-with-mexico/

Joe Biden ran for the presidency on a vow not to build “another foot” of Trump’s border wall with Mexico. But after a worsening border crisis that has many of his most staunchest supporters questioning his lack of leadership, President Biden is reversing course and building the wall.

“BREAKING: @FoxNews has confirmed via the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that construction on a 13.4 mile stretch of border wall in the Rio Grande Valley will RESUME after pressure from local residents & politicians,” Bill Melugin reported. “The Biden admin previously halted all wall construction in Jan.”
10   mell   2021 May 13, 9:58am  

Patrick says
https://republicandaily.net/2021/05/breaking-joe-biden-breaks-campaign-pledge-now-building-trumps-wall-with-mexico/

Joe Biden ran for the presidency on a vow not to build “another foot” of Trump’s border wall with Mexico. But after a worsening border crisis that has many of his most staunchest supporters questioning his lack of leadership, President Biden is reversing course and building the wall.

“BREAKING: @FoxNews has confirmed via the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that construction on a 13.4 mile stretch of border wall in the Rio Grande Valley will RESUME after pressure from local residents & politicians,” Bill Melugin reported. “The Biden admin previously halted all wall construction in Jan.”


Trump was right again.
13   PeopleUnited   2021 May 16, 4:09pm  

Patrick says


They are like zombies programmed to obey. They do and think what their TV and phone tell them to do.
14   Patrick   2021 May 16, 4:26pm  

PeopleUnited says
They are like zombies programmed to obey. They do and think what their TV and phone tell them to do.





I want to know the exact psychological mechanism used, to be better able to fight them.

I'm probably naive but my best guesses so far are:

- Fear. People become creepily obedient when they are made afraid. They automatically look to "authority" to rescue them.
- Peer pressure. People are very afraid of being rejected by friends and relatives, and so they conform to utter idiocy like outdoor masks.
- Unwillingness to ever admit they were wrong. Once sucked into the vortex of mask hysteria, people find it simply too embarrassing to ever publicly admit fault.

Other ideas?
15   Hircus   2021 May 16, 5:45pm  

Patrick says
https://republicandaily.net/2021/05/breaking-joe-biden-breaks-campaign-pledge-now-building-trumps-wall-with-mexico/

Joe Biden ran for the presidency on a vow not to build “another foot” of Trump’s border wall with Mexico. But after a worsening border crisis that has many of his most staunchest supporters questioning his lack of leadership, President Biden is reversing course and building the wall.

“BREAKING: @FoxNews has confirmed via the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that construction on a 13.4 mile stretch of border wall in the Rio Grande Valley will RESUME after pressure from local residents & politicians,” Bill Melugin reported. “The Biden admin previously halted all wall construction in Jan.”


I agree with this statement in the article. And breathe a very tiny breath of relief when I see these signs of sanity.

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