BROADCAST BIAS: Networks downplay illegal immigrant's alleged antisemitic attack in 'sanctuary city'

Fox News

12 hours ago

Violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants are typically not considered "newsworthy" by ABC, CBS, or NBC. The subject is too "Trumpy." Their collective reflex is to ignore each murder or injury as some sort of obscure local news anecdote that doesn't rise to a national news story.
On Sunday, June 1, an illegal immigrant from Egypt named Mohamed Soliman allegedly tried to kill Jewish protesters in Boulder, Colorado, who were advocating for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. The first headlines from the networks were aerobically vague.
NBC News drew the most social-media mockery for "Multiple Gaza hostage awareness marchers injured in attack in Boulder. "People" were "set on fire," it said underneath. Jews were just "Gaza-hostage-awareness marchers." CBS's vague headline — "Attack at Boulder's Pearl Street Mall in Colorado burns several people, police say" — gave no indication that the assailant was antisemitic.
The attack first drew police attention at about 3:30 pm Eastern time. On Sunday night's CBS "Weekend News," they began with the Boulder attack, but only stuck with it for about 40 vague seconds before moving to a story blaming Israel for shootings of civilians looking for food in Gaza. "PBS News Weekend" never mentioned Boulder on Sunday evening. Sunday night's "All Things Considered" on NPR didn't consider a segment on this.
On Monday morning, the vagueness continued. The attacker was an "Egyptian national" and his victims were "people" in a "peaceful crowd." Once legal proceedings kicked in, the specifics followed in Monday night's coverage. Soliman reportedly confessed to police that he planned the attack for a year, and he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead, and he said he would do it again.
CBS White House reporter Nancy Cordes suggested Trump and his aides were exploiting the attack. "The president and the White House, more generally, they are using this case to hammer the Biden administration over its immigration policies, which they are arguing enabled the suspect to stay in the country." Anchor John Dickerson then asked Cordes what might have happened to the assailant under Trump's border policies. She conceded it was "unlikely" he would have been allowed to enter the country and claim asylum.
On Monday, PBS White House reporter Laura Barron-Lopez also noted the information was "seized" for political benefit. "President Trump today seized upon that on his social media, writing: 'This is yet another example of why we must keep our border secure.'"
By Wednesday night, the story had turned to the Trump administration moving to deport Soliman's wife and five children, who are also illegal immigrants. As usual, a judge stepped in to delay it. While they usually highlight judges acting as the "resistance," ABC, CBS and PBS barely touched on it.
At least NBC devoted a full story to this. Reporter Morgan Chesky even relayed a video shared on a pro-Hamas Telegram channel, shot before Sunday's attack, which showed Soliman saying in Arabic "God is greater than the Zionists… than America, and its weapons."
NBC could have aired a fuller, subtitled version of the alleged firebomber's remarks to include "Jihad is more beloved to me than my mother, wife, and children." That would seem relevant to the question of America deporting his wife and children.
The networks didn't talk about how the liberals who run Boulder proclaimed themselves a "sanctuary city," protecting illegal immigrants from federal law enforcement. Daily Caller White House reporter Reagan Reese asked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about that topic, but no one expected liberal networks would notice.
NBC News drew the most social-media mockery for "Multiple Gaza hostage awareness marchers injured in attack in Boulder. "People" were "set on fire," it said underneath. Jews were just "Gaza-hostage-awareness marchers."
A week before the attack, the state of Colorado doubled down on its sanctuary "protections" in new legislation signed by Gov. Jared Polis, which underlined that, by nature, Democrats in blue states want to keep all illegal immigrants, including criminals, from being deported.
This has been a disturbing trend in antisemitic attacks in recent weeks. On April 13, a man started a fire at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's home. Shapiro is Jewish, and the suspect allegedly did the attack to support the Palestinian cause. And on 21, two Israeli employees were gunned down outside the Capital Jewish Museum. In each case, the networks covered the crime for a few days and then moved on. It's likely that these broadcast networks will be eager to put Boulder in the rearview mirror as well.