A picture is worth a thousand words, as the old saying goes. There is simply no guarantee that these words are true. In the case of a photo of a five-year-old boy in Minnesota, the major media embraced shock and “awwww” instead of the truth.
The boy, named Liam Ramos, and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were approached by ICE agents. The father reportedly ran away, leaving the boy alone with authorities. The father was quickly captured, but a photo of an officer with his hand resting lightly on the boy’s backpack sent the media into a predictable nationwide panic.
The press dug deep to find disturbing words: “disturbing,” “firestorm,” “controversy,” “outrage,” “spooky.” Each network tried to outdo the other with one goal in mind, and that wasn’t journalism. The goal was to help Democrats shape the illegal immigration narrative by retaining the millions of potential new voters they allowed into the country under Biden and preventing ICE from turning them back. No one supports that agenda more than the so-called neutral journalists.
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They quickly captured the father, who asked not to be separated. The police even offered the boy a meal. Father and son are together in a facility in Dilley, Texas. Hardly the crisis of 2026. But there is the photo of the boy standing there in a winter hat and carrying a Spider-Man backpack.
Major news sources claimed that the officers used the child as “bait” to capture his father.
CBS – the network that the left claims is pro-Trump – chose “bait.” So did AP, The Washington Post and PBS. (The Post later added a correction.) These are all supposedly objective news outlets. They chose “bait,” citing a quote from a school official who clearly opposes ICE.
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ABC host David Muir called the incident a “growing outrage.” Reporter Matt Rivers followed that up by referring to “the terrifying images creating a firestorm.” CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King focused her hyperbole on the child. “Now to the latest controversy over immigration policy in Minneapolis. It concerns a five-year-old boy. His name is Liam Ramos. Look at his face.’ That’s not journalism. That is activism.
Speaking on set, she added: “Nicole, I watched this story yesterday. It’s very disturbing. Both sides are very, very disturbing.” That could also be said about King, a Democratic donor and supporter who is rumored to be headed to CBS.
The other major media outlets were almost as extreme. The New York Times claimed to speak for an entire city with the headline: “Detention of 5-Year-Old by Federal Agents Incenses Minneapolis.” The newspaper claimed, “The image sparked outrage in the Twin Cities area.” Leftists don’t want immigration enforcement. On the outrage dial they are already at 10 billion. This did not upset them; it was just an excuse.
DHS releases image of illegal immigrant accused of abandoning his 5-year-old son while fleeing ice
The Post was just as bad, if not worse, with this piece: “The sickening power of the photo of a five-year-old held by ICE.” The newspaper understood that this is what journalism is best at now: finding an iconic photo and using it to push an agenda. The link to the story on
The Post’s art and architecture critic Philip Kennicott understood the photo’s potential to support the left-wing agenda. “This is an image of universal moral urgency, comparable to a small number of photographs that once had the power to shift our behavior away from cruelty or indifference and toward basic decency.” For comparison, he cited the 1972 “Napalm Girl” photo: an absurd and offensive piece.
PBS, which still exists (for now), quoted the family’s lawyer, Marc Prokosch, who was honest about the left’s motivation: “We are looking at our legal options to see if we can free them, either through legal mechanisms or through moral pressure.” The left doesn’t care about the law. They want to brush it aside with manufactured moral outrage.
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As you read the PBS article, it is interrupted by a begging pop-up ad urging its mostly left-leaning readers to donate: “Your generous monthly contribution – or whatever you can give – will help secure our future.”
The media was quick to parrot Democrats, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who shared a photo of a 5-year-old boy and claimed he was being detained by ICE when he came home from preschool. (Obtained by Columbia Heights Public Schools)
Then came the equally ridiculous left-wing media like MS Now (formerly MSNBC) and Mother Jones. MS Now continued: “The photo of 5-year-old Liam Ramos being held by ICE is an embarrassing sight for America.” You can imagine the outlet’s fans screaming, “Shame! Shame!” like a scene Game of Thrones.
Mother Jones went completely off the deep end: “They want to tell you that a kid with a Spider-Man backpack is evil.” Literally, no one said that – except Mother Jones.
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The whole controversy makes you wonder if journalists ever watch police shows. If a parent is arrested, officers cannot simply leave a child on the street. Do you think there is outrage now? Imagine if they had done that. As Vice President J.D. Vance said, “Should they let a five-year-old child freeze to death?”
Almost all of these immigration stories are one-sided, like almost every major controversy in the media today. Nowhere do journalists interview former Biden administration officials about their open borders policies that brought these illegal immigrants to the US and led to countless American deaths. Each story aims to portray Trump officials and ICE as evil for daring to enforce laws that Democrats and the press oppose — the same laws that Democrats themselves once enforced.
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White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the press is “working hand-in-hand with Democrats to spread malicious lies about ICE operations.” You got that right. But as the editor says in “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”: “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
That might as well be the motto of today’s news media.
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