NBC News issued an embarrassing, albeit woefully inadequate, correction on a story in which they claimed ICE agents in Massachusetts essentially used an illegal immigrant’s five-year-old autistic daughter to lure him out of his home.
The outlet ran the story based on video and statements provided by the mother. The reporter involved and his editors seemed to lack the necessary curiosity to contact officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for their version of the events before hitting publish.
As RedState Editor Bob Hoge reported Tuesday, the story at first blush seemed horrific. The initial story claimed that agents “held a 5-year-old autistic girl outside her Massachusetts home to pressure her father to surrender to authorities last week.”
It goes on to convey an ominous tone as NBC suggests the girl was “encircled” and “surrounded” by “several male law enforcement agents.”
“Oh no! That is awful, despicable, inhuman. These dastardly ICE agents aren’t trying to enforce immigration law; they’re trying to terrorize Americans,” Hoge writes. “That would be the case—if the story were true.”
Alas, the entire premise got nuked by Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, who reported that the father actually abandoned the girl in the car and ICE agents notified police to rescue her from said abandonment.
With the narrative thoroughly contradicted, NBC issued its “correction.”