Fake News: Ignorant media confuse horse reins with 'whips'
City boys don't know much about horse-riding out west, do they?
Various tenderfoots in the media, followed by assorted Democrats, including the White House itself, have ignorantly claimed that the Border Patrol was using "whips" on migrants in Del Rio, Texas, following a series of misleading pictures published in the press.
Here's an outraged tweet from a soft-handed city-bred blue check:
From @elpasotimes: As the Haitians tried to climb onto the U.S. side of the river Sunday afternoon, a border agent shouted: "Let's go! Get out now! Back to Mexico!"
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) September 20, 2021
The agent swung his whip menacingly, charging his horse toward the men in the river.https://t.co/DejaoSQKwI
Fox News has a collection of tweets saying the same thing from other blue checks.
Here's an MSNBC video over the YouTube headline:
Border Patrol Agent Seen Holding Whip During Encounter With Haitian Migrants
Some of them are just incredibly stupid, given their accompanying photos. The origin of the "whip" claim was a report from the El Paso Times.
Fact check: The ropes in the pictures are called "reins" — in this case, split reins, and they are being used to control the horse — among other things, to ensure that the 1,000-pound horse does not trample the migrant. DuckDuckGo Images has thousands of such pictures of these — new concept, boys — split reins. The agents are also carrying instruments known as "riding crops," which are used to communicate with the horse, which is also critical, given that the horse cannot see the rider, and once again, are used to ensure that the half-ton horse does not trample the migrant. How exactly do these people think horses are made to go from one place to another?
A Washington Times reporter who knows what he's talking about spent some of his valuable time educating the dolts, whom he delicately characterized as "novices."
HORSE LESSON FOR NOVICES: The horse-mounted Border Patrol guys down in Del Rio are riding "western" style so they are using what's known as a "split rein" to control the horse. It's where the reins are attached to the bit but aren't attached to each other. (1)
— Mike Glenn (@mrglenn) September 20, 2021
The reins are held in the rider's hands. They are usually long enough to perhaps APPEAR whip-like and occasionally a rider will use it to spur the mount a bit. But reins are not whips. Border Patrol doesn't carry whips. (2-END)
— Mike Glenn (@mrglenn) September 20, 2021
After that, several media outlets softened their line from "whips" — to "might" have been whips, or "whip-like cords" in the case of Reuters, or "use of force." They didn't want to get more egg on their faces with that obviously fake "whip" thing.
It goes to show the problem of young reporters in blue cities, fresh from their 1619 Project and Critical Race Theory "education," with wide-eyed views of centuries-old slavery still dancing in their heads, seeing what they want to see, rather than asking questions and getting the actual facts.
It gets worse. Democrat pol after Democrat pol weighed in on the nonexistent "whips." Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez howled "unfathomable cruelty" but apparently got word that whips were not involved and so was careful not to use the word "whip." Perhaps she will do a crying stunt next to a parking lot next.
It culminated in the White House screeching hysterically.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday called pictures that appeared to show a U.S. Border Patrol agent on horseback with a whip to deter migrants "horrific," but declined to say what consequences there should be for the agent's actions.
"I have seen some of the footage. I don't have the full context. I can't imagine what context would make that appropriate, but I don't have additional details," she told reporters at the daily White House briefing. "I don't think anyone seeing that footage would think it's acceptable or appropriate."
Horrific? Really? Against a scene of now 16,000 migrants present in the U.S. illegally, in a squalid "Bidenville" shack camp with zero sanitation, many COVID and measles cases, and no food? Can she tell us again what's "horrific"?
The Border Patrol has stated that it does not use whips (seriously, where would you buy one, other than at some kink shop in a deep-blue city such as San Francisco?):
"The Department of Homeland Security does not tolerate the abuse of migrants in our custody and we take these allegations very seriously," a department spokesperson said. "U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating the matter and has alerted the DHS Office of Inspector General."
Now they say there will be an "investigation." How much is that going to cost? And who's going to compensate the border agents who were smeared in this while just doing their jobs?
It's telling that Psaki, who's so certain about everything else she lies about, worked very hard to qualify her words about not knowing the "full context" and not knowing "additional details" (such as the fact that they weren't using whips, right, Jen?), which suggests she very well knew what was going on and knew that the investigation would yield zero, but wanted to cover for herself by not looking that stupid.
But the press is promoting this "narrative" anyway, and the "whips" are trending on Twitter.
What they're trying to do is set up a new "kids in cages" "narrative" in a bid to keep the border open and ensure that all illegal crossers are issued working papers and permission to stay.
There's an emerging picture already for this. Despite the showy pictures on television of migrants being deported back to Haiti, only about 10% of the 3,000 now processed actually did get sent back to Haiti — the rest, including this military-aged single male Haitian who didn't find his refugee resettlement in Chile, of all places, sufficient and was now looking for a better life in the states, according to this CBS report.
The whole thing is emerging as a scam. The open-borders crowd is fighting back against the horrific pictures of a migrant surge by bringing up the whips and chains of slavery, conveniently finding that the illegal border-crossers are black. Meanwhile, the Texas border towns are ignored, and the migrants are getting to stay, which is something that will promote more migration as migrants with their cell phones happily call up their relatives back home and tell them to come on over.
It's lunacy — more evidence of border mismanagement from the Biden administration. But the press has a significant role in this, literally spreading fake news based on their failure to report facts. What is it about the biased press and horses these days? First ivermectin, now reins as "whips." It's disgusting, and the ignorami of this bunch need to be called out.
Image: Screen shot from MSNBC video, via YouTube.
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