San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, the liberal media’s newest darling, sat down with Stephen Colbert during her latest national media tour. And in the process, she led Colbert into spreading some fake news - namely, an “ïconic” image that turns out to have been staged, and that has a wholly different story behind it that to date has gone unacknowledged by the media.
Watch as Colbert and Cruz discuss the image in question:
STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST: This is the shot, this is the shot of you in, in the floodwaters.
CARMEN YULIN CRUZ, MAYOR OF SAN JUAN: That, that was water with human excrement
STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST: in it, down in, is this in San Juan?
CARMEN YULIN CRUZ, MAYOR OF SAN JUAN: That's in San Juan, in a place called Ocean Park.
But as this video shows, the photo isn’t what it seems to be. Rather than the mayor reassuring a concerned citizen, it appears to be a brazenly staged handshake. Watch as Roy Sánchez, the recipient of said handshake, gives his account of what happened that day:
Actor de Teatro Breve aclara controversia por foto de Yulín en inundación de San Juan...pero esto dijo en una entrevista que le hizo @chenteydrach https://t.co/lNFQIqCbOt #NotiUno630 pic.twitter.com/koiqLS0I9n
— NotiUno 630 (@NotiUno) November 29, 2017
Puerto Rico-based Noticel further confirms the video’s account - that in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane the capital city of the financially-strapped U.S. territory entered into a taxpayer-funded publicity binge, entering into contracts with four photographers to cover the Mayor’s every move.
Now what kind of mayor anywhere under the U.S. flag expends precious taxpayer resources on photographers in the aftermath of a catastrophic hurricane? The same mayor who provided convicted FALN terrorist Oscar Lopez Rivera with a 24-hour police detail, that’s who. The focus appears to have been less on saving lives than on ensuring a steady flow of shareable photos and video.
This is the other side of the photo that Mayor Cruz got Colbert to pass off as “iconic”. Cruz correctly calculated that the mainstream media would strap a rocket to the loudest anti-Trump politician on the island, and it worked.
There is now agreement within the media that Puerto Rico as a story went under-reported until it became a Trump story. We said that a month before the media figured that out. This, more than anything, explains the media’s interest in a Mayor with a -22 net approval rating, who is largely loathed on the island - where they know her best. Given information that is widely available and the media’s ability to vet someone when they really want to - it isn’t a matter of the media not knowing who Mayor Cruz is - they just don’t care.
Perhaps this can also explain the media’s unwillingness to report on Mayor Cruz’ silence with regard to a sexual scandal that has been festering within her administration in recent weeks, as one of her senior advisors faces accusations of sexual assault. Given the current climate that holds the powerful accountable for their actions, there is no reason for the Mayor to remain silent or for the national media that elevated her to abet that silence.
Add this to the terrorist championing and riot enabling, and it is crystal clear that once again, the media must bear the consequences of failing to vet its latest shiny object.
