On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security released a statement that claimed the alleged ringleader of the foiled terrorist attack on the UFC fight at the White House the previous Sunday is an illegal immigrant. Since then, ABC’s Good Morning America and World News Tonight, NBC’s Nightly News and Today, and CBS’s Evening News and CBS Mornings have not disclosed this new information to the viewers of their morning and evening newscasts. By contrast, the networks have continued to obsess over the latest setbacks in President Trump’s efforts to renovate the reflecting pool on the National Mall by spending 13 minutes and 18 seconds on the subject.
On June 18, DHS claimed “the suspected ringleader of the failed terrorist plot against UFC Freedom 250 is a Mexican illegal alien who overstayed a B2 visitor visa” and “[Abraham Hermosillo] Alvarez entered the United States on a B2 visitor visa and failed to depart before it expired in December 2001. The Obama Administration granted him Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in 2014.” 
This is not to say the networks have had a total blackout on the foiled drone and sniper plot. All three covered the initial story and World News Tonight highlighted video of one of the other suspects’ arrest on Thursday, but there has been nothing on the new information about Alvarez.
Meanwhile, beginning on Thursday’s evening newscasts and continuing through Saturday morning’s shows, the broadcast networks have given 13 minutes and 18 seconds to algae turning the reflecting pool water green and the new blue paint already beginning to peel.
Allegedly MAGA-coded CBS was the leader by far with 7 minutes and 18 seconds of pool coverage and was the only one to focus on the pool during each of the four episodes analyzed. ABC came in second with 4 minutes and 14 seconds. NBC came in third with 1 minute and 46 seconds, although Friday’s Nightly News did not air due to U.S. Open golf coverage while Saturday’s Today was preempted by horse racing.
Ultimately, the nation’s immigration policies are more important than any misadventures surrounding the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial. A threat to the president’s life is more important than trolling him over his exterior decorating. It’s also a bit ironic that the DACA revelation comes as the media fawns over former President Obama and the opening of the Obama Presidential Center. The networks, and especially CBS, are still a long way from the caricature painted by Bari Weiss’s critics.
