As previously documented by NewsBusters, ABC, CNN and CBS spent time over the weekend fretting over an illegal immigrant from Mexico who was arrested at a California gas station while driving his pregnant wife to the hospital.
After it was revealed that he was suspected of committing a murder in Mexico, ABC and CBS both highlighted skepticism about whether the arrested man, Joel Arrona-Lara, really did have a warrant out for his arrest, noting that a Mexican agency reported that they had no record of a warrant for him.
But, after AP confirmed on Monday that the warrant for Arrona-Lara does, in fact, exist, none of the shows on ABC or CBS that showed skepticism has given an update while CNN never bothered to report that there was a murder warrant at all.
On Saturday morning, CNN's New Day Saturday ran a full report on the story which focused on Arrona-Lara missing out on seeing his son being born, and passed on his wife's claims that he had no criminal history. The report re-aired a couple of times over the next two hours on CNN Newsroom.
After ICE divulged later that day that he was arrested because of a murder warrant, CNN simply dropped the story and has not revisited it since.
ABC's World News Tonight arrived at the story on Saturday evening before they were aware of the murder warrant. On Sunday, Good Morning America and World News Tonight both covered the story, noting the warrant, but also highlighting claims by the family's attorney that it was a case of mistaken identity.
The reports also related that a Mexican agency had been unable to verify the warrant's existence. On Monday, Good Morning America ran another similar full report on the matter which was still skeptical of whether he was the right man, and the early morning ABC show America This Morning ran a brief on the matter highlighting the doubts.
The CBS Evening News just ran one report on the story on Sunday evening which also informed viewers that the Mexican government had been unable to confirm the warrant, and, on Monday, CBS's early morning show CBS Morning News ran a similar story while it was not mentioned on the CBS This Morning show.
It was later on Monday that Associated Press reported that Mexico had confirmed that there is, in fact, a murder warrant out for Joel Arrona-Lara, but between Monday evening and Tuesday morning, this development was ignored by the networks that had previously shown interest in portraying the illegal immigrant family as victims of ICE.
Viewers of ABC and CBS were left wondering whether there really was a warrant on him, and CNN viewers were never told of the murder warrant at all.
