President Trump signing an executive order on Wednesday to stop the separation of illegal immigrant families at the border was greeted Thursday morning by broadcast networks and cable news channels hailing the latest cover of Time magazine, which savaged Trump by using an altered image to portray him as indifferent to a crying young child.
Continuing their obsessive coverage of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, the NBC, ABC, and CBS morning shows all touted the liberal news magazine’s hostile cover at the top of the 8:00 a.m. ET hour. “Also this morning, within the last few minutes, we have now got our first look at the newest edition of Time magazine, we’ll put that up on the screen, there it is, with the headline, ‘Welcome to America,’” correspondent Peter Alexander breathlessly declared on NBC’s Today show.
The reporter described the image for viewers: “You can see the president staring down at a young undocumented immigrant child.” He then hoped the commander-in-chief would take notice of the nasty hit piece: “President Trump who is very image oriented, it will be interesting to see how he responds today.”
On ABC’s Good Morning America, filling in for co-host George Stephanopoulos, World News Tonight anchor David Muir announced: “Take a look at – this is the new Time magazine cover out just moments ago. The president there, a little girl, and it says...“Welcome to America.’”
CBS This Morning co-host Norah O’Donnell was clearly impressed by the hostile cover as she hyped: “The new issue of Time magazine, look at this, shows the president towering over a young crying girl. The cover says, ‘Welcome to America.’” Fellow co-host John Dickerson gushed: “An iconic – a now-iconic photo taken last week captured that girl as her mother was detained.”
Joining the network morning shows, MSNBC’s Morning Joe and CNN’s New Day also predictably seized on the topic. Joe Scarborough eagerly recited the interior headline: “The cover story entitled, ‘American Values: Trump’s brutal gambit at the border reflects a president uncomfortable with ideas.’” He celebrated the “devastating cover” and asserted that it reflected “how America right now is seen by the rest of the world.”
On New Day, fill-in co-host Erica Hill exclaimed: “Also new this morning, Time magazine out with a stinging new cover. Take a look at this. The president being hit there for separating children from their parents at the border.” Like CBS’s Dickerson, she praised the Photoshop job: “It features the now-famous photo of that crying 2-year-old Honduran girl. The caption, ‘Welcome to America.’”
Adding to the already excessive coverage, Maria Celeste Arraras, anchor at the Telemundo Hispanic network afternoon show Al Rojo Vivo, expressed her “distress” about the Time magazine cover with a Facebook post, questioning, “Why do children have to pay for the problems of adults?”
The pattern is all too familiar: A liberal magazine launches a nasty attack against a Republican president and the rest of the liberal media dutifully repeat the smear.
