During Monday’s Tucker Carlson Tonight, the eponymous host opened the show by slamming the media for their scant coverage of “the new numbers on the drug crisis in America,” which found that “more than 70,000 Americans died of drug ODs in America last year.” According to Carlson, the media sees the drug crisis as “just middle America dying, no big deal.”
He then contrasted the non-coverage of the drug crisis with the media’s coverage of Joel Arrona-Lata, an illegal immigrant apprehended by ICE as he drove his wife to the hospital for a C-section. After playing a clip of CNN’s reporting on the story, Carlson played a clip of Acting Director of ICE Ronald Vitiello describing Arrona-Lata as “far from an innocent victim. This person was wanted by foreign authorities for murder.”
Carlson then highlighted how the media downplayed the murder charge even after it became public, pointing out that The New York Times ran an article with the headline “ICE Detained Man Who Was Driving His Pregnant Wife to a Hospital.”
After mentioning that “the murder part was buried in the fifth graf after a description of the ‘outrage’ and ‘growing anger toward ICE’ over the administration’s ‘sweeping’ immigration policies,” he asserted “that’s what propaganda looks like; artfully disguised lying designed to manipulate rather than inform.”
Carlson continued to point out the media’s double standards, specifically focusing on The New York Times:
If you were arrested for murder on the way to your wife’s C-section, would the Times attack the cops in defense of you? Probably not. The headline would instead read “Murder suspect apprehended. Hooray!” The FBI raided Paul Manafort’s house on a tax charge while his wife was in the shower. A letter to his lawyer would have been enough but the feds wanted to intimidate Manafort’s family with “shock and awe.” The Times wholeheartedly applauded that. Paul Manafort is an American citizen. Nobody thinks he’s noble. He gets no break and neither will you if you were ever accused of doing something wrong. If only you were here illegally, they would defend you.
Carlson reiterated these points later as he wondered to liberal guest, Richard Goodstein: “Why is that not propaganda? Seriously.”
Not surprisingly, Goodstein refused to give a direct answer, instead responding: “You will have to take that up with somebody who writes or edits for The New York Times. I can’t defend how they present which information in which paragraph.”
Goodstein later claimed: “I think the reason we are talking about this, Tucker, is because the walls are closing in on the President and this is an issue he thinks he can make hey out of with his base.”
Carlson pointed out at the top of the show that “every day, the organized left and its public relations arm in the media tell us that illegal immigrants aren’t just equal to American citizens, they are superior to American citizens.”
A transcript of the relevant portion of Tucker Carlson Tonight is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Tucker Carlson Tonight
08/20/18
8:00 p.m. Eastern
TUCKER CARLSON: Good evening and welcome to “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” We are in the business, so we watch a lot of television and we’ve noticed a theme. Every day, the organized left and its public relations arm in the media tell us that illegal immigrants aren’t just equal to American citizens, they are superior to American citizens. They work harder, they are more noble and deserving. They have more interesting cultures than you do, Mr. White Bread and Mayonnaise. They deserve better treatment. Contrast that to this story. Last week, we got new numbers on the drug crisis in America; it is by far the worst in our history. More than 70,000 Americans died of drug ODs in just the last year. That is a shocking…a horrifying number but you may not be familiar with it, because the press barely covered that tragedy. They don’t care. It’s just middle America dying, no big deal. But if you watched TV in the last few days you have definitely heard of a man called Joel Arrona Lara, he’s a hardworking undocumented worker who for inexplicable reasons was arrested out of the blue by ICE Agents as he drove his wife to the hospital for a C-section. The media pounced; it was a moral atrocity typical of the Trump years, they told us. The Khmer Rouge never did anything so appalling. CNN went on the attack before ICE even commented on what happened. Watch.
CHRISTI PAUL: I want to let you know about this story regarding a new baby boy. He is not with his dad today because ICE Agents hauled his father away as the family was headed to the hospital where the mom was scheduled for a C-section.
CHRIS HOLMSTROM: The mother of five just gave birth two days ago; the same day her husband Joel Arrona was detained by ICE Agents. Shortly after, she gave birth to her baby boy. While he’s physically okay, this mother is living a nightmare.
VICTOR BLACKWELL: ICE has not yet commented on this incident.
CARLSON: Living a nightmare. A made for television tragedy but it wasn’t just cable news. The Hill, Slate, ABC, CBS, many others did exactly the same story. They presented it as a dystopian morality tale. Heartless ICE Officers tore a father from his family for no reason at all. They probably were wearing MAGA hats as they did it. Journalist and noted dumb person Amy Siskind summed up the media reaction with this tweet: “OMFG, ICE detained a husband as he was driving his wife for a C-section. The cruelty and inhumanity of this regime!” Amy added an exclamation point at the end so you know she means it. Left unasked in any of this was why ICE would want to arrest this guy in the first place. Did they even have a reason or did they just do it because they ran out of puppies to kick? Well, it turns out they did have a reason. Here’s the reason.
RONALD VITIELLO: This is far from an innocent victim. This person was wanted by foreign authorities for murder, and like this arrest, most of what ICE does in cities and towns is targeted enforcement. This was a referral that we got from Interpol for a wanted person. We did surveillance to find out where they lived and when that individual left their home, we made a vehicle stop.
CARLSON: Oh, murder! So the doting father was wanted for murder; homicide, killing someone in Mexico. Actually, it turns out the Mexican government asked the Trump administration to find and arrest this man. But whatever. He’s still noble and depressed. He’s exactly the kind of person the Democratic Party wants living in your neighborhood next to you soaking up your tax dollars. The New York Times, the party’s Pravda, said as much. Even after the murder charge became public, that newspaper ran this headline: “ICE Detained Man Who Was Driving His Pregnant Wife to a Hospital.” The murder part was buried in the fifth graf after a description of the “outrage” and “growing anger toward ICE” over the administration’s “sweeping” immigration policies. That’s what propaganda looks like. Artfully disguised lying designed to manipulate rather than inform. And you can tell by how inconsistently it is applied. For example, if you were arrested for murder on the way to your wife’s C-section, would the Times attack the cops in defense of you? Probably not. The headline would instead read “Murder suspect apprehended. Hooray!” The FBI raided Paul Manafort’s house on a tax charge while his wife was in the shower. A letter to his lawyer would have been enough but the feds wanted to intimidate Manafort’s family with “shock and awe.” The Times wholeheartedly applauded that. Paul Manafort is an American citizen. Nobody thinks he’s noble. He gets no break and neither will you if you were ever accused of doing something wrong. If only you were here illegally, they would defend you. Richard Goodstein is a lawyer. He advised both of Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaigns and he joins us tonight. Do you think, as Congressman Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts said, that it’s inhumane, worse than inhumane to arrest a man wanted for murder by the Mexican government?
RICHARD GOODSTEIN: Tucker, I hope we can agree before I answer that question, because we are talking about ICE, that in deference to our President we could use perfect English tonight. Your comment earlier today…
CARLSON: I think Americans should use…Hold on, Americans should use perfect English. Why is that…Is that racist now to say you should speak English? The English language is not a race, it’s what holds our country together. It’s okay.
GOODSTEIN: It was wildly, wildly racist for the President…
(CROSSTALK)
CARLSON: This is so stupid. Language is not a race.
GOODSTEIN: No, it’s not stupid.
CARLSON: When our ancestors came to this country they were taught in public schools to speak English because it binds the country together; a country that has no common race or religion.
GOODSTEIN: I’m with you. I’m with you.
CARLSON: Language holds us together. There’s nothing wrong with that and the left, who seeks to divide us for political gain pretends it’s racist to say you should speak English. It’s not.
GOODSTEIN: So the intimation is when you introduce somebody who’s Hispanic, that he can’t speak perfect English which is why…
CARLSON: Oh, I don’t know. What is…Okay, Trump is bad! Okay, fine. But what’s the answer to the question?
GOODSTEIN: The answer to the question is…
CARLSON: So ICE arrested somebody wanted for murder by the Mexican government and it’s heartless. How is that heartless?
GOODSTEIN: Yeah. The answer is details matter. When Joe Kennedy said what he said, he wasn’t aware that this man was wanted for murder, just like details matter when you talk about chain migration. It now involves Melania Trump’s parents, it involves Stephen Miller’s relatives.
CARLSON: What does Stephen…Okay, first of all, let’s not attack the relatives of Trump officials you don’t like.
GOODSTEIN: I’m not. I’m just saying…
CARLSON: I think it’s enough to assess people on what they…but hold on. Let’s not bring people’s families into this. Stephen Miller is not responsible for his lunatic uncle and Melania’s not responsible for, I mean, you know what I mean? We are responsible for what we do and say so let’s keep it to that. But let me ask, seriously, why, even after The New York Times found out that this guy was wanted for murder, the Mexican government had asked the Trump administration to arrest him, they didn’t note that until paragraph five and instead made it about the abuse at the hands of ICE that he suffered. Why is that not propaganda? Seriously?
GOODSTEIN: You will have to take that up with somebody who writes or edits for The New York Times. I can’t defend how they present which information in which paragraph. The fact is once we know that the guy was wanted for murder, the facts changed. But again, I think the reason this is being played up…
CARLSON: No. The facts didn’t change. Wait but hold on. We always knew the…Hold on. The facts didn’t change. The facts drove the events. He was accused of murder by the Mexican government. The Trump administration was asked to arrest him and did so, again, at the request of the Mexican government. You could have known that if you had asked ICE. Nobody did and the presumption was that this guy was arrested because, I don’t know why. They had nothing to do today other than arrest people on the way to the birth of their child. I mean, it’s like insane, actually. Don’t you think? Like, why did no one ask?
GOODSTEIN: Well, I don’t know that that’s a standard question was this person wanted for murder in, on Interpol but he…
CARLSON: If an American citizen, hold on…American citizens are arrested all the time. If I got arrested tonight for not paying my stupid red light camera tickets which I really don’t want to pay and shouldn’t have to, but if I don’t I get arrested, are you going to say oh, they just unfairly arrested Carlson…no, you’re going to be like you broke the law, you got arrested. American citizens don’t get the presumption of innocence that illegals do, why is that?
GOODSTEIN: That, look, that’s an exaggeration.
CARLSON: No, it’s not.
GOODSTEIN: I think the reason we are talking about this, Tucker, is because the walls are closing in on the President and this is an issue he thinks he can make hey out of with his base.
CARLSON: I don’t care what the President thinks. I think this is outrageous. I think we have a right to enforce our own laws. I don’t think we should sit back and get invaded by foreigners. I don’t. That doesn’t make me a racist, it makes me an American.
GOODSTEIN: I bet there were very few times on your show over the past five or six years under the Obama administration you reported there was net, mass outflow to Mexico rather than people coming in.
CARLSON: That’s not true. Mexico is one among many countries that sends its poor here. Who cares about Mexico? One-third of all El Salvadorans live in our country. One-third of the entire population of living Salvadorans live in America. Okay? So it’s not just Mexico. That’s just silly. Right? I mean, let’s be real…let’s be honest here. We have a right to enforce our own laws, don’t we?
GOODSTEIN: I’m just saying there hasn’t been the full reporting just like you are saying there wasn’t a reporting of this fellow being wanted for murder, there hasn’t been the full reporting of the immigration…no one is talking about the fact that Donald Trump said Mexico is going to pay for the wall. He’s talking about shutting down the U.S. government because of funding for the wall that he said Mexico was going to pay for.
CARLSON: We haven’t built the wall. I’ve mentioned it many times, I’m upset about it. I wish we would. Richard, once we do, you can stay. I promise. It was great to see you. Thank you.
GOODSTEIN: Thank you so much, I appreciate it.
CARLSON: You’re welcome. Mark Steyn is an author and columnist. He joins us tonight. I wonder, Mark, we’ve been kind of casting about, who’s going to run as the VP candidate for a Democrat in 2020. Why wouldn’t it be an illegal alien accused of murder? That’s kind of the perfect distillation of what the party stands for right now, I would say.
MARK STEYN: No, I think that’s absolutely right. That’s where we’re…By the way, for those red light tickets of yours, Tucker, I’m willing to rent you a pregnant illegal alien to sit in the passenger seat as you drive around Washington, D.C. I bring 200 of them across the border, they are doing the jobs that Americans won’t do, which is sitting in the passenger seat with you to serve as your pregnant passenger as you go around holding up liquor stores and all the rest. You know it makes sense.
CARLSON: My pretext to break the law. Look, I hate doing show after show about the faults of the press because in the end who cares they are just journalists. If they, you know, if they were smart they would be in private equity or whatever. But I do think this is worth unpacking this for a second. To write a story about this and not mention that he’s wanted for murder until the fifth graf, isn’t that just lying?
