News/Commentary

AP dragged for masking immigration status of illegal alien charged in death of Georgia nursing student

February 25, 2024 | | Print Article

The Associated Press inspired heavy backlash Sunday for downplaying and trying to hide the real identity of a killer.

As previously reported, earlier this week a criminal illegal alien was named in the murder of Augusta University nursing student Laken Riley, 22, a woman whom the suspect reportedly didn’t even know.

The suspect has since been identified as José Antonio Ibarra, a criminal illegal alien from Venezuela who was “released” into the U.S. after crossing over in Sept. 2022 “due to lack of detention space,” according to NewsNation’s Ali Bradley:

But you wouldn’t know this about Ibarra if you read the Associated Press.

In a story published Sunday, the AP for its part essentially portrayed Riley’s murder as an act of toxic masculinity and neglected to even mention Ibarra’s status as a criminal illegal alien.

“[A]uthorities on Thursday found the body of Laken Hope Riley and arrested Athens resident Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, on suspicion of murder. The victim and suspect did not know each other, and University of Georgia Police Chief Jeff Clark called the killing a crime of opportunity,” the piece reads.

But he wasn’t an Athens resident insomuch as he was a criminal illegal alien.

The AP later doubled down on its narrative with the following tweet:

The stunning story and X post prompted massive backlash.

“No mention of the fact that he is an illegal immigrant. The story tries to make it about toxic masculinity rather than addressing the elephant in the room—weak border policies enable unvetted illegal aliens with criminal backgrounds to endanger citizens,” one critic tweeted.

“The AP conveniently hides the fact that the murderer was an ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT from Venezuela and frames this into a toxic masculinity problem. What the actual f–k. F–k journalists, stop giving these outlets clicks and let them go out of business,” another critic wrote.

See more responses below:

But it gets worse.

Mary Katherine Ham, formerly with CNN, correctly noted in a tweet that the AP’s story even mentioned Mollie Tibbetts by name.

“Riley’s death has once again put the spotlight on the dangers female runners face. Previously, the 2018 death of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts while out jogging prompted an outpouring from other women who shared their tales of being harassed and followed,” the story reads.

But the AP, an increasingly far-left outlet, conveniently didn’t mention that Tibbetts was ALSO killed by a criminal illegal alien, Cristhian Bahena Rivera.

Not surprisingly, the AP, as well as CNN, The Daily Beast, and The New York Times acted similarly after Tibbett’s murder.

“Farm worker found guilty of killing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts,” CNN wrote as a headline at the time, as reported by Fox News.

“Farm laborer convicted in 2018 stabbing death of Iowa runner,” the AP meanwhile wrote as a headline.

“Iowa Farmworker Found Guilty of Murdering Mollie Tibbetts,” The Daily Beast’s headline read.

Now look at how the Times framed the story:

What’s missing!?

Vivek Saxena
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