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topicnews · August 28, 2024

The debate between Harris and Trump is nothing. Let’s look at the media debate itself

The debate between Harris and Trump is nothing. Let’s look at the media debate itself

I would pay to sit in the front row and watch NBC journalists debate their own coverage of Kamala Harris, the “border czar.”

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Immigration has emerged as one of the two most important issues in the 2024 presidential campaign, so it was no surprise when NBC’s Kristen Welker confronted Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance on the issue on Sunday.

Welker fact-checked Vance in real time while interviewing him on “Meet the Press” and contradicted his estimate that there were 25 million “illegal aliens” in the country.

“The DHS (Department of Homeland Security) says it’s much lower, closer to eight million,” Welker corrected.

Vance responded: “There are reasons to believe that DHS is underestimating the numbers. Whatever the actual number is, it’s way too high, isn’t it? Since Kamala Harris became border commissioner a few years ago, millions and millions of illegal immigrants have come into the country.”

Media claim Harris was not a “border zar”

Welker then double-checked Vance’s comment on the “border zar”: “(Kamala Harris) was tasked with addressing the root causes of migration.”

Welker’s mild criticism was in line with the Democratic Party’s arguments after Harris suddenly emerged as their presidential candidate.

“She’s not the border czar,” former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson told Fox News in July. “She’s taken on the role that Vice President Biden had during the Obama administration, which was diplomacy with Central America.”

In addition, major newspapers, including our sister paper USA Today, had conducted fact checks that concluded that Harris was focused exclusively on root causes.

The problem for Democrats, mainstream newspapers and Welker is this: This was not what the White House told NBC News at the time it assigned the border file to Harris.

But that’s not what NBC News reported

On March 24, 2021, NBC News published an article with the headline, “Biden Tasks Harris with ‘Curbing Migration’ at Southern Border.”

In its subtitles, NBC reported: “The vice president is expected to focus both on stemming the current influx of migrants and working with countries in the region to address the root causes of migration.”

And the countries weren’t just in “Central America” ​​or the Northern Triangle of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. According to NBC News, the list also included Mexico.

“Border Zar” or not: Kamala Harris has left her job

In their article, NBC News White House reporter Lauren Egan, senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez and political reporter Dareh Gregorian reported that Harris’ new role is about more than just “root causes.”

“A senior administration official said Harris’ role would focus on ‘two directions:’ one, stemming the current influx of migrants and the other, implementing a long-term strategy that addresses the root causes of migration.”

It would be nice if NBC itself would debate

Two tracks. Not one.

The first part addressed the current or “current” flow of border traffic, the second a long-term strategy to address root causes, according to the White House and NBC News. (Root causes can include political and economic instability and gang violence, among others.)

No corrections or clarifications are attached to this story, so NBC News stands by its reporting as of 2021.

How about a debate? Let’s have Kristen Welker from NBC News debate with the three people from NBC News who reported the original story.

We set the rules. Muted microphones. No studio audience.

We can have NBC News square the circle from its 2021 news story to its real-time fact-check in 2024.

And maybe we could also hear a discussion about a remarkable border continuum from 2021 to 2024.

“We are taking care of immigration,” Harris said

In its 2021 article, NBC News reported that Vice President Kamala Harris assured the nation, “We’re taking care of (immigration). We’re taking care of it. But it’s going to take some time.”

Following this pledge, the Biden-Harris administration will spend the next few years breaking historic records in the number of migrants apprehended crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, the New York Times reported.

In 2023, the Times reported, there were more arrests at the border “than in any other year since at least 1960, when the government began collecting the data.”

This summer we saw a decline in apprehensions at the border, in an election year when voters are concerned about immigration. Will the decline continue?

In her speech at the convention, Harris once again assured Americans: “I know we can live up to our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system.”

Given their track record so far, their words ring hollow.

Phil Boas is a columnist for The Arizona Republic. You can reach him by email at [email protected].

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