DAN GAINOR: One child, one ICE photo — and a media meltdown built on distortion
A picture is worth a thousand words, as the old saying goes. There’s just no guarantee those words are truthful. In the case of a photo of a 5-year-old boy in Minnesota, the major media embraced shock and "awwww" instead of the truth.
The boy, named Liam Ramos, and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were approached by ICE agents. The father reportedly ran, leaving the boy alone with authorities. The father was quickly captured, but a photo of an officer with his hand resting lightly on the boy’s backpack sent the media into a predictable nationwide panic.
The press dug deep to find words of alarm — "upsetting," "firestorm," "controversy," "outrage," "haunting." Each network tried to outdo the other with one goal in mind, and it wasn’t journalism. The goal was to help Democrats succeed in shaping the illegal immigration narrative, holding on to the millions of potential new voters they let into the country under Biden and keeping ICE from sending them back. No one is more on board with that agenda than so-called neutral journalists.
Here’s what we really know. The father "is an Ecuadorean citizen who was in the United States illegally and was released into the country by the Biden administration," as reported by Fox News. DHS officials say they approached the father and he ran, leaving them with the boy.
They quickly captured the father, who asked that they not be separated. Police reportedly even bought the boy a meal. Father and son are together in a facility in Dilley, Texas. Hardly the crisis of 2026. But there’s the photo of the boy standing there with a winter hat and wearing a Spider-Man backpack.
Major news outlets ran with the claim that the agents used the child as "bait" to capture his dad.
CBS — the network the left claims is pro-Trump — went with "bait." So did AP, The Washington Post and PBS. (The Post later added a correction.) All of these are allegedly objective news outlets. They went with "bait," citing a quote from a school official who clearly opposes ICE.
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ABC anchor David Muir called the incident a "growing outrage." Reporter Matt Rivers followed that up by referring to "the haunting images sparking a firestorm." "CBS Mornings" co-host Gayle King focused her hyperbole on the child. "Now to the newest controversy over the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. It involves a 5-year-old boy. His name is Liam Ramos. Look at his face." That’s not journalism. That’s activism.
She added while speaking on set, "Nicole, I was watching this story yesterday. It’s very upsetting. Both sides are very, very disturbing." That could also be said about King, a Democrat donor and supporter who is rumored to be on her way out at CBS.
The other major media were almost as extreme. The New York Times claimed to speak for an entire city with this headline: "Detention of 5-Year-Old by Federal Agents Incenses Minneapolis." The paper claimed, "The image prompted outrage in the Twin Cities area." Leftists don’t want immigration enforcement. They are already at 10 billion on the outrage dial. This didn’t upset them — it was just an excuse.
DHS RELEASES IMAGE OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ACCUSED OF ABANDONING HIS 5-YEAR-OLD SON WHILE FLEEING ICE
The Post was just as bad, if not worse, running this piece: "The Abhorrent Power of the Photograph of a 5-Year-Old Held by ICE." The paper grasped that this is what journalism does best now — find an iconic photo and use it to push an agenda. The link to the story on X repeats the "bait" claim.
The Post’s art and architecture critic, Philip Kennicott, understood the potential the photo has to aid the left’s agenda. "This is an image of universal moral urgency, akin to a small number of photographs that once upon a time had the power to change our behavior, away from cruelty or indifference and in the direction of basic decency." He cited the 1972 "Napalm Girl" photo as a comparison — an absurd and offensive stretch.
PBS, which is still around (for now), quoted the family’s lawyer, Marc Prokosch, being honest about the left’s motivation: "We’re looking at our legal options to see if we can free them either through some legal mechanisms or moral pressure." The left doesn’t care about the law. They want to override it with manufactured moral outrage.
If you read the PBS article, it’s interrupted by a begging pop-up ad urging its mostly left-leaning readers to donate: "Your generous monthly contribution — or whatever you can give — will help secure our future."
Then came the equally ridiculous left-wing outlets like MS Now (formerly MSNBC) and Mother Jones. MS Now went with: "The photo of 5-year-old Liam Ramos being detained by ICE is a shameful look for America." You can picture the outlet’s fans shouting "Shame! Shame!" like a scene from Game of Thrones.
Mother Jones went fully off the deep end: "They Want to Tell You a Kid With a Spider-Man Backpack Is Evil." Literally, no one said that — except Mother Jones.
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The whole controversy makes one wonder if journalists ever watch cop shows. If a parent gets arrested, officers can’t just abandon a child on the street. You think there’s outrage now? Imagine if they had. As Vice President JD Vance said, "Are they supposed to let a 5-year-old child freeze to death?"
Nearly every one of these immigration stories is one-sided, like nearly every major media controversy today. Nowhere do journalists interview former Biden administration officials about their open-border policies that brought these illegal immigrants into the U.S. and resulted in numerous American deaths. Every story is spun to depict Trump officials and ICE as evil for daring to enforce laws that Democrats and the press oppose — the same laws Democrats once enforced themselves.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the press is working "hand in glove with Democrats to spread malicious lies about ICE operations." You’ve got that right. But as the editor says in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
That might as well be the motto of today’s news media.