This past week, the Trump administration revealed more incriminating evidence about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the illegal alien recently deported to El Salvador despite a withholding of removal to that country. Yet liberal cable networks CNN and MSNBC have mostly ignored the latest developments, and instead have continued to obfuscate the truth about this so-called “Maryland man.”
Summary of Findings:
- CNN and MSNBC referred to Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a “Maryland man” or similar terminology a total of 506 times in three weeks.
- Garcia was described as being from Maryland nearly five times more often than he was described as being from El Salvador.
- Only 10% of the 318 reports about Garcia on both networks included any mention that he was in the U.S. illegally.
- Talking heads on MSNBC were almost twice as likely to misrepresent Garcia’s immigration status as they were to describe it correctly.
MRC analysts looked at all CNN and MSNBC coverage of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from April 1 through April 18, finding 506 instances in which journalists or guests referred to him as a “Maryland man,” “Maryland father,” or some similar misleading term.
Across 161 stories about Garcia, MSNBC only bothered to mention that he was in the U.S. illegally 11 times (6.8%). Furthermore, the fact that he was El Salvadoran, and not an American citizen, was only included in 30 percent of their reports (48 times). Meanwhile, CNN mentioned Garcia’s illegal status just 21 times across 157 different segments (13.4%), and his status as a Salvadoran national featured in 34 percent of reports (54 times).
Both networks together mentioned Garcia’s El Salvadoran nationality in just under one third of all reports: 102 times total across 506 segments. In other words, they were nearly five times more likely to describe Garcia as being from Maryland than they were to correctly identify his country of origin.
Inconvenient New Facts Were Mostly Omitted
Last week, the Trump administration brought forward two new allegations about Garcia, which the liberal cable networks largely ignored.
In 2021, Garcia’s wife filed a protective order in which she accused him of domestic violence. Specifically, the order alleged that he had “punched and scratched” her eye, “leaving her bleeding.” The following year, authorities in Tennessee detained Garcia on suspicion of human trafficking after he was caught driving without a license.
The earliest mention of the protective order on either network occurred on Wednesday, April 16, during the 3:00 p.m. ET hour on MSNBC. From then through the end of April 18, MSNBC mentioned it a five times in total (15% of reports), and the trafficking charges only once (3%).
On CNN, Mrs. Garcia’s protective order was mentioned nine times across a total of 25 segments (36%), and again the trafficking charges received only a single mention (4%).
“Maryland Man” Moniker Became Increasingly Prevalent
Our first study of this topic incorporated all CNN and MSNBC coverage through April 6. Since then, several noticeable trends have emerged in both networks’ reporting.
Most notably, the mendacious habit of referring to Garcia as a “Maryland man” only worsened on both CNN and MSNBC. For CNN, the exacerbation was more pronounced; their usage of this misleading moniker spiked by 58 percent since April 6. On MSNBC, the title’s prominence increased by a more modest 24 percent.
However, both networks grew somewhat more willing to divulge that Garcia was an illegal alien (though never by that terminology). Whereas our first study found each had mentioned it in only 3 percent of the segments discussing Garcia, by April 18 that figure had grown to six percent for MSNBC and 13 percent for CNN.
For both networks, most of the cases in which Garcia’s illegal status was discussed were thanks to just a few individuals. On CNN, three people were responsible for ten of the 21 total mentions: anchor and reporter Kaitlan Collins (three mentions), CNN contributor and analyst Scott Jennings (four mentions), and anchor Jake Tapper (six mentions). On MSNBC, Morning Joe co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were responsible for five of the eleven total mentions.
MSNBC Blurred the Lines Between Inaccuracy and Outright Dishonesty
Analysts also identified 26 outright falsehoods about Garcia’s supposed “legal” status in the country. MSNBC was responsible for 20 such mistruths, while CNN aired the remaining six. Put another way, reporters on MSNBC falsely portrayed Garcia’s immigration status almost twice as often as they described it correctly (20 times versus 11).
Readers will recall that the only relief Garcia received from an immigration court was a 2019 withholding of removal to El Salvador. That narrow ruling did not bestow him with legal residency, and he was still able to be deported at any time. However, the U.S. government was temporarily prohibited from sending him to El Salvador specifically, though they still were able to send him to any other country that was willing to take him.
With that context established, below are some of the most egregious falsehoods about Garcia’s immigration status uttered on Cable TV:
Aside from one erroneous assertion by comedian John Fugelsang that Garcia “had temporary protected status,” the falsehoods on CNN were limited to inaccurate statements about Garcia’s supposedly “legal” residency. MSNBC, however, aired two particularly pernicious inaccuracies that merit individual mentions, especially because both came from long-time employees of the network.
On both April 1 and April 4, Ari Melber, host of The Beat, claimed that the U.S. had deported “the wrong person.” While Garcia’s withholding of removal to El Salvador did qualify his subsequent deportation to that country as an error, there is absolutely no evidence that the Trump administration ever confused him with someone else. To the contrary, it appears they were acutely aware of who Kilmar Abrego Garcia was, and Melber’s repeated claims to the contrary were stunningly dishonest.
On April 7, daytime MSNBC host Chris Jansing aired the second, more egregious claim: that Garcia was a “Green Card holder.” Given the absurdity of this claim, the most likely explanation is that Jansing confused Garcia with Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia student whose pending deportation has been the subject of an ongoing legal battle. But regardless of what caused it, an error this severe ought to have resulted in an on-air retraction.
While this study examined the two prominent liberal cable networks, the broadcast networks’ coverage tells a similar story: for whatever reason, the corporate media have decided that the deportation of an illegal alien MS-13 gang member is a hill they’re willing to die on. It’s certainly not an advisable choice, but so long as they keep making this mistake in real time, we’ll continue documenting it.
For this study, analysts relied on a combination of Nexis transcripts and SnapStream recordings to examine all shows airing on CNN and MSNBC between 6:00 a.m. ET and 11:59 p.m. ET, from April 1 through April 18.
