On Sunday morning, reporters on many TV networks were poring over multiple videos of the shooting over the weekend of a protester in Minneapolis by immigration agents, trying to understand what happened from slow-mo footage and freeze-frame images.
But on Fox News, the top-rated cable news network in the US, there was little of that kind of analysis. Instead, most of its hosts, reporters and guests appeared laser focused since the shooting on supporting the Trump administration’s official narrative: that Alex Pretti, a 37-year old intensive care nurse, brought the violence upon himself.
“Only one person could have prevented this from happening and it’s Alex Pretti,” said Charlie Hurt, co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend on Sunday morning. “He should have not been there.”
Pretti’s killing in Minneapolis came scarcely two weeks after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by a federal agent in the city as part of an immigration enforcement action. The incidents have led to mounting outrage from members of the public and demands from public officials, including Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, that Border Patrol and Ice agents leave the state immediately.
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Fox News’s handling of Pretti’s killing also highlighted what appears to be its willingness to play down or overlook evidence that could contradict the federal government’s version of events. The coverage made for a jarring disconnect between the narrative found on the conservative network and the one on other outlets.
“A lot of what Fox does, in general, is to make arguments that Donald Trump will make seem more reasonable,” said Anthony Nadler, a professor at Ursinus College who studies conservative media. “That means being extremely selective about what aspects of reality you’ll include in that narrative.”
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In response to a request for comment, Fox noted that it had pre-empted regular weekend programming to expand coverage of the shooting, had multiple reporters on the ground in Minneapolis and had interviewed homeland security secretary Kristi Noem, attorney general Pam Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel about the episode.
Pretti’s father told the Associated Press on Saturday that his son was on the streets protesting because he was “very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the US” with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Videos from the scene show that at the time he was confronted by Border Patrol agents, Pretti was filming with his own phone and appeared to be trying to defend a woman who had been pushed to the ground by the same officers. While he did have a gun, it was in its holster, the videos show, and local law enforcement has said that he had a legal permit to carry a firearm.
The department of homeland security posted on social media that Pretti “approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun” and that they tried to disarm him. But videos analysed by other news outlets appear to show that Pretti never took his pistol out of his holster, even after multiple masked agents sprayed him in the face with chemical irritants and forced him to the ground. Instead, one agent removed Pretti’s firearm and immediately after that, two other officers began shooting him in the back.
Yet on Sunday morning, that kind of analysis was nowhere to be found on Fox. Instead, Matt Finn, a reporter for Fox on the ground in Minneapolis, citing statements from the department of homeland security, said that Pretti “had a 9mm semi-automatic handgun on him and two full magazines when he approached agents”, adding that “an agent, fearing for his life, ultimately shot Pretti”.
Others on the channel supported suggestions that Pretti had brandished his weapon and had actively threatened the agents. That was how multiple federal officials described the incident, including Noem and Gregory Bovino, who heads Border Patrol operations. On Saturday, Bovino claimed in a news conference that Pretti “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement”.
On Saturday night, Nicole Parker, a Fox contributor, said on air that “when you’re seeing a gun in your face and you’re in the scuffle, then you have to, again, assume that is a gun”. Early Sunday morning, Chris Clem, a retired Border Patrol agent interviewed on Fox News, called the shooting “tragic” but said that Pretti “put agents in a situation where they had to use deadly force”.
Not all voices on the network joined the narrative. On Saturday evening, Ted Williams, a former police officer and defence lawyer who is now a Fox News contributor, told Fox that he saw no evidence of Pretti drawing his weapon and called for a thorough investigation of the shooting.
And on Sunday, Maria Bartiromo, the host of Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo on Fox, disputed statements by Patel that Pretti had attacked the Border Patrol agents.
“But how was he threatening Border Patrol?” Bartiromo asked. “How was he using that handgun in terms of threatening Border Patrol? What was that threat? He had his camera, right, he was filming it.”
In an interview with Noem, also Sunday, Peter Doocy, the senior White House correspondent for Fox News, questioned her claim that the agents had followed protocol when confronting Pretti.
“If he was disarmed,” Doocy asked, “is it the protocol to use deadly force?”
Still, those questions were the exception on Fox as it covered the fatal shooting in politicised terms.
On Saturday, one Fox reporter described huge crowds forming on the streets despite the sub-zero temperatures in Minneapolis as part of “an organised movement”. It is a version of events that suggests the protests are somehow inauthentic, a claim pushed by Trump, who last week called the protesters “paid agitators and insurrectionists”.
Last week, the department of justice sent grand jury subpoenas to a number of Minnesota officials, including Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, as part of an investigation into whether they obstructed the immigration sweep. In a statement, Walz called the inquiry “political theatre” and a “partisan distraction”.
On Sunday, Griff Jenkins, a Fox & Friends Weekend host, blamed those Democratic officials for this weekend’s shooting. He said that Pretti “was urged by the mayor and the governor to go out and confront them”, adding, “Why an individual would confront federal immigration law enforcement with a handgun is beyond me.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
