On Friday, TIME Magazine defended its controversial cover of President Trump glaring down at a crying immigrant child — even though that child was not separated from her mother, her mother was falsely claiming asylum, her mother had illegally immigrated in the past, and Trump’s policy with regard to that child was precisely the same as Obama’s.
Here’s TIME’s explanation for their lying cover:
The June 12 photograph of the 2-year-old Honduran girl became the most visible symbol of the ongoing immigration debate in America for a reason: Under the policy enforced by the administration, prior to its reversal this week, those who crossed the border illegally were criminally prosecuted, which in turn resulted in the separation of children and parents. Our cover and our reporting capture the stakes of this moment.
Well, actually, the cover is a lie. And instead of recognizing that, TIME doubled down on the lie. It was, to repeat a phrase used by Dan Rather’s defenders to describe his fictitious evidence of George W. Bush going AWOL as a member of the National Guard, “fake but accurate.” No wonder so many people resonate to President Trump’s cries of fake news.