Actress and singer Jennifer Lopez joined in the chorus of emotional outrage over the border crisis by sharing two hoax photographs.
Starting on her Instagram account, Jennifer Lopez shared the infamous photo of the crying Honduran girl, the same one that Time magazine used on its cover to portray President Trump as a heartless ogre. The powerful photo, one that has pulled people’s heartstrings to the point of generating $18 million for a Facebook fundraiser, has since been outed as a fake, not in authenticity but in context.
As it turns out, the little girl was not separated from her mother by border patrol agents and was only crying because she was both tired and thirsty after crossing the border illegally. The mother also put the little girl at risk by hiring smuggler Coyotes to help them across. She also abandoned her husband and three children back in Honduras.
None of that has stopped anyone from using the photo for propaganda reasons. After being caught with their pants down, Time magazine has defended the photo for representing the spirit of the age. Enter Jennifer Lopez:
At least the above photo pertains to the border crisis. Another photo, shared by the singer/actress, comes from an entirely different country:
Indeed, the photo used by Lopez comes from an Atlantic story in 2016: “The Ongoing Battle For Mosul.” No doubt, children being separated from families at the border is a real problem and should be dealt with. Sharing hoax photos to gin up emotions does little to solve the problem.