Martha Pskowski of the El Paso Times Confused Reins and Whips and Set Off a Progressive Fake News Firestorm

The left chose to ignore the border until they could blame America and law enforcement for something.

I cannot remember precisely, but I think it was John Ekdahl on Twitter who asked, after Trump’s election, how many American reporters knew people who drove pickup trucks. The Ford F-150 is the most popular vehicle in America followed by the Chevy Silverado and the Dodge Ram pickup trucks.

Not really surprisingly, not only did very few reporters admit to knowing anyone who owned the most popular vehicle in America, but most were indignant he would dare ask the question.

In Ferguson, MO, a reporter for the Huffington Post set off a firestorm by suggesting the police were using rubber bullets against a crowd of black protestors. He actually had taken a picture of foam earplugs on the ground. That reporter is now the senior justice reporter for the Huffington Post and writing a book about January 6th.

Now, the uncultured and ignorant American press corps is at it again with a viral photo from near Del Rio, TX. A border patrol agent on horseback is shown trying to keep Haitian refugees out of an area. A reporter confused the agent’s reins for a whip and accused the border patrol agent of behaving “menacingly” with his whip. In fact, the agent was controlling his horse.

Martha Pskowski of the El Paso Times started the firestorm with this still uncorrected piece.

The agent swung his whip menacingly, charging his horse toward the men in the river who were trying to return to an encampment under the international bridge in Del Rio after buying food and water in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico.

Pskowski is “the environmental watchdog reporter at the El Paso Times” and has previously written at a series of leftwing publications. She graduated from New York University in 2021, but hey, she’s a Fulbright fellow.

Her fake news led scores of Democrats to condemn the Border Patrol as her false claims went viral on the internet. Note, however, that even Pskowski did not accuse the border patrol agents of actually rounding up or beating the immigrants with whips. In a game of social media telephone, her reporting soon morphed into that salacious claim. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas forcefully denied the agents were using whips, again noting the agents had long reins in their hands to control their horses.

Mayorkas and Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz told reporters in Del Rio, Texas Monday that they saw nothing obviously wrong with how the agents acted based on initial viewings of the images and footage. Mayorkas explained that agents use long reins — not whips — to control their horses, while Ortiz cited the difficulty in distinguishing migrants from smugglers as people move back and forth near the river.

After years of accusing Republicans and, specifically, Donald Trump of generating fake news and lies, it is yet again the American political press and their uncultured ignorance starting a fake news firestorm.

What is even more notable is how most of the American press and progressive left chose to ignore the story of what is happening in Del Rio, TX until they had the opportunity, with this fake news, to take a decidedly anti-American frame — attacking law enforcement and defending the lawbreakers.

Had Pskowski not been an uncultured idiot who confused whips and reins, progressives would have gone on not caring about the tens of thousands of illegal aliens streaming across the border, some dying in the desert. They only care now in order to, yet again attack American law enforcement.

With this claim now being debunked and the reporters shamed for their fake news, progressives can safely go back to not caring about the border.