SATIRE (unless it isn't)
THE HOAX FILES · 29
Reins, Not Whips
They were reins, not whips. Horses everywhere wanted a correction.
CNN and others
The photos launched a presidential promise that "those people will pay." The investigation found no whipping.
As printed on the graphic:
Border Agents Whipping Illegals Hoax
What they sold
September 2021, Del Rio, Texas. Photos of mounted Border Patrol agents swinging long reins near Haitian migrants by the Rio Grande. Across the media and the White House, the word was whipping. CNN covered the images, the suspension of horse patrols, and "Biden and Harris harshly condemn horseback wrangling depicted in images from US-Mexico border." Biden promised that those people will pay (widely reported).
What the record shows
July 8, 2022. CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility released its findings. It found no evidence that agents struck any migrant with their reins, intentionally or otherwise. It did find unnecessary force and threats of force in driving migrants back toward the river while they were on U.S. soil, and it referred agents for discipline. CNN's own July 2022 headline: "Border Patrol agents on horseback used 'unnecessary' force in Del Rio incident, report finds." NBC's headline said it outright: some agents used unnecessary force, "but didn't whip them."
So: no whipping. Some misconduct. A president and a press corps that convicted the agents of the first before anyone investigated.
The damage
FNN analysis: the slavery-era imagery was the point. It played with audiences, and it was wrong. The ten-month gap before the correction was the price. Gallup's 2021 trust: 36%. 2022: 34%.
Closer
Zero whippings. One investigation. The image did the lying for them. Look at the reins.