Even casual readers of the Dallas Morning News know the paper’s editorial board is freaking out over Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. But now some of that virulent anti-Trump sentiment seems to be leaking over to the news side. In story after story, for example, reporter Sylvan Lane has written that Trump said “most Hispanic immigrants were rapists and criminals.” But, that’s not what Trump said.
In his campaign announcement speech—as CNN’s Anderson Cooper and others have acknowledged—Trump was referring to illegal immigration across the Mexican border when he said: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best. They’re not sending you, they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they’re telling us what we’re getting.”
Lane ups the anti-Trump ante in a Page One story today, whose first sentence reads: “How do you deal with a bully like Donald Trump?” A photo caption with the story then doubles down on the misquoting, saying Trump has “famously said most Hispanics immigrants were rapists and criminals.” I know the DMN recently laid off at least one of its best veteran political editors, but surely they have somebody on staff who knows a little bit about fairness and accuracy.
