After Trump’s Department of Homeland Security shot and killed U.S. resident Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on July 7, the department tried to paint Salgado Araujo as a criminal. The Mexican national had no criminal record and had reportedly lived in the U.S. for 35 years.
As Media Matters noted, the FBI said in an affidavit that a “white crystal-like substance” that appeared “consistent with methamphetamine” was seen in Salgado Araujo’s vehicle. His family said it was probably salt for an electrolyte mixture used by outdoor workers in Texas’ extreme heat.
On July 24, the family was proved right.
But Fox “News” anchor Trace Gallagher didn’t bother to wait for any facts to start pushing the pro-DHS, pro-murder propaganda. On July 15, before the powder had been analyzed, Media Matters caught Gallagher saying, “We now know that they found — put these pictures on the screen — they found three bags of methamphetamine in this car. There probably is a reason that they were trying to get away from ICE agents.”
Fox producers did their part for the propaganda effort with a lower-third banner stating, “Court doc: Meth found in van after I.C.E. shooting.” In fact, as Media Matters also pointed out, the FBI affidavit had not said that meth had been found, only that the substance found looked like methamphetamine.
Fox has already paid out hundreds of millions of dollars as the result of their defamatory “reporting” and is likely on the hook for millions more. Besides the $787.5 million payout to Dominion Voting Systems because of the network’s lies about the 2020 election, a similar lawsuit by Smartmatic, for $2.7 billion, is still ongoing. The network also settled a lawsuit, with a “ lucrative seven figure payment,” after it spewed malicious conspiracy theories about murdered DNC staffer, Seth Rich. That was in November, 2020, just in time for the network to go full tilt with its next rounds of defamation.
Apparently, the MAGA network just considers defamation payments a cost of doing its propaganda business.
