Time Magazine's Fake News Cover Story

How low can our media sink? By now countless millions of Americans have seen the photo on the cover of Time magazine seemingly showing our big powerful president towering over a crying little girl who immigrated illegally from Honduras.

Now almost nobody reads or sees Time today but you could not miss that cover shown on the TV networks, local TV programming, and the front pages of many, many of our daily papers. They used it to bash Mr. Trump and attack him for being oblivious to the suffering of this little girl who had been apparently wrenched from the arms of a loving mother and separated from her. Just for wanting a better life in America.

Problem. It was a phony.

The picture was a computer generated fake, obviously put together to make a point. Even worse, the story Time reported was also almost totally false.

THE TRUTH: The girl had not been separated from her mother, Sandra Sanchez! As the photo was being taken the girl was just a few feet away from her mom. Also, Mrs. Sanchez had already been deported by the U.S. one time earlier.

But, more sinister, is the truth behind the media’s attempts to hoodwink us.

When other journalists discovered the fake story, you might imagine that Time editors would be red-faced and sorry. No way. They put out a statement saying they stood by the story, and then added:

"The original version of this story misstated what happened to the girl in the photo after she taken from the scene. The girl was not carried away screaming by U.S. Border Patrol agents; her mother picked her up and the two were taken away together."

You would imagine that honest media outlets, learning the truth and having misled everyone, would make a point of highlighting this and informing their readers and viewers that they had got it wrong. But they did not.

All over the nation, newspapers and networks put out short “OOPS” statements on the internet correcting the mistake. A few cable channels did mention it. Some papers did better, but deciding to print the new story on less high profile inside pages.

So they blast the fake story on TV and on news front pages. But when the truth is exposed they just issue some little statements and leave many, many millions of their viewers/readers still thinking the fake story is true.

That is the hidden agenda. What the mainstream media doesn’t print or correct is a hidden way to fool us.

Take the NY Daily News as an example.

Gleefully they picked up the TIME story mostly without checking and ran a page one banner vilifying the President. Their page one was:

CALLOUS

SOULLESS

CRAVEN

TRUMP

I would bet that few of their readers ever found out that the Time photo/story was a fraud. And how many of the network viewers who were horrified by the little girl’s story have been informed by the prime time network anchors that it just wasn’t so?

And will anyone interview the loving mom and ask why she deserted most of her family and forced her crying daughter to live without her daddy and siblings? Do not bet on it.

This is the real sorry state and shame of today’s journalism. Run with the facts that support your political opinion and ignore the other side that might give readers/viewers pause to think.

P.S.: A professional friend of mine who is highly intelligent and almost a news junkie mentioned the Time photo and story to me. When I told him it had been proven phony, he was that shocked. He didn’t know. He is likely just one of many millions who still do not know.

Scottish-born Iain Calder was Editor in Chief and President of the National Enquirer for more than 20 years. He saw the weekly circulation surge from about 700,00 to nearly 5 million at its peak – with over 20 million readers. Magazines edited by Calder have sold a total of over 4 billion copies. He has no connection with the present day Enquirer, which was bought by new owners not long after he left the company in 2000. Calder has been interviewed by the likes of Mike Wallace, 60 Minutes; Ted Koppel, Nightline; Katie Couric, NBC; and Geraldo Rivera and featured in newspapers and magazines around the world including The New York Times, the Times of London, Time and Newsweek magazines. He has lectured at major universities and once at the Reagan Library, where he had lunch with Nancy Reagan. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.