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Laken Riley: 20 Minutes for the Trial, a Quarter of 'Garbage-Gate'

Nursing student Laken Riley was murdered while running at the University of Georgia by Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan who had entered the U.S. illegally in 2022. Media Research Center counts found the broadcast networks gave his trial a fraction of the time they gave the 'garbage-gate' campaign story, and cable coverage rarely mentioned his immigration status.

Feb 22, 2024
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Whose side it served: Democrats

Light coverage of the suspect's immigration status helped the Biden administration during the 2024 border debate.

What the record shows

Riley was killed Feb. 22, 2024. Federal authorities said Ibarra entered illegally in 2022 and was allowed to stay while his immigration case proceeded. On Nov. 20, 2024, after a bench trial, Judge H. Patrick Haggard found Ibarra guilty on all 10 counts, including malice murder, and sentenced him to life without parole. On Jan. 29, 2025, the Laken Riley Act, which requires detention of migrants charged with certain crimes, became the first bill President Trump signed in his second term. NewsBusters' Curtis Houck counted 20 minutes 33 seconds of ABC, CBS and NBC coverage of the trial over five days, about one-fourth of what they gave the 'garbage-gate' story about Trump. Bill D'Agostino found one two-minute CNN primetime segment on the trial and none on MSNBC primetime, with Ibarra's illegal status taking up about 3% and 2% of their respective coverage. PBS NewsHour gave the verdict 31 seconds, per the same NewsBusters roundup.

The other side

The broadcast networks did cover the murder, the trial and the verdict, and the case drew heavy attention in the 2024 immigration debate, including around Biden's State of the Union remarks. Some editors argued that leading with a suspect's immigration status invites generalization from one crime.

Sources

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