Stories should offer full facts

To the editor:

The left is constantly accusing President Donald Trump of attacking the First Amendment.

This paper has had opinion pieces making the same claim.

In fact, calling out biased, irresponsible, sometimes dishonest or politically motivated reporting is not attacking the First Amendment. It is attacking biased, irresponsible, sometimes dishonest or politically motivated reporters. Asking for honest, responsible journalism is clearly pro First Amendment.

The Nov. 26 front page story from the AP is a perfect example of Trump’s “Fake News.” We are told that “a peaceful march devolved into chaos when US agents fired tear gas into Mexico to stop some migrants who tried to breach the border.” Four paragraphs were devoted to a mother and daughter who were unfortunately caught in the tear gas.

However, the writer failed to mention that the tear gas was in response to the mob throwing rocks and bottles at border patrol agents. And we are not informed that the violent migrants who tried to breach the border injured three of our agents.

When all of the pertinent facts are available it provides a very different picture of the “peaceful” march than the one the AP put on the wire. While most of the migrants were peaceful, some were definitely not. And that doesn’t appear to fit the AP’s preferred narrative.

Stephen Erwin

Portland