There has been another walk-back of shame for our press this week.
Earlier this week, social media was breathlessly spreading NBC’s report that new Trump administration guidelines could potentially deny “birthright citizenship” to the children of American military members abroad.
President Donald Trump has a strong relationship with the military. I could not imagine that changes to the citizenship status of service members’ children would be in jeopardy. So when I first read the messages, I rolled my eyes and anticipated it would be shown to #FakeNews.
And it was.
Ken Dilanian, an NBC news correspondent who covers national security, tweeted the following on Wednesday afternoon.
The correction came an hour later:
Reason contributor Elizabeth Nolan Brown offers further details on the policy.
The change will not apply to children born to any U.S. citizens serving in the military or otherwise working abroad. It will apply only in cases of foreign adoption by U.S. citizen parents, or children born to parents were not U.S. citizens at the time of the child’s birth. A Department of Defense spokesperson said the shift would affect about 100 children annually.Acting USCIS Director Ken Cuccinelli clarified that the policy “does NOT impact birthright citizenship.”It also does not mean that the children will be denied citizenship, just that parents have to submit an application. The change was made to bring the definition of residence in the immigration law in line with State Department guidance, USCIS told CNN.
Watch Cuccinelli explain on EWTN:
Despite the clarification, some immigration activists insist the rule-change is unfair.
But the new policy places an unfair burden on children born to non-citizen service members, according to a spokesman for a D.C.-based federal employment and military law firm.“If both parents are U.S. citizens, their children have derivative citizenship regardless, so this is a penalty placed upon those who would serve their country and who do not have a say where they are stationed,” Shaun May of the Federal Practice Groups told Military Times in a statement.“They serve at the direction and pleasure of the president.”
I recall the hysteria over the military birthright citizen issue when it first broke, as it was the lead trending topic on Twitter for quite some time. Some lowlights:
If it was NBC’s intention to report accurate and essential news, it failed miserably. If, on the other hand, NBC wanted to gin-up more anti-Trump hysteria and hostility toward our president, then it was a solid hit.
As far as I am concerned, the peacock laid an egg with this story and gave me even more reason to turn to foreign press for accurate coverage of American news.
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