While Apple CEO Tim Cook pontificates about calming the controversy around federal immigration enforcement, MRC found that his news app promoted anti-ICE stories.
Bloomberg reported that Cook wrote an internal memo to Apple employees following the death of activist Alex Pretti during a violent struggle with Border Patrol in Minneapolis. “This is a time for deescalation,” Cook asserted. “I believe America is strongest when we live up to our highest ideals, when we treat everyone with dignity and respect no matter who they are or where they’re from.” Cook’s lofty rhetoric directly contradicts Apple News’s ongoing promotion of inflammatory accusations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers as pushed by elitist media, and uncovered by MRC researchers.
A new MRC study exposed how the Big Four News Apps — especially Apple News — maligned ICE. Between Jan. 7 and 21, Apple News consistently promoted left-leaning outlets that amped up hysteria about Minnesota ICE operations. For example, one Apple News headline screeched, “This is not sustainable’: the ICE surge in Minneapolis fuels chaos.” The Associated Press published the article, “Doctors in Minnesota decry fear and chaos amid Trump administration's immigration crackdown,” and Apple News pushed it.
Apple News likewise pushed an article from NBC News ominously claiming, “It feels like an invasion': Minnesotans stunned as federal officers flood their state.” NBC accused ICE of “violent arrests” without any context on whom they were arresting and why physical confrontation was involved. Just as outrageous was The Daily Beast piece Apple News promoted, which bore the headline, “ICE Now So Hated Even Their Own Agents Are Terrified.”
But according to Cook, it’s ICE that needs to de-escalate, not the elitist media or his own Apple News.
Out of the major online news aggregators, Apple News consistently shows the most overwhelming leftist bias. For instance, MRC found that for the last 86 days Apple News has not promoted a single article from a right-leaning news outlet in the top 20 headlines of its morning editions. Apple News readers are therefore fed a steady diet of leftist news that goes uninterrupted by right-leaning perspectives.
Cook claims to aim for de-escalation after protestor Alex Pretti died during his illegal clash with Border Patrol, but if the Apple CEO wants to actually live up to his word, then Apple News editors altering their disturbing pattern would be a good start.
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