Gambling raid, ICE arrests show how Idaho's local news lost touch with its community
On Oct. 19, the federal and local law enforcement conducted a massive raid in Wilder, Idaho — a community about 30 miles west of Boise. The FBI arrested five people in connection with what a Homeland Security spokeswoman alleged was "an illegal horse-racing, animal fighting, and gambling enterprise operation.” In addition, ICE detained 105 people suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.
It didn’t take long for local news media to settle on a narrative. Just after 10:00 a.m. Monday, the Idaho Statesman published an article titled, “Child separation, zip ties and rubber bullets: Inside the Idaho racetrack raid.” KBOI, the local CBS affiliate in Boise, quickly amplified the story.
By Monday afternoon, local NBC affiliate KTVB had published an article titled, “Idaho lawyers, families face more questions than answers after large detainment in Wilder.” The story noted that the ACLU was coordinating with a pro–illegal-immigration organization called PODER of Idaho on a press conference outside the Canyon County Courthouse that afternoon.
At that press conference, protesters held signs that said things like, “Save America: Dump Trump!” PODER, whose website uses the word "Latinx," states that “no person is illegal” and has previously lobbied the Idaho Legislature to allow illegal aliens to receive driver’s licenses.
By Tuesday, the narrative was firmly set. KIVI, the local ABC affiliate, aired an interview with a father whose son had been arrested by the FBI. The Idaho Press published an article with the headline “Families were separated. Children were left terrified: Advocates speak at protest of ICE raid.” Even local media from the other end of the state joined in, with KIFI Idaho Falls publishing, “Increased ICE raids raise concerns in Eastern Idaho following federal raid in Wilder."
Governor Brad Little has defended the raid, explaining that illegal gambling operations “often accompany drug trafficking, animal abuse, illegal weapons trafficking, and large sums of money that end up in the hands of cartel bosses.” The release noted that officers will sometimes “detain others present while processing the scene to ensure the safety of both civilians and officers and to preserve evidence” and added that no children had been taken into custody.
That same day, the Statesman’s weighed in with an editorial calling the law enforcement action "heartless" and "authoritarianism in action.”
This sort of cookie-cutter, one-sided left-wing coverage would not surprise anyone in a big blue city like Los Angeles, New York, or Chicago. But this is Idaho, one of the reddest states in the nation. President Trump, who campaigned on mass deportations and strict immigration enforcement, won our state with 67 percent of the vote. He won Canyon County, where the raid occurred, with 72 percent of the vote.
It is fair for Idahoans to ask why our local mainstream media headlines sound like ACLU press releases or Democratic talking points. Despite their local focus, most television and print outlets in Idaho are owned by national conglomerates or hedge funds and staffed from a talent pool that is steeped in left-leaning ideology. Yet for many Idahoans, these outlets remain the only trusted sources for local news — largely because there is so little competition.
Conservatives have complained of media bias for decades, and this story helps illustrate why. Local journalists rallied around a single narrative — that ICE is immoral, that enforcement of our laws is illegitimate, and that we should just turn a blind eye to alleged criminality rather than hurt people's feelings by arresting them. It's as if they all got the same memo, and they all regurgitated its contents.
How stories are framed can dramatically shape perceptions. Under President Barack Obama, the media described “temporary detention centers,” which under Trump became “kids in cages.” The same policy, reported in different ways, produced very different reactions.
Even Idahoans who voted for Trump and support deportations in principle might second-guess themselves after reading such headlines. And that is the entire point. It goes without saying that none of these outlets published anything remotely sympathetic about the families of the two local women who were arrested and charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The U.S. is an incredibly diverse country. Americans from New York City, Miami, rural Kansas, and Wilder, Idaho may lead very different lives and hold vastly different opinions. Yet news narratives today are consolidated and packaged from a single perspective, then disseminated through local outlets nationwide. Idahoans who subscribe to the Statesman for local news and high-school sports scores are given controversial stories framed exactly the same way The New York Times frames stories for its readers.
When reporting so dramatically diverges from the deeply held values of a community, it erodes trust not only in the press but in society itself. All Americans — whether in red states or blue, cities, suburbs, or rural areas — deserve journalism that reports facts before framing them, separates news from opinion, and reflects the perspectives of the whole community, not just a small but very politically active minority.
Brian Almon is chairman of Idaho's District 14 Republican Party, a trustee of the Eagle Public Library Board, and editor of the Gem State Chronicle.