CNN Anchor Hosting New Border Patrol Series on Discovery Network is Also Liberal Immigration Activist

By Caleb HoweNov 15th, 2018, 4:01 pm
 

CNN’s Bill Weir has been tapped by the Discovery Channel as host of a new live, reality series featuring border patrol agents, their families, the job itself, and the immigration issues around it. What makes him a bizarre choice is that he’s also an activist social media warrior on those same topics, fighting tooth and nail with anyone who supports border enforcement or opposes illegal immigration.

Border Live will “document the work of law enforcement on the U.S.-Mexico border as well as the real lives, real moments and real stories of those that live and work along its remote stretches,” according to the press release on Friday. What the press release does not say is anything about how the new host — who will air his portion from New York City — feels about the “lives, real moments, and real stories” of those agents, or their work.

His social media does, however. Here is a sampling.

Weir’s contempt for the GOP’s immigration policies, not to mention the border security laws as they currently exist, and especially toward Trump, is palpable. But the real giveaway is in how he describes why he took the job.

When he promises “context,” it seems clear what he really means is moralizing and spin. That hardly requires mention, though, since he does it within that very tweet, which is practically bleeding with self-reverential, pious satisfaction.

Weir has been openly and vocally opinionated on the topic for a long time, going back to his days with ABC covering Arizona’s immigration laws during the Obama administration. On Twitter, above and in other tweets, he lobbies for changes to immigration policy, including making crossing the border back and forth easier, not harder, and allowing more of it.

For a documentary news show about the border, one might expect a more dispassionate and less one-sided host. Weir has every right to express his preferred moral vision and personal interpretation of what is good and what is evil regarding immigration. But for a show that is about, in part, the people enforcing the border laws for which he has such hostility, it’s going to be a tough sell to say the least, to my even remotely conservative brethren.

But I fear like so much of media today, it appears Discovery finds his avowed, open leftward slant to be a feature, not a bug.

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This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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Caleb Howe - Contributing Editor

Caleb Howe is an editor and writer focusing on politics and media. Former managing editor at RedState. Published at USA Today, Blaze, National Review, Daily Wire, American Spectator, AOL News, Asylum, fortune cookies, manifestos, napkins, fridge drawings...