We have been working on our update about Senator Dick Day's trip to Arizona (a trip intended to boost his chances at the GOP endorsement in MN-01).
The Minutemen's press relation officer was kind enough to contact us with suggested corrections about yesterday's post that raised questions about Senator Day's visit to the U.S.-Mexican border. We wrote back asking for details--and for photographs that our contact, Dave Bertrand, had mentioned in his comment.
He cheerfully sent us a detailed explanation of Senator Day's interactions with three members of the Border Patrol, along with nine photographs. We looked at them carefully and noticed that while two featured Senator Day standing in front of a group of detainees, and two showed the detainees without the state legislator, none of the nine illustrated Senator Day talking to Border Patrol agents.
Thinking that such photos would lend ethos to the Minutemen's account, we asked if we might have a photo of Day in conversation with the agents. We just received this message back:
Hi !
We and B.P. have a policy of not showing their faces, therefore, I did not take any pics of them conversing.
Dave BertrandMedia Relations Director (Arizona Operations)Minuteman Civil Defense Corp. (MCDC)
Now, back in Ma Burdick's journalism class at St. Peter Public High, we learned the famous rule for news reporters: "If your momma says she loves you, check it out." Mr. Bertrand's claim that the "B.P." does not show their faces prompted us to visit the Border Patrol's web site once more (we're becoming quite fond of this site, which is well-designed, easy to navigate, and filled with useful content).
The B.P.'s website has a page of marvelous thumbnails of the agency's work. A number of the pictures, such as this one, show agents' faces. We're thus unclear what Bertrand meant when he talked of the B.P.'s policy. Did he mean a Border Patrol policy of not showing agents' faces when they talked with the Minutemen or their guests?
That must be it, since Bertrand himself sent us the picture of a Border Patrol agent resolutely striding between several of the detainees. Readers who click on the thumbnail above will see an agent's face in the Minuteman's photo.
We regret that we can not provide photos of Senator Day talking with the Border Patrol agents. If we are not interrupted, our post about the Minutemen's account of Senator Day and the Border Patrol agents should be up within an hour.
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