Hoax Alert

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is fake. 

There was a time when we thought we could count on journalists to at least TRY to distinguish between reality and hoaxes, although perhaps our faith has always been misplaced. Now, when I see or read something, I always have to wonder whether what is being reported has any basis in reality at all. You certainly can’t trust many in the media to care because the premium is paid for clicks, not accuracy. 

The more emotionally stimulating a story is, the higher the premium it commands. 

Loved ones and attorneys are speaking out about a South L.A. mother and community leader who they say was taken last week by possible federal agents, brought down to the U.S. border and is now being held in a warehouse until she agrees to self-deport.
https://t.co/3SzKG7pJMu

— KTLA (@KTLA) June 30, 2025

Loved ones and attorneys held a press conference on Monday to speak out about a South Los Angeles mother and community leader who they say was taken last week by possible federal agents, brought down to the U.S. border at San Ysidro and is now being held in a warehouse until she agrees to self-deport.

Attorney Stephano Medina detailed what he described as a kidnapping of community leader Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon, who goes by the name Juli, on Wednesday, June 25.

“In this very parking lot a week ago, uniformed men in unmarked cars kidnapped Juli, and with her courage and her strength — even though we don’t know where Juli is and we don’t know when we will find her — Juli has managed to make two phone calls to the family since she’s been kidnapped,” said Medina. 

…

“Juli told us that when she was picked up in this parking lot, she wasn’t taken to any Detention Center. She wasn’t taken to be processed,” said Medina. “Instead, Juli was taken directly from this parking lot to the border at San Ysidro, and there she was presented to an ICE staffer. There, Juli was presented with voluntary self deportation paperwork. She was taken straight from here to the border and pressured to sign self deportation paperwork.”

When Juli refused to sign the paperwork and demanded to see a judge and have legal representation, Medina said she, along with fellow travelers, also insisting on their rights, was then taken to an unmarked warehouse somewhere away from the border. There, she was allegedly only given water, no food, in a warehouse that was holding men and women together, without a law enforcement employee or official present.

“She told us that some people had been in that warehouse for months,

It never happened, according to Homeland Security, and there is a lot of reason to believe them. Not the least of which is that there is an immigration detention center in Los Angeles. And, of course, it seems unlikely that kidnappers handed over a phone to a detainee and allowed her to call her family. 

The left, and hence the Pravda Media, are emotionally aroused by any story that plays up victimhood, especially if mean Republicans are oppressing the victims. It hits all their emotional erogenous zones. That’s why all the immigration stories refer to a “Maryland father” or “pregnant mother,” and politicians who compare ICE agents to the Gestapo are platformed. 

KTLA fell for a HOAX. This woman was never arrested or “kidnapped” by ICE. If the media would have bothered to ask—ICE does not employ bounty hunters to make arrests. This bizarre tale about being picked up by bounty hunters, taken to an unmarked warehouse without access to food,… pic.twitter.com/WoaUjTOQP4

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) July 1, 2025

The story of a South LA mother (notice you have to include “mother”) being kidnapped off the streets to be swept off to an undisclosed warehouse was so enticing. It plays to the fantasies of leftists who imagine themselves to be the French Resistance fighting the Nazis. Orange Darth Vader is sending his clone warriors off to torture innocents is a great story. 

More context: We ran this woman through our sources and she is not in federal custody according to the databases…

ICE and Border Patrol are also not conducting “night operations” and this is when this woman was allegedly “taken.”

They also aren’t driving people 2+ hours down… https://t.co/DzojHvm8fg

— Ali Bradley (@AliBradleyTV) July 1, 2025

More context: We ran this woman through our sources and she is not in federal custody according to the databases… ICE and Border Patrol are also not conducting “night operations” and this is when this woman was allegedly “taken.” They also aren’t driving people 2+ hours down to San Ysidro when there is an ICE detention facility in LA.

That the story is almost certainly false is no barrier to telling it. Checking it out would interfere with getting all the right eyeballs and pleasing the virtuous. Nothing about the story checks out, but it FEELS so right it can’t be wrong. As Ed would say, “too good to check.” 

So KTLA didn’t check. They published it before Homeland Security could respond. 

We see the same formula all the time. I trust almost nothing coming out of Gaza anymore. It is all propaganda. No doubt many tragedies are happening, and I have no doubt that Israeli soldiers sometimes do terrible things. In war, terrible things happen. 

But massacres at food distribution centers? Nope. It’s Pallywood, and we should all know that by now, yet Pravda keeps reporting what the “Gaza Health Ministry” says, even though they have lied every time they open their mouths. Hamas, we know beyond doubt, massacres Palestinians who willingly interact with Israeli soldiers, and has regularly shot and killed Palestinians at aid distribution centers. 

But we only hear reports that Israelis are doing it, even though journalists are there and know it isn’t happening. It fits the narrative. 

“I watched as the goal of mainstream journalism shifted from describing reality to ushering readers to the correct political conclusion.”@MattiFriedman on how legacy media gave in to spreading lies: https://t.co/l59cHGwFC6

— The Free Press (@TheFP) September 10, 2024

It turns out that lying is good business if the lie you are selling is what people desperately want to believe is the truth. 

The demand for racism far exceeds the supply, so the media just creates some. Or “hands up, don’t shoot!” Did anybody in the media believe Jussie Smollett? How could they? What about all the nooses on campuses we keep hearing about? 

The fine people hoax. The Steele Dossier. The pee tape. Russia Russia Russia. Sharp as a tack…

It’s hoax after hoax after hoax.