What is fake news?

Despite the commandment against graven images, I will post this image. For the first time (or I think the first time) I will use a NFWS tag. I don't actually believe though that it is a graven image, but i'll use NSFW just to be safe. I don't mean to sound like Alex Jones and sandy hook, Unlike Alex jones, I am both far away from Texas and I don't have the budget to go there...let alone mexico until I fully leave the USA.

This supposedly happened along the US/Mexican border, a Salvadorian father (Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez) and his daughter drowned. I don' have an exact date for when this allegedly happened, but I see it happened on a Sunday. So probably about June 23rd. It certainly stirred up the immigration debate. However, I am of the belief that it is a staged photo for a propaganda piece.

There are at least 3 stories.
One report is: The father brought his wife and daughter to the Rio Grande/Bravo. He brought his daughter across and was going back to his wife when the daughter reportedly went back in the water. The dad went back to rescue her then got caught up in a current.

You'll notice that unlike the Washington post article used on this blog, the father has blueish legs but the body still maintains color.
https://thewire.in/world/photo-father-daughter-drowned-rio-grande-us-mexico-border

The wire picked up a copy and gave credit to la jornada. However, the jornada came out after other news agencies websites covered the story.

https://www.jornada.com.mx/ultimas/2019/06/24/padre-e-hija-mueren-ahogados-en-su-intento-por-llegar-a-eu-9550.html

The earliest report states that the three of them were crossing, and yet another relative saved the baby's momma. That the family was crossing together when he and the baby was pulled under by a current.

https://www.la-prensa.com.mx/republica/padre-e-hija-muere-al-tratar-de-cruzar-rio-en-matamoros-3805558.html

Another report, which is similar, omits the relative and says he was pulled under by a whirlpool.

It also notes that the attorney general is trying to find answers.
No press statements made yet from the attorney generals office: https://www.tamaulipas.gob.mx/procuraduria/prensa/

https://www.facebook.com/ReporteCivil.Matamoros/posts/2502263143388675?tn=-R

The Texas Search and rescue does not mention a search. https://twitter.com/texsar1

The Matamoros policia hasn't used their facebook page in 3 years. Their fire department hasn't been used in years either.

Another news report says more bodies were found by US border patrol:

On the other hand, the bodies of a woman and three minors were found by US authorities in the border area of ​​Texas, near the Rio Grande.

According to the first reports, the four people, including two babies, a small child and a young woman of approximately 20 years, died due to heat and dehydration.

https://www.diariodemexico.com/encuentran-cuerpos-de-padre-e-hija-que-murieron-intentando-cruzar-el-r%C3%ADo-bravo-eran-salvadore%C3%B1os

The US border patrol does not mention a search either, but they probably do so many they don't report about.
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/media-releases/all#

But their webpage does confirm the previous story of other bodies found in the area.

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/border-patrol-agents-recover-three-bodies-two-days

Tineye and a reverse image search on google doesn't produce any anachronisms in the photos. That would only reveal either obvious fakes or file images.

If the river was that bad and it was a rescue, it is interesting that he had the time to put her under his shirt as the wire reported. If the body was found quickly there could be a reason for the near pristine shape of the bodies. And supposing that were the case, it sure looks like a a media photographer got there a lot faster than the paramedics. However, the bodies were allegedly found 12 hours later after a search.

These do not look like dead bodies at all.

First I want to state that I am not a forensics expert. But some things that I notice is that the "bodies" aren't sunburned, I don't see livor mortis (skin discoloration) either, they aren't scrapped up by river debris, the exposed skinned is not cracked/dehydrated, and the submerged skin is not bloated. There doesn't appear to be damage from insects, bacteria, fish, or other animals. Yes, althugh rare, there are alligators that live in the Rio Grande

I don't know how rigor mortis works. I do see that the legs are contracted, and it doesn't appear to be from buoyancy of the feet. Rigor mortis doesn't fully set in in the leg until about 12 hours. https://juniperpublishers.com/jfsci/pdf/JFSCI.MS.ID.555771.pdf

I reject the story about the daughter re-entering the water. If we remember that there was a relative that saved his wife and relatives in the area, the logical thing to do was bring the wife across first instead of bringing the baby across first alone. This problem is much easier than the child's puzzle of answering how farmer can cross a river, one "passenger" at a time, with a fox, hen, and feed without one eating the other. https://www.mathsisfun.com/chicken_crossing_solution.html

If the liberals are going to fake news something, they shouldn't insult the intelligence of immigrants.

As to the lack of sun burn, I have tried to seek answers in google searches but nothing authorative. Reddit suggest that corpses don't develop sunburns because it is the bodies response. On a site that claims to offer medical answers, one supposed doctors says he worked with multiple dead bodies and claim that they do indeed sunburn.
https://www.justanswer.com/health/0ee6l-dead-body-sunburn.html

I have worked many death investigations where the body did receive sunburn from direct exposure to the body. This was of course in case's where decomp had not set in.

As to the lack of livor mortis. Livor mortis sets in, and after about 12 hours it goes away.
https://www.amboss.com/us/knowledge/Postmortem_skin_changes
when it does appear in drowning victims:

Location
Blood pools in areas of dependency under the force of gravity
Drowning: face, upper chest, hands, lower arms, feet, and calves

Livor mortis doesn't even have to be blue

Color: the intensity of color depends on the amount of hemoglobin in the blood
Bluish-purple: normal lividity
Greenish-red: hydrogen sulfide (produced in decaying organic matter)
Dark brown: phosphorus poisoning
Brownish-red: poisoning with methemoglobin-forming substances (such as nitrite or aniline)
Pale pink (barely pronounced): blood loss, severe anemia, severe hemorrhage
Cherry red: carbon monoxide poisoning
Bright red: cyanide poisoning

In regards to the insect bites, there is a science about 1000 years old related to this. It is actually older if you consider the torture known as scaphism. The science is called forensic entomology. Some of use used to remember how at dinner time all the news media would seem to air was morbidly disgusting analytics of how insects consumed the flesh of Casey Anthony. Once you die you are worm food. <a href='https://www.terminix.com/blog/science-nature/how-are-insects-used-in-forensic-entomology/">Terminex reports the first to start eating your flesh are blow and flesh flies. According to the nih, it takes 24 hours before maggots start to appear. The Flesh fly, however, is a special kind of sick. The mother fly gives birth to her babieson their target who begins eating immediately.
The lack of insect bites is the strongest evidence so far that there were no dead bodies.

Reportedly the bodies are being sent back to San Martin El Salvador.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/haunting-photo-migrant-girl-clinging-17259239

When I first seen the report I felt really bad, when I saw it again there were too many things that didn't look right. That we were being played. In the end, I can't really make heads or tales about the lack of a sun burn-since there is conflicting tales about if it occurs after death. I suspect any body exposed in the hot Texas/Mexican sun for up to 12 hours would experience severe skin problems even if it didn't come in the form of a sunburn. I know nothing of rigor mortis, at 12 hours it should be in effect in the legs but I have no idea if that means the legs will contract as the muscle stiffens. Livor mortis should have ended. To the extent that there is an image that suggest livor mortis, it is from a political hit piece and whose story narrative contradicts the photographic images. Also, ligor mortis should set in at places other than the legs, especially considering, in his position, gravity should push the blood out of his legs. But I am not a forensics expert. Maybe one could argue the body was moved from a position that allowed his legs to fill up with blood to turn blue to the new position then livor mortis phased out in the later pictures, but the blue just as easily could have been photo shopped. It is too early for decomposition and perhaps bloating. Being pulled by a current doesn't necessarily mean you'll hit rocks, broken glass, logs, etc until you come to rest. Short of finding a forensic expert, the strongest evidence that it may have just been a photo op is the lack of animal/insect bites. There reportedly will be a few bodies being sent to El Salvador for the right of sepulcher, but I don't have the means to inspect it, nor do I want to be the one to inspect or identify the actual dead bodies.

Regardless as to whether the drownings did occur, or if they are a photo op (as I suspect). There is some fake news going on. Whatever happened, it went from a guy who had his family cross a very dangerous river despite being told repeatedly not to do it, to an all out portraying a guy whose devotion undermines the physical evidence, evinces a lackof problem solving skills, and going after Trump and his asylum policies. It is shocking, it hurts everyone, it gets us all to use feelings and causes us to stop thinking and accept the story being peddled. In the end it may be about the sanctity of the victim, even when there may not be any. Hollywood could have a field day with us if they really wanted-with just a picture.

It is being used as propaganda pieces against Donald Trump and his immigration policy, which was timely just for the DNC debate for the democrats to virtue signal.

Don't get me wrong, there are many of horribly deaths that occur to people trying to cross the border including drownings, heat stroke, heat exhaustion, birds plucking out people eyes, dehydration. There is at least clear embellishment going on, and I personally doubt a drowning took place at all in the photo.

I've demonetized this post. As the title says, "What is fake news?". you are more than welcome to think what I said is fake news. If you come out of this putting your feelings aside, and hitting the books trying to make heads or tails about the reality we live in then I congratulate you. For decades we have lived in an era of having information force fed to us accepting everything as true, and in recent years we've seen the news media taking advantage of that. The marketplace of ideas will purge the bad ideas from the market so long as there is not a monopoly of ideas. Time to start the dialogs and get people to start thinking and interrogating news ideas again to hopefully discover the truth.