March 2023 Right Wing Media Report

March Summary

During the March 1-31st tracking period, there were 4,427 negative immigration mentions across right-wing media outlets to an estimated audience of over 11.8 million people worth an estimated $357 million dollars in publicity. There were 73,497 mentions on Twitter to an audience of 1,039,829,535 million people.

The majority of overall immigration mentions as usual revolved around a Republican concerted effort to drive a narrative of the border crisis and using their white nationalist talking points that migrants constitute an invasion of the United States. There were a lot of articles citing statistics of increased border crossings and also of Fentanyl being attributed to deaths and being cut with even more dangerous drugs. There was also a hearing on March 28th that generated a lot of attention in the right wing media ecosystem due to the hostility displayed by GOP lawmakers against DHS Secretary Mayorkas. There was also an uptick at the end of the month of negative immigration mentions regarding Canada, including an eyebrow raising statement from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed Canada wanted to participate in Mexico’s invasion of the U.S. and the border patrol union chief, who claimed migrants were “flooding” from Canada.

• The first spike was on March 2nd, due to a story that seemed to gain traction in several conservative outlets regarding a mother criticizing Biden for allegedly chuckling after dismissing allegations his administration bore responsibility for their Fentanyl related deaths. There were also an array of stories dealing with the border crisis narrative in general, including one from Breitbart titled, “128K Migrants Caught in February at Southwest Border — Up 31% Over Feb 2021.”
• Second spike was March 8th, which saw a series of articles dealing with the border, including one with this headline, “Federal Judge Strikes Down Key Biden Border Policy: ‘Speed Bump For Aliens’ and a Sean Hannity segment that touched on the alleged border crisis. Breitbart also ran an article with the headline, “Analysis: Over 15.5M Illegal Aliens in U.S. Costs Taxpayers $150B Annually.”
• Third spike was on March 13th, which saw a Fox News segment with New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu who claimed he would “pay the money to allow my agents to help secure the border” and deal with what he claimed was an 846% increase in border crossings. There was also a Rice University study that was uplifted by Breitbard news claiming that Trump policies cut migration while Biden policies encouraged it.

• Fourth spike was on March 15th, which saw numerous articles from the Daily Caller whipping up hysteria regarding the border. Headlines included, “Border Patrol Catches Suspected Terrorist At The US-Canadian Border Amid Illegal Migration Surge,” another article titled, “Migrant Encounters At The Southern Border Top One Million In Just Five Months,” and several regarding anti-immigrant statements made by Border Patrol leadership, including, “Border Patrol Chief Calls For Return Of Trump-Era Policies To Stem Migrant Surge.”
• Fifth spike was on March 22nd and was attributed to a series of articles, in outlets like Fox13 and Daily Caller, that warned of Fentanyl being cut with a “flesh rotting” and “Zombie” drug.
• Final spike was on March 28th, which was driven by a hearing in which Secretary Mayorkas faced tough questioning from Republicans, including Senator Cornyn who said he should be fired over the “Fentanyl crisis” at the southern border and Ted Cruz, who claimed Mayorkas would not utter the words, “border crisis.” There were also articles dealing with Canada, including one from the Daily Caller in which Marjorie Taylor Greene accused Canada of wanting “to participate in Mexico’s invasion’ of the U.S.” and another in which the border patrol union chief Warned of “staffing crisis as migrants flood in from Canada.”