A murder occurred Sunday, Dec. 22, in New York City when someone allegedly set a woman on fire while sleeping on a subway train. The suspect in the attack is a migrant from Guatemala who was in the United States illegally. However, the reporting of this detail has varied across news outlets with differing political leanings.
Right-leaning news outlets
Right-leaning news outlets have prominently featured the suspect’s immigration status in their headlines.
Fox News: “Suspect accused of burning woman to death on NYC subway is previously deported illegal immigrant.”
The New York Post: “Fiend accused of burning woman to death on NYC subway is illegal migrant from Guatemala.”
The Daily Wire: “Illegal arrested for setting woman on fire on NYC subway was already deported by Trump.”
These outlets referred to the suspect as an “illegal immigrant,” “illegal migrant,” and “illegal.”
Left-leaning news outlets
Meanwhile, left-leaning news outlets have largely omitted the suspect’s immigration status from their headlines. They refer to him as the “man” or “suspect” arrested instead of as a migrant.
The Associated Press: “Man faces murder charges in the death of a woman who was lit on fire in New York City subway.”
CBS News: “NYC police charge man with murder of woman set on fire.”
The New York Times: “Suspect charged in fatal burning of woman.”
The man police have charged with setting the woman on fire has been confirmed to be in the country illegally after being deported in 2018. Authorities haven’t confirmed when 33-year-old Sebastian Zapeta re-entered the U.S. or how long he had been in New York. However, sources have placed him in the city by April 2023, staying in city shelters.
While some left-leaning outlets didn’t include Zapeta’s immigration status in their headlines, they did report it later in their stories. However, there were editorial differences regarding the placement of this detail.
The right-leaning New York Post led with the suspect’s immigration status when reporting the murder charges.
“An illegal Guatemalan immigrant was charged with first-degree murder Monday in the gruesome torching death of a sleeping Brooklyn straphanger,” the report stated. “He told cops he was too boozed up to remember doing it.”
Similarly, other right-leaning outlets, such as Fox News and The Daily Wire, included the suspect’s immigration status in the first paragraph. By contrast, left-leaning outlets prioritized other details earlier in their stories.
The Associated Press wrote: “A man is facing murder and arson charges in New York City for allegedly setting a woman on fire inside a subway train and then watching her die after she was engulfed in flames.”
The AP noted the suspect’s immigration status in the third paragraph, writing: “Zapeta, 33, is a Guatemalan citizen who entered the U.S. illegally after he had been previously removed in 2018.”
The New York Times and CBS News mentioned Zapeta’s immigration status in their fourth paragraphs.
There has long been an editorial and ethical debate in journalism about whether to call someone an undocumented immigrant, an illegal immigrant or to avoid the label altogether.
Left-leaning outlets like CBS News and the AP referred to Zapeta as someone “in the country illegally” without using the word “migrant.” The New York Times referred to the suspect once as an “undocumented immigrant.”
Right-leaning outlets such as The New York Post and The Daily Wire referred to Zapeta as “an illegal Guatemalan migrant” and “illegal immigrant.”
Different news organizations have different rules for what has become a sensitive issue. AllSides explains why both “undocumented immigrant” and “illegal immigrant” are problematic terms.
They write: “Undocumented Immigrant: This terminology is overly vague. It doesn’t clearly convey the illegal nature of the act in question.”
They also note: “Illegal Immigrant: This terminology is technically imprecise because individuals themselves cannot be ‘illegal,’ though their actions may be.”
While news outlets with both left-leaning and right-leaning biases differed in their editorial approach to covering Zapeta’s immigration status, their coverage of the gruesome subway murder also took contrasting angles.
Some right-leaning outlets like Fox News linked the crime to broader concerns about an increase in migrant crime and the need for deportations.
Meanwhile, some left-leaning outlets like the New York Times framed the story within the context of rising subway crimes in New York, though noting that overall crime is down.
Both left and right-leaning outlets criticized each other’s coverage.
“I’m watching local coverage to see if they bring up his legal status, and they don’t,” Fox News anchor Brian Kilmeade said on “Fox & Friends.” “It’s a main part of the story… when illegal immigrants come here, many as criminals to commit more crimes, you say to yourself, if the government did its job, we wouldn’t be in this type of danger. And this plays into a bigger picture of why you need mass deportation.”
The New York Times wrote: “Republicans wasted little time linking the murder to Democrats’ immigration policies.”
The article continued: “The attack was the latest in a string of crimes that have fed a persistent sense among some New Yorkers that the subways are unsafe. According to the police, though, crime overall has been falling in the subway.”
This is a high-profile story that will likely remain in the news cycle for some time, given the graphic nature of the crime and the suspect’s background. The purpose of this story was to highlight the contrasting nature of coverage of an important story and show how news outlets can frame facts differently, depending on their political perspective.
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