ESPN NFL analyst Mina Kimes offered a critique of modern American media in the context of the anti-ICE protests which have swept Los Angeles this week.
Kimes, who has been with ESPN since 2014, lives in Los Angeles and has been near those who have been using their voice to express their anger with the Trump administration’s roving law enforcement rounding up hundreds of people across the nation.
In a post on social media, Kimes says that the media’s portrayal of what is happening on the ground is ‘mischaracterized’ and offered the opinion that modern media may not be the best way to deliver truth to the country.
‘The disparity btwn what’s actually happening in Los Angeles and the way it’s being mischaracterized is one of the biggest stress tests of modern media in recent memory,’ Kimes wrote on Bluesky.
‘Botted socials, AI, old clips, declining literacy—it’s like seeing a broken emergency response system hit by a storm.’
When one user on the app replied to her tweet saying that Kimes ‘clearly [hasn’t] been in LA’, the reporter replied, ‘I live here lol’.
Mina Kimes posted on social media about the dangers of believing everything you see
Kimes, who lives in LA, says the scope of the protests are being ‘mischaracterized’ by media
Protestors in LA have been voicing opposition to Donald Trump’s ICE raids across the nation
Kimes’ fears appear to follow a trend of reports, images, and other forms of media being tied to these protests which either are outdated or outright false.
Senator Ted Cruz and California governor Gavin Newsom argued on X earlier this week about video of police vehicles set on fire, which Newsom’s media office clarified came from 2020.
The BBC’s Verify team debunked a TikTok livestream which was hosted by a fake National Guardsman saying he was preparing to go around ‘gassing’ protestors.
Other posts showed footage of Marines driving ‘into Los Angeles’, when in reality, it was video of them driving to their base in San Diego County.
There are reporters on the ground who are providing accurate updates in real time – with some even being shot by police.
Kimes has been vocal online about her political leanings in the past, and considering she lives in the very city being affected, it’s not shocking that she’d provide her perspective on this issue.
