What do you think when you see the words “BREAKING NEWS” or “NEW”? That the story being reported is brand-new, right? Well, the story of the day is a horrific AP story detailing alleged abuses in a Virginia juvenile detention center.

And Twitter is up in arms over it – especially journalists and media.

AP reporter Michael Biesecker:

BREAKING ⁦@AP:⁩ Immigrant children as young as 14 housed at a juvenile detention center in Virginia say they were beaten while handcuffed and locked up for long periods in solitary confinement, left nude and shivering in concrete cells. https://t.co/ffw0bBcYrH

— Michael Biesecker (@mbieseck) June 21, 2018

MSNBC’s Lawrence “Stop the hammering” O’Donnell:

The spirit of Abu Ghraib lives. In Virginia. https://t.co/zVo4ZT5KfF

— Lawrence O'Donnell (@Lawrence) June 21, 2018

A blue-check journalism professor:

Gitmo Jr. Good Lord. https://t.co/VAy8NIsqGc

— Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) June 21, 2018

Bloomberg opinion writer:

And of course, they're torturing the kids too. https://t.co/99YPqCLhCt

— Noah Smith (@Noahpinion) June 21, 2018

And a lot of comments like this:
https://twitter.com/accidentalflyer/status/1009680836566794240

Abolish ICE. Put its enforcers on trial. Publish their names. Put *them* in cages.

— nuremberg your local ICE agent (@notebooklines) June 21, 2018

Jesus. Sometimes I think if we let out the prisoners and locked up the cops and jailors instead, we'd be safer net-net.

— bob (@huntthesnark) June 21, 2018

Trump's #AbuGraib

— Bugl3t #ADOPTaDEM y'all (@Bugl3t) June 21, 2018

Well, this story is apparently “NEW” and “BREAKING NEWS” if you slept through the eight years of the Obama Administration. Which, it’s becoming increasingly clear, the media actually did.

Um…

…the facility opened in 2007.

And the primary allegations are from…2016.

A year BEFORE Trump became President.

Just pointing this out. https://t.co/Xc9LIfsNCG

— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D., M.S. (@Neoavatara) June 21, 2018

Again, the media is failing us.

The headline really should point out the dates of these allegations.

— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D., M.S. (@Neoavatara) June 21, 2018

How many reporters have tweeted this out…without clearly stating this occurred under Obama's watch?

I mean, you want to know why journalists are not trusted on the hard stuff? This is why. https://t.co/sC9jpNLc9G

— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D., M.S. (@Neoavatara) June 21, 2018

I mean…these are from reporters I ACTUALLY RESPECT.

But they simply can't admit they didn't do their jobs on this. https://t.co/WlW0XJq3tG

— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D., M.S. (@Neoavatara) June 21, 2018

And this doesn't even discuss the DOZENS of reporters that have RT'd this, without any context or nuance, having THOUSANDS of followers like a post which they'll never read.

Our media sucks. pic.twitter.com/AaBEgf9Ips

— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D., M.S. (@Neoavatara) June 21, 2018

Breaking!??!? This was reported last year. pic.twitter.com/1nERP1CtF2

— JRP (@JRPSD) June 21, 2018

Well, it’s “new to you!” Like a used car!

“BREAKING” @mbieseck? pic.twitter.com/2n2KBYtdJu

— LB (@beyondreasdoubt) June 21, 2018

This is why the media is the worst. This guy tweets this headline and of course it gets picked up. The allegations are horrific. However, no one reads the articles so it will be completely lost that it’s not something that just happened pic.twitter.com/yaMfZZVOVk

— LB (@beyondreasdoubt) June 21, 2018

Anyone think the AP buried the dates in the story for their own click-baiting purposes? Paragraph 12 states the date the shelter opened.

The Shenandoah detention center was built by a coalition of seven nearby towns and counties to lock up local kids charged with serious crimes. Since 2007, about half the 58 beds are occupied by both male and female immigrants between the ages of 12 and 17 facing deportation proceedings or awaiting rulings on asylum claims. Though incarcerated in a facility similar to a prison, the children detained on administrative immigration charges have not yet been convicted of any crime.

This article is actually detailing the allegations in a LAWSUIT… allegations from the Obama era.

The lawsuit filed against Shenandoah alleges that young Latino immigrants held there “are subjected to unconstitutional conditions that shock the conscience, including violence by staff, abusive and excessive use of seclusion and restraints, and the denial of necessary mental health care.”

The complaint filed by the nonprofit Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs recounts the story of an unnamed 17-year-old Mexican citizen apprehended at the southern border. The teen fled an abusive father and violence fueled by drug cartels to seek asylum in the United States in 2015.

After stops at facilities in Texas and New York, he was transferred to Shenandoah in April 2016 and diagnosed during an initial screening by a psychologist with three mental disorders, including depression. Besides weekly sessions speaking with a counselor, the lawsuit alleges the teen has received no further mental health treatment, such as medications that might help regulate his moods and behavior.

Now, the article got a “refresh” by the AP after its original reporting from last December, which allows them to now claim that it is “breaking” and “new” – except that the internet is forever, and it’s clear the article was originally published last December.

Should the allegations be fully investigated? Of course, and that’s why there’s a lawsuit in progress. But this has now become the problem with Twitter outrage – the headline is all people see. People don’t bother to actually read the ARTICLE. The HEADLINE is what gets people’s attention and scores a comment or a retweet.

Even from people who should have reeeeeeeally looked before they stepped on that rake.

.@AP: "Immigrant children as young as 14 housed at a juvenile detention center in Virginia say they were beaten while handcuffed and locked up for long periods in solitary confinement, left nude and shivering in concrete cells."https://t.co/al2RsJT7Rt

— Jesse Lehrich (@JesseLehrich) June 21, 2018

Get the popcorn.

As the current comms director for OFA, do you have a comment on why these atrocities were allowed to go unnoticed under the Obama administration? https://t.co/llOXjDlJot

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) June 21, 2018

Yes, Jesse Lehrich is OFA (Obama For America)’s communications director and a former Hillary Clinton spokesman, per his Twitter bio.

Do not question what happened during the Obama era. There were no scandals and everything was perfect is all you need to know.

— JC (@Quato2) June 21, 2018

It’s always an interesting moment when journalists begin to wake up about things they should have noticed years ago.

“It’s unlikely that most of the kids who go through this process will qualify for humanitarian relief, which is to say that most of them will not have a legal basis … to remain in this country.”

Josh Earnest,
White House Press Secretary
July 7, 2014 pic.twitter.com/LatsY2DuDx

— JO (@borninLXXXIII) June 20, 2018

And this from June 2014:

The media knew that it was happening, but they just loved Obama so much, and they didn’t want to beat him over the head with it.

In announcing his long-hyped executive actions, Obama included a key caveat that didn’t get much attention at the time: The relaxed deportation policy would only apply to people who entered the U.S. before the start of 2014, and not to the 100,000 estimated to have surged over the southern border from Central American countries that summer. Dozens of those families were the ones targeted by ICE officials over the weekend, and a total of 121 migrants were detained, the government reported.

“This should come as no surprise,” DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said Monday in a lengthy statement confirming the raids. “I have said publicly for months that individuals who constitute enforcement priorities, including families and unaccompanied children, will be removed.”

And now the media is rushing to cover and retweet an issue that has been in the open for years, in hopes of slapping Trump around.

And they have the gall to wonder why they have credibility problems.