ICE shootings test truth in the social media age

(Graphic art by Oma Studios)

Two fatal shootings in Minneapolis this January didn’t just take lives. They set off protests, political firestorms and a blitz of online narratives racing ahead of the facts. 

Almost immediately, videos, tweets and posts shaped what people believed had happened.

 On Jan. 7, Renée Good was shot and killed by a federal immigration agent during an enforcement operation. On Jan. 24, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, was killed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents amid protests against Operation Metro Surge, a federal immigration crackdown.

Bystanders captured both shootings on shaky cell phone video, standing just feet from the chaos in bitter winter conditions. Those clips spread online almost immediately, shaping public perception before verified facts could catch up.

U.S. President Donald Trump later called Pretti a “domestic terrorist” on X, echoed by conservative outlets.

However,  reporting that analyzed the footage frame by frame, including work by The New York Times, contradicted early official statements and showed how fast political narratives can harden.

For Philip Lee, journalism professor at St. Thomas University, moments like these test the very purpose of the press.

“Things don’t happen in two ways, they happen in one way,” Lee said. “Our job is to establish what actually happened.”

Lee said journalism isn’t about chasing viral content or repeating political rhetoric, it’s about verification.

“If things aren’t on the record, history can be rewritten however anyone wants,” he said. “Journalism is really the art of verification.”

The shootings also came amid a shift in federal messaging. 

The Department of Homeland Security has been promoting enforcement operations with slick graphics and posts on official social media accounts. 

Some see the messages as patriotic, others see subtle fear-based signalling.

For David Coish, a fourth-year anthropology student at STU, social media algorithms decide which version of events people see.

 “It really depends on what side of social media you’re on,” he said. “Algorithms know what you want to see, so they just keep feeding it to you.”

 He called it an invisible echo chamber.

“It’s kind of scary how well an algorithm knows you,” said Coish. “It’s like, ‘We know what you believe, here’s a digestible way to get more of it.’”

Concerns about narrative control took on a new angle on Jan. 29 with the arrest of journalist Don Lemon. 

According to CBC News and the Associated Press, Lemon was detained by federal agents in Los Angeles over a Jan. 18 protest that disrupted a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Four people, including Lemon, were later charged, though a magistrate judge had previously rejected the case due to weak evidence. Lemon and his attorney stated he was there to report on the protest, not participate.

As videos, official messaging and algorithm-driven content continue to circulate, the Minneapolis shootings and their fallout, are a test of how truth survives in a media world ruled by speed, power and perception.

“If we don’t have a common set of facts, we’re not even arguing about the same reality. And that’s when everything falls apart,” Lee said.