Drudge Report Used Photo Of Children In Syria To Depict U.S. Border Crisis

The Drudge Report featured an image of gun-wielding children photographed years ago in Azaz, Syria, alongside an article about immigrant children pouring into the United States.

According to the photographer of the 2012 image, Christiaan Triebert, Drudge not only used the photo completely out of context ― the guns, he said, were toys ― they also featured it without crediting Triebert.

He called it an “obscene misrepresentation” of the photo’s actual depiction:

The website eventually replaced the image with another one, shot in 2013, of migrants riding atop a train in Mexico towards the U.S. border.

Drudge’s faux pas comes at a time when a chorus of voices nationwide, including those of many Republicans, are rising up in opposition to the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. Launched last month, it seeks to prosecute more immigrants entering the country illegally, even if it means separating children from their parents. So far almost 2,000 children have fallen victim to this policy.