Several major media outlets have effectively turned a blind eye to the arrest of an illegal immigrant accused of issuing a bomb threat and trying to storm the cockpit of a United Airlines flight, raising fresh questions about bias and selective coverage in the legacy press.
According to Fox News, the incident involved 34-year-old Honduran national Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto, who had been deported from the United States twice before and was taken into custody by the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office after United Airlines Flight 2174 landed at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport on Monday night. Authorities say the arrest followed a harrowing in-flight disturbance in which passengers and crew were confronted with a potential terror scenario at 30,000 feet.
Gomez-Alberto allegedly claimed he had a bomb on board and attempted to force his way into the cockpit, a threat that turned out to be false but nonetheless triggered a serious security response. Despite the gravity of the allegations and the suspects immigration history, several prominent news organizations appeared to treat the story as unworthy of national attention.
Grabien transcript reviews show that CNN and MS NOW did not mention the episode on any of their programs through Wednesday, even as they devoted extensive airtime to other stories. Transcripts further reveal that neither ABC nor NBC reported on the arrest in their national morning or evening newscasts during that same period.
ABCs editorial choices were particularly striking, as World News Tonight found time to cover a different United flight from Tokyo that made an emergency landing due to an unruly passenger, as well as a Frontier Airlines jet that had to divert to Chicagos OHare International Airport after a lavatory plumbing issue caused flooding. The network also aired a segment on an 8-year-old Haitian boy separated from his family by ICE agents in San Diego, underscoring its willingness to highlight immigration stories that fit a more sympathetic narrative.
The New York Times likewise had not published any coverage of the Gomez-Alberto case as of Thursday morning, based on a search of its website. CBS mentioned the incident only once, on its early-morning program CBS News Mornings, but did not elevate it to its flagship morning or evening broadcasts through Wednesday night.
Media Research Center President David Bozell told Fox News Digital that this is precisely the kind of case that ought to galvanize serious investigative reporting across the industry. He argued that this is the sort of story that should send every newsroom in the country digging.
Who let him back in? How did he get on the plane? What failed? Instead, the elitist media are basically silent, Bozell said, blasting what he sees as a partisan double standard in coverage of immigration-related crime. When the liberal media wears the other teams jersey for an illegal immigrant would-be terrorist at 30,000 feet, its as anti-American as it gets. The American people deserve in-depth reporting on threats to their safety, and theyre getting next to nothing.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) filed a detainer request for Gomez-Alberto on Tuesday following his arrest in Louisiana. On November 10, 2026, ICE lodged a detainer for Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto, a criminal illegal alien from Honduras, with Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office after he attempted to gain entry to the cockpit during a flight, a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
DHS records show that Gomez-Alberto was first apprehended by Border Patrol after illegally entering the United States near El Indio, Texas, in September 2011, and again near Columbus, New Mexico, in October 2014, with removals following both encounters. In 2019, Border Patrol arrested him yet again after another attempted illegal entry near San Ysidro, California, underscoring repeated failures to keep him out of the country.
ICE released Gomez-Alberto from custody in January 2020 after an immigration judge ordered his release pending removal proceedings, according to DHS, a decision that now raises serious concerns about the immigration court systems risk assessments. Fox News also confirmed that Gomez-Alberto claimed on his asylum application that he feared he would be killed if returned to Honduras and alleged that he was transgender, a detail first reported by The Daily Wire.
Local reports citing the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office state that Gomez-Alberto was booked on charges of communicating false information of planned arson and terrorizing. DHS, in its own statement, listed bomb threat, terroristic threat and disorderly conduct among the offenses tied to the case.
CNN, MS NOW, The New York Times, ABC News, CBS and NBC News did not immediately respond to Fox News Digitals requests for comment, leaving unanswered why a story involving a twice-deported illegal immigrant, a bomb hoax and an attempted cockpit breach failed to merit prominent coverage. For Americans concerned about border security, judicial leniency and media accountability, the silence from much of the press only amplifies fears that ideological preferences are being placed above public safety and the publics right to know.
Login