Ever since the President picked up on the story of the illegal alien caravan moving through Mexico and began tweeting about it, plenty has changed. The Mexican government has begun taking action (which they claim they were going to do all along) and the caravan seems to have mostly stalled as of last night. But the really big push has come from the majority of the media in the United States as they scramble to rebrand the caravan to make it look like anything but a hoard of illegal aliens planning to jump the border into our country.

First, a short update on how the caravan is doing, courtesy of the Associated Press last night. Most, but not all of the travelers have made camp.

The group of about 1,100 people, most of them Hondurans, had been walking along roadsides and train tracks, but they have stopped to camp out at a sports field in the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca. They are waiting and getting advice on filing for transit or humanitarian visas in Mexico.

Many headed to the field’s stands to shelter under the awning from the hot afternoon sun. As night fell, the migrants, many with children, lit fires to cook their meager rations.

So that accounts for most of the 1,100, but not all of them. The same report goes on to note that, “a group of about a couple of hundred men in the march broke off and hopped a freight train north on Sunday — probably to try to enter the United States…”

Meanwhile, virtually all of the MSM coverage I’ve seen has ignored the reports coming from on the ground in Mexico and seeks to refute anything the President had to say about it. This report from The Hill last night was particularly egregious and drew some pushback on Twitter. (Including from yours truly.)

Trump appears to be specifically referring to a group of about 1,100 people from Central America who are seeking political asylum in either Mexico or the United States.

The group was organized by Pueblo Sin Fronteras (People Without Borders), a non-profit migrant rights group that works to provide humanitarian aid to refugees and migrants on the move….

A majority of the caravan’s members want to stay in Mexico, according to Romero. And a report by the BBC found that less than 100 of the caravan’s members want to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

That’s certainly an interesting way to describe it. This morning there were more MSM types jumping on the dogpile, including Chris Cillizza.

To be clear: These people are seeking political asylum.

To be clear: Of the 200 who did this in 2017, 3 were granted asylum.

The idea that this is a pillaging horde overflowing the borders is simply wrong. https://t.co/WC4EVYg3wE

— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) April 3, 2018

To be clear: These people are seeking political asylum. To be clear: Of the 200 who did this in 2017, 3 were granted asylum. The idea that this is a pillaging horde overflowing the borders is simply wrong.

Since we’re in the business of “being clear” here, perhaps some of the reporters sitting in their offices in Washington and New York City might want to check in with a reporter who is actually on the ground with the caravan and has been traveling with the group since they crossed into Mexico. That would be Buzzfeed’s Adolfo Flores. And as of last night, he wasn’t reporting that type of spin at all.

Gina Garibo, an organizer with Pueblos Sin Fronteras, said the caravan was not over. They will continue to travel towards the US with asylum seekers.

“We will continue,” Garibo said. “We have to follow through with our promise.”

— Adolfo Flores (@aflores) April 3, 2018

Flores goes on to state that the ones who haven’t joined the hundreds who already jumped on trains to head for the U.S. border or are assembling with Gina Garibo to head north on foot will indeed have to answer to Mexican authorities. Assuming they make good on their word, they may offer refuge to a handful of them and ship the rest back to the south. So instead of more than a thousand illegal aliens heading for our border, the number may be trimmed down to a few hundred. But that’s still a lot to deal with. Border Patrol needs to be ready because this ride isn’t over yet. And the story is not even close to what’s being described by the U.S. media outlets I quoted above.

So how is the public supposed to sort out the spin from the truth here? It’s a good trick, but you might want to ask which story makes more sense. A different explanation might be as follows: The caravan organizers originally thought the march wouldn’t gain any international media attention and assumed they could go all the way to the U.S. border without attracting too much attention. Once there, as they told Adolfo Flores, some would probably ask for asylum and the rest, along with any who were denied, would begin crossing the border illegally.

But once the media picked up on the tale and President Trump jumped on it, Mexico was too embarrassed to ignore the caravan and is now taking action. Hundreds of the more determined have concluded that the heat is getting a bit intense so they bailed on the larger march, jumped on freight trains and are on their way to the border to try to sneak across.

Which version sounds more likely? You be the judge.