Petition: Media Must Call Out Kristi Noem’s Lies

During her congressional testimony on immigration enforcement and homeland security, Kristi Noem made sweeping claims that conflict with documented facts, oversight findings, and publicly available data. When senior officials testify before Congress, their statements are not campaign rhetoric—they are part of the public record and shape national policy debates. False or misleading claims in that setting demand immediate and sustained scrutiny.

Too often, mainstream coverage summarizes testimony as partisan back-and-forth rather than clearly identifying inaccuracies. When misleading statements are described as “disputes” or “differences of opinion,” the public is left with the impression that facts are negotiable. That framing shields officials from accountability and allows misinformation to harden into narrative.

We call on major news organizations to cover Kristi Noem’s testimony with clarity and force—fact-checking claims in real time, correcting the record prominently, and refusing to sanitize falsehoods as political messaging. Democracy depends on a press willing to say plainly when powerful officials are not telling the truth.