For the New York Times, the real story isn’t that police have charged an alleged illegal immigrant with the disappearance and death of 20-year-old Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts. The story is that President Trump is citing her murder in pursuit of his immigration agenda.

For a significant number of national newsrooms, the real scandal is almost never the violent tragedy that could reflect poorly on Democratic lawmakers and policies. The real scandal is how the GOP and conservatives “seize on” (i.e. exploit) these stories for their own benefit.