KUSI News, a television news outlet based in San Diego, California, said Thursday that CNN invited — and subsequently rescinded the invitation — for it to provide a reporter to give “a local view of the debate surrounding the border wall and government shutdown.”

The San Diego-based outfit speculated on CNN’s rationale for the decision:

We believe CNN declined a report from KUSI because we informed them that most Border Patrol Agents we have spoken to told us the barrier does in fact work. We have continuously been told by Border Patrol Agents that the barrier along the Southern border helps prevent illegal entries, drugs, and weapons from entering the United States, and the numbers prove it.

KUSI News shared a segment of its programming related to CNN’s editorial move, writing on Twitter:

Thursday morning, @CNN called the KUSI Newsroom asking if a reporter could give them a local view of the debate surrounding the border wall and government shutdown. After we informed them about our past reports, they declined to hear from us. More info: https://t.co/RX4mB6EdNE pic.twitter.com/r0SAvWxFIm — KUSI News (@KUSINews) January 11, 2019

The transcript is below:

ANNA LAUREL: As a sign of the times in this debate on the shutdown, CNN asked if KUSI would provide a reporter to offer our local view of the debate, especially to learn if the wall works in San Diego. SANDRA MAAS: KUSI offered our own Dan Plante who has reported many times that the wall is not an issue here. In fact, most officials believe that it is effective. The issue we face is the migrants and the debate over their treatment. ANNA LAUREL: Knowing this, CNN declined to have us on their programs, which often present the wall as not required and other places like the stretch of the Texas border the president visited earlier today. They didn’t like what they heard from us.

Thursday also saw CNN’s Jim Acosta claim via Twitter, while placing his hands on a border wall composed of steel bars, not to “see anything resembling a national emergency situation [at] the McAllen TX area of the border where Trump will be today.”

Breitbart News’s Border and Cartel Chronicles projects’ director and editor, Brandon Darby, noted via Twitter that Acosta’s haphazard and impromptu selfie report lacked context regarding security threats in the area:

Look at the violence that happened within miles of this location within same 24 hrs—border violence @acosta didn’t even mention to his viewers. Reuters Link: https://t.co/LLg07fz5T2 https://t.co/WlGknKLTQV — Brandon Darby (@brandondarby) January 11, 2019

Darby also assessed why news media outlets such as CNN opt against inviting him to offer analysis of border security issues:

No. They can’t. My humanitarian argument for border security would ruin their false portrayal of what Breitbart is, it would ruin their false narrative that they care about migrants and Mexican communities, it would ruin their false narrative that “the border” is safe and ok. https://t.co/sq1dEkI1gb — Brandon Darby (@brandondarby) January 11, 2019

On Thursday, Reuters reported the discovery of the charred remains of 21 people “killed in a suspected gang battle” in a Mexican border town adjacent to where President Donald Trump met with border security officials.

Breitbart News’s Ildefonso Ortiz explained in July 2015 how local politicians in border communities use misleading crime statistics to downplay the prevalence of crimes often related to Mexican criminal cartels.

CNN previously marketed itself as “The Most Trusted Name in News.” Its current slogan is “Facts First.”

Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter.