Conservative media has been practically gleeful over Sunday's incident at the U.S.-Mexico border, both because it gives them fodder to claim that immigrants are lawless fence-jumpers and because launching tear gas at families is something that merits praise. But Fox News accidentally aired an unscheduled moment of clarity on Monday, when Jesse Watters tried to set up Geraldo Rivera for another round of bashing other media outlets' coverage of the migrant caravan on The Five.

Rivera, however, did not take the bait. Talking through Watters' attempts to interrupt him, Rivera made a passionate plea, presumably to Fox News itself, to cover these immigrants as though they were actually human beings. The show continued to run footage of the chaos that unfolded at the border as families ran from the Border Patrol's tear gas as Rivera delivered a monologue that's worth quoting in full.

I refuse to deal with this as a media issue, because it's far too important, with all due respect, Jesse. This is something that goes to the very quick. This goes to my soul. Fulfilling my role as the designated pinata on Fox News, I am ashamed. This tear gas choked me. We treat these people, these economic refugees as if they're zombies from The Walking Dead. I think—we arrested 42 people, eight of them were women. With children. We have to deal with this problem humanely and with compassion. These are not "invaders!" Stop using these military analogies. This is absolutely painful to watch. This is—we are a nation of immigrants. These are desperate people, they walked 2000 miles—why? Because they want to rape your daughter or steal your lunch? No! Because they want a job. They want to fill the millions of unfilled jobs we have in the agricultural sector. They want to wash dishes in restaurants, they want to deliver the pizzas. For goodness´ sake, we suspend our humanity when it comes to this issue and I fear that it is because they look different than we do.

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This extremely off-brand appeal to common decency on Fox News came just as the network faces accusations of doing extremely on-brand collaborations with the Trump administration. According to The Daily Beast, a FOIA request by the Sierra Club revealed emails between Fox & Friends producers and the communications team for Scott Pruitt during his disastrous run as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Fox & Friends provided the EPA with questions and topics for Pruitt beforehand, and on at least one occasion even submitted the script introducing Pruitt's segment for the agency's approval. Per The Daily Beast:

“Would this be okay as the setup to his segment?” producer Diana Aloi asked. She wrote: “There’s a new direction at the Environmental Protection Agency under President Trump—and it includes a back-to-basics approach. This after the Obama administration left behind a huge mess more than 1,300 super-fund sites which are heavily contaminated—still require clean-ups. So why was President Obama touted as an environmental savior if all these problems still exist?”

The EPA comms shop was pleased. “Yes—perfect,” [then-EPA press secretary Amy] Graham replied.

This shouldn't come as a surprise to any objective viewer: Fox News behaves more like a propaganda arm for the Republican Party than an actual news outlet, even while it accuses other networks of journalistic malpractice. This would be an embarrassing day for the network if anyone in charge there were capable of feeling shame.

Update: This statement was sent along by a Fox News spokesperson regarding Scott Pruitt: “This is not standard practice whatsoever and the matter is being addressed internally with those involved.”