President Trump has claimed the media intentionally failed to fully report on attacks, including the bombs planted in Elizabeth, Seaside and Chelsea in September.
ELIZABETH -- When a bomb exploded in Elizabeth on a Sunday night in September and throughout the days after, NJ Advance Media provided extensive real-time updates detailing the investigation, how suspect Ahmad Khan Rahimi was found, and the dramatic shootout with police that led to his capture and left two police officers wounded.
Within the first 24 hours after the explosion, our newsroom had published 18 stories on the case.
Yet, the attack (and other bombs that preceded it in Seaside Park and the Chelsea section of New York City), was still included this week on a list of 78 terrorist attacks that President Donald Trump's White House said have been "under-reported" by the media in recent years. Trump claimed the media intentionally failed to fully report on these attacks.
In all, our coverage of the Seaside Park, Chelsea, and Elizabeth incidents have included more than 50 individual stories, many of which made the front page of the Star-Ledger throughout the week. The story was also covered by dozens of other local and national media organizations.
NJ Advance Media continues to cover the case and Rahimi's court appearances.
Here, a recap of some of the biggest stories from our coverage:
- We reported on the first bomb that exploded in Seaside Park trash can on Sept. 17, along the route of a military 5K race.
- An NJ Advance Media reporter went to Elizabeth on a report of a live bomb at 11 p.m. on Sept. 17 and then live tweeted from the scene as it exploded at 12:40 a.m.
- When Khan was arrested in Linden, NJ Advance Media reporters and photographers were there with live updates and video of his apprehension.
- The day after the arrest, NJ Advance Media broke the news that Khan's father claims he called the FBI on his son years ago and that his son was fascinated with jihadism.
- We wrote about how the Rahimi family filed a lawsuit alleging that Elizabeth police officers repeatedly forced the closure of their family restaurant, First American Fried Chicken.
- We spoke to the men who discovered the backpack of bombs in Elizabeth and did a video interview with one of them.
- We wrote about the Linden officers who were wounded in the shootout with Rahimi, about how proud the new Linden police chief was of his officers, about the condition of the officer who was shot while he recovered, about that same officer getting a warm welcome back, and about both officers visiting a Linden elementary school where they were thanked by the students.
- We interviewed the bar owner who found Rahimi sleeping in his vestibule and called police.
- We reported on the FBI raid of the Rahimi home and broke the news that the FBI had returned for another search days later.
- Through an Open Public Records request, we obtained police radio transmissions that give a look behind the scenes of the Elizabeth bomb discovery.
- We wrote about how Rahimi's mother was once charged with child abuse.
- We published a story about Rahimi's arrest for allegedly assaulting members of his family in 2014.
- We also wrote about how Rahimi was barred from seeing his daughter and about his relationship with the girl's mother.
- We checked in with the FBI regularly as Rahimi remained hospitalized, reporting on his condition and when he regained consciousness.
- We reported the night Rahimi was charged with using weapons of mass destruction, bombing, destruction of property, and use of a destructive device in federal court.
- We covered Rahimi's first court appearances in Union County and in federal court in New York -- and have followed hearings in the case again and again and again and again.
And there are dozens of other stories, photo galleries and videos that ran on NJ.com and in the Star-Ledger.
The White House released the list Monday night to corroborate comments Trump made during an appearance earlier in the day in Tampa, Fla., in which he defended his controversial executive order to protect the U.S. against possible terrorism by temporarily bar travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Trump, a Republican, noted that "the very, very dishonest" press often didn't report about terrorist attacks.
"They have their reasons, and you understand that," he said.
Later in the day, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump believes attacks have been "under-reported," not "unreported."
Numerous media outlets responded by laying out the ways they covered the events. CNN, for example, examined how it covered 61 of the 78 attacks on the list.
Jessica Remo may be reached at jremo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessicaRemoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.