SONG(S) SUNG BLUE: When Martinez described her seven wounds...

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2026

...she was widely disappeared: Marimar Martinez, 30 years old, was born right there in Chicago.

Today, she's a preschool teacher at a Montessori school. She speaks lightly accented English—but then again, who doesn't?

(Who isn't speaking "accented English?" Kate Winslet? Jennifer Lawrence?)

This past Tuesday, Martinez was a featured witness on Capitol Hill at a form staged by Democratic Party officeholders. As you can see by clicking here, C-Span summarizes its 22-minute videotape of her testimony in the (slightly comical) manner shown:

February 3, 2026
U.S. Citizen Recounts Being Shot Five Times by Border Patrol Agents in Chicago

Marimar Martinez, 30, a U.S. citizen and resident of Chicago, says she was shot by Customs and Border Patrol agents five times during an attempted traffic stop. During a public forum organized by congressional Democrats, she says, "I felt the bullets continue to pierce my body". She says she is thankful she survived her "attempted murder" by a Border Patrol agent so she can tell her story.

C-Span is playing it safe! Martinez says she was shot five times? That's what the invaluable news org says.

In all honesty, no one disputes the fact that Martinez was shot five times. As we noted yesterday, the federal agent who shot her five times soon seemed to be bragging about that fact in a brace of gruesome text messages.

To its credit, NBC News reported that fact in January. Here's the relevant part of the report in question:

Judge dismisses charges against Chicago woman shot by Border Patrol

[...]

The motion to dismiss comes after it was revealed last week at a court hearing that the Customs and Border Protection agent who shot Martinez multiple times had bragged about it in messages to other officers.

According to Reuters, records presented at the hearing showed that in a group Signal chat with other agents, Exum wrote: “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.”

In a message to another recipient, Exum sent a news article about the event followed by the message: “Read it. 5 shots, 7 holes,” Reuters reported.

Christopher Parente, an attorney for Martinez, asked the agent what he meant by those messages. According to records presented earlier this month at a hearing against her, Exum responded: “I’m a firearms instructor and I take pride in my shooting skills.”

As we noted yesterday, Michelle Goldberg referred to Exum's "giddy sadism" in this instructive column for the New York Times. We can't say that her diagnosis is wrong, but we also can't say that it's right. We'll assume she was speaking colloquially.

(According to the leading authority on the topic, the term "sadistic personality disorder" no longer exists in the DSM as a clinical diagnosis. At any rate, our journalists have agreed that such matters must never be discussed within the nation's political discourse.)

Martinez, who was shot five times, was a featured witness at Tuesday's congressional forum. Unless you subscribe to the New York Times, in which case you were limited to this account of what was said at that timely event:

Renee Good’s Brothers Call on Congress to Rein In Immigration Crackdown

Nearly one month after a federal immigration agent shot and killed Renee Good, 37, in Minneapolis, two of her siblings, Brent and Luke Ganger, appeared on Capitol Hill on Tuesday and urged lawmakers to move to rein in the deportation crackdown.

“In the last few weeks, our family took some consolation thinking that perhaps Nee’s death would bring about change in our country,” Luke Ganger told members of Congress, using a nickname for his sister. “And it has not.”

Reading from the eulogy he said he had given for his sister days earlier, Brent Ganger called Ms. Good “unapologetically hopeful.” Choking back tears as he described Ms. Good as a devoted mother, he likened his sister to a dandelion.

“They keep coming back stronger, brighter, spreading seeds of hope everywhere they land,” he said.

Ms. Good’s brothers spoke at a public forum held by congressional Democrats, which was focused on the use of force by federal agents conducting the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

That's the way the news report began. It continued from there at some length. 

The testimony by Renee Good's brothers was a major part of the forum. As for Martinez, her ordeal was also mentioned—but not until the news report's final paragraph:

Mr. Pretti’s relatives did not speak at the forum, but Democrats invoked his death as they argued that federal immigration agents needed to operate with stricter limits.

“Congress has a responsibility to step in when constitutional rights are being violated,” said Mr. Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.

The Democrats also heard testimony from Antonio Romanucci, a lawyer representing Ms. Good’s family, and a number of American citizens who described violent encounters with immigration officials.

So there! Martinez was one of that "number of American citizens who described violent encounters with immigration officials." That said, you're looking at the way the very end of the Times report. 

Martinez's name was never mentioned in the Times report. Indeed, the highly accommodationist Times came that close to totally leaving her out.

We've repeatedly mentioned the way the New York Times tends to disappear the most disturbing phenomena involving the sitting president. To our reckoning, this lengthy but highly circumscribed news report tends to fit that pattern. 

At present, the New York Times is powering ahead on the national scene. By way of contrast, the once great Washington Post seems to perhaps be dying. 

That said:

As usual, the struggling Post did a better job reporting Tuesday's forum. The Washington Post managed to acknowledge Martinez—and two more "others"—right there in its headline. But it also did so, right from the jump, in the body of its report:

Renée Good’s brothers, others describe assaults, shootings at hearing

American citizens told congressional leaders Tuesday that they had been shot, manhandled and dragged from their cars by aggressive federal immigration enforcement agents in recent months, experiences that left them fearing for their lives.

The witnesses wept and spoke with emotion as they described violent encounters with federal agents at a forum on Capitol Hill sponsored by two Democrats. Some said they were protesting when they encountered immigration agents. Others told lawmakers they were innocent bystanders.

“I struggle every day with the pain and the suffering,” said Marimar Martinez, 30, who was shot five times by a federal agent after following U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and blowing her car horn to warn neighbors of a potential raid in Chicago last fall. She was charged with assaulting the officer who shot her — but the charge was later dropped.

There was one moment, she recounted, that she looked down at blood streaming from poorly bandaged gunshot wounds and feared she might die.

[...]

On Tuesday, lawmakers also heard from Aliya Rahman, a traumatic brain injury survivor who said she was dragged from her car by agents in January, and Martin Daniel Rascon, who was shot at by agents in California in August.

Rahman, a Bangladeshi American software engineer, described becoming ensnared in a traffic jam of ICE vehicles while driving to a doctor’s appointment in Minneapolis on Jan. 13. Agents asked her to move her vehicle then shattered her car window and dragged her from the vehicle before taking her into custody, she said.

“I yelled, ‘I’m disabled,’” she said. “And the agent said, ‘Too late.’”

She said once she was taken to the Whipple Federal Building—where hundreds of immigrants have been detained—agents ignored her protestations that she had a brain injury. She repeatedly asked for medical care before finally blacking out. She was ultimately taken to a local hospital to be treated, she said.

Several weeks ago, in real time, we asked what ended up happening to Rahman. On Tuesday, her account of her treatment was horrifying—and yes, she had been on her way to a medical appointment when she was dragged from her car and subjected to a horrific manhandling.

(She still can't lift her arms normally, she said at Tuesday's forum.)

The Post's report barely scratched the surface of what Rahman said. But to the credit of the Post's news division, the testimony of Aliya Rahman, 43 years old, wasn't wholly disappeared.

The fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti have brought this general topic center stage in the American public discourse. You'd almost think the horrific stories told by Martinez, Rahman and Rascon would have been a matter of high public interest.

Presumably, that's what congressional Democrats thought when they organized this forum. But in its oatmeal-adjacent news report about the Tuesday event, the New York Times ran off and hid.

Tuesday evening, Lawrence O'Donnell didn't.

Elsewhere in Blue America, "cable news" hosts largely went through the motions. Below, we show you the pittance Anderson Cooper dropped into the cup of public awareness on his CNN program that night:

COOPER (2/3/25): Powerful testimony on Capitol Hill today by the brothers of Renee Good, the 37-year-old mom who was shot to death by an ice officer in Minneapolis nearly one month ago. Here's some of what Luke and Brent Gang Ganger told lawmakers.

LUKE GANGER (videotape): The prayers and words of support have truly brought us comfort, and it is meaningful that these sentiments have come from people of all colors, faiths and ideals. That is a perfect reflection of Renee.

BRENT GANGER (videotape): When I think of Renee, I think of dandelions and sunlight. Dandelions don't ask permission to grow. They push through cracks in the sidewalk, through hard soil, through places where you don't expect beauty. And suddenly there they are bright, alive.

COOPER: Also testifying today was Aliya Rahman, who was violently pulled out of her car by ICE agents in Minneapolis last month. It's hard to forget those images just a couple of blocks from where Renee Good was killed. She tried to tell officers she was disabled.

She has autism and a traumatic brain injury and was on her way to a medical appointment when they cut the seatbelt strap to grab her. She was detained, but says she was never told she was under arrest, never read her rights, never charged with a crime.

RAHMAN (videotape): I received no medical screening, phone call or access to a lawyer. I was denied a communication navigator when my speech began to slur. Agents laughed as I tried to immobilize my own neck.

I asked for my cane and was told no. Pulled up by my arms and prodded forward in leg irons by agents laughing and saying, "Walk! You can do it, walk!"

COOPER: She also testified that she ended up in an emergency room after that experience.

In fairness, brief videotape of Rahman's testimony was offered. Martinez wasn't mentioned. Neither was Charles Exum. 

For the record, this brief report came very late in Cooper's hourlong program. Like almost everyone else, he threw Martinez under a bus so he could focus on a "true crime" drama involving the mother of a high=end press corps colleague.

By our reckoning, Cooper took a bit of a dive on Tuesday night, as is his channel's wont. Lawrence O'Donnell didn't. 

In our view, O'Donnell won a Pulitzer Prize with his angry presentation of what was said at that forum. If only his corporate owners were able to see how strong his performance was!

O'Donnell's performance wasn't perfect. No presentation of a news event ever is—and O'Donnell's undisguised loathing of President Trump sometimes undermines his journalistic performance.

But on this Tuesday night, O'Donnell reacted much as a sensible, sane person should. If only his owners were able to see how strong his performance was!

Those owners have made no attempt to call attention to O'Donnell's performance. In a similarly embarrassing way, no one at Mediaite reported on O'Donnell's presentation.

Over at the Last Word site, you can see the first ten minutes—and nothing more—of O'Donnell's lengthy opening segment. He opened his program with two major chunks of the testimony of Martinez. Included was her denunciation of the colloquially sadistic text messages Exum sent.

If you want to see that first ten minutes, you can click to go to the Last Word site. Once there, you must click again on the "Latest Video" entry bearing this capsule description:

Lawrence: No Republicans show up as victims of Trump-encouraged ICE shootings testify

No Republicans showed up? Neither did the New York Times, or Anderson Cooper, or even O'Donnell's corporate owners. At such times, we routinely self-impressed humans may learn who we actually are, in all our variety and given our imperfections.

Even here in Blue America, we aren't the people we often seem to think we are. That's especially true of the corporate ownership types who parcel out what we can see and what we can hear when we visit our most trusted news orgs.

In our view, O'Donnell won a Pulitzer Prize that night. Elsewhere, the public discourse was the biggest loser.

Martinez and Rahman told stories that day which were horrifying but also highly instructive. Given the public concern created by the fatal shooting of Good and Pretti, you'd think the stories told at that forum would have major news value.

No transcripts of what was said that day were created. We ourselves have barely scratched the surface of what Martinez and the two others said.

To appearances, congressional Democrats had tried to fashion a song sung Blue when they presented that forum. For reasons they won't be asked about, major news orgs disappeared the harrowing, highly topical stories the public needs to hear.

For extra credit only: One final point:

Over on the Fox News Channel, has that forum ever been mentioned at all? We'll try to research that point.

As we noted on Wednesday afternoon, Fox viewers were told the latest about Joy Behar. this week They were so informed by someone who strikes us as sadly and weirdly disordered. But were they ever exposed to a single word of what Martinez said?