A simmering debate over media bias boiled over on Tuesday morning after Vice President JD Vance and Fox & Friends hosts took aim at The New York Times, accusing the paper of minimizing the devastation wrought by identity theft in favor of a sympathetic narrative for the perpetrator.
The controversy centers on the ordeal of Dan Kluver, a factory worker from Olivia, Minnesota, whose life was quietly dismantled over 15 years. According to reports highlighted by Fox News’ Todd Piro, Kluver—a man who has never smoked a cigarette or missed a payment—found himself drowning in debt, tax audits, and even a wrongful death lawsuit, all because an undocumented migrant had assumed his identity.
“It’s like I’ve lost all control over who I am,” Kluver told the New York Times.
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For years, Kluver battled a bureaucratic nightmare. He received collection notices for wages earned in states he rarely visited—Kansas, Tennessee, Ohio, Nebraska, and Missouri. At one point, desperation led his wife to simply pay $6,000 in erroneous fines, hoping to make the problem disappear. Instead, the bills ballooned to $22,000 the following year.
The situation turned tragic when the man using Kluver’s stolen identity—a Guatemalan national deported three times previously—was involved in a crash that killed a 68-year-old grandfather. While the driver was cleared of criminal wrongdoing in the accident, the victim’s family sued Kluver for wrongful death because his name was on the driver’s license presented at the scene.
Critics are now torching the Times for how they presented this dichotomy. The article, titled “Two Men, One Identity, They Both Paid the Price,” has been slammed for drawing a moral equivalence between the two men.
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The piece detailed the migrant’s struggle after being barred from working under Kluver’s name, describing him spending afternoons in a darkened living room “doing puzzles with his four-year-old” while his family worked to support him.
That specific framing drew a sharp rebuke from Vice President Vance.
“Shameful framing from the New York Times,” Vance wrote, echoing the frustration of many who feel the victim’s suffering was sidelined.
The segment highlighted the sheer scale of the theft, noting the migrant allegedly purchased multiple IDs to work across various industries, from a cement plant to a dog food factory, while Kluver was left to pick up the pieces of his shattered credit and reputation.
“This is a case in point,” Brian Kilmeade argued, pushing back against the notion that identity theft is a victimless administrative crime. “The New York Times needs to fully understand the story.”
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