On Monday, the “Big Three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC took to their flagship evening newscasts to provide further air cover for the pro-illegal immigrant rioters in Los Angeles, bemoaning the raids on “unauthorized immigrants” last week as having created another chapter in the “contentious and polarizing debate over immigration policy.”
The unrest was framed as Trump’s immigration policy – which arguably helped elect him more than any other issue – to blame for the “boiling point…after days of simmering tension” and “creat[ed] the conditions for this chaos” and “protesters waving Mexican flags, a symbol of resistance against [Immigration Customs and Enforcement].”
The ever-pompous CBS Evening News had extensive coverage and co-anchor Maurice DuBois onsite. He greased the skids with soundbites from the Los Angeles County sheriff and a middle-aged white liberal demanding an end to ICE:
DuBois further smeared the argument in favor of, well, a country having immigration laws by making that view seem menacing:
Tossing back to his arrogant co-anchor John Dickerson, DuBois implied some in law enforcement hated being there and agree with the rioters:
Dickerson went next to senior White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe, who had the gall to cite the far-left Brennan Center as “nonpartisan” when, because it’s a Republican taking an expansive view of executive power, an outrage:
Dickerson had even more partisan haranguing on CBS Evening News Plus (which even concluded with a commentary about meanness and McCarthyism).
He opened with partisan immigration CBS reporter Camila Montoya-Galvez decrying the “contentious and polarizing debate” about deporting those who’ve broken the law and thus gave life to “some…peaceful” protests while “others…turned violent”:
Montoya-Galvez even tried to somehow insist there was serious immigration enforcement under the Biden regime:
Dickerson interviewed Trump administration Border Czar Tom Homan for both shows. Plus was more extensive and the former’s questions can be found below (click “expand”):
Was it really necessary to call out the National Guard?
(….)
When people see ICE agents at a garment factory, for example, it’s a little confusing because not everybody who’s getting arrested is a hardened criminal. Help people understand the disconnect there.
(….)
But if somebody is going for a court appointed check in or a ICE meeting and then they’re arrested, that seems to be different than the original way it was sold, which is that you were going to go after the hardened criminals. Those people seem to be basically abiding by the law.
(….)
What is your message to a business owner who might have undocumented migrant labor who’s not doing it — they’re not criminals. They’re just undocumented migrants. What would your message be to those — to those companies?
(….)
The President said it would be fine if you arrested Gavin Newsom. On what grounds would you arrest Gavin Newsom?
(….)
So, this whole thing is just a bunch of noise, basically, because you’re not claiming that Gavin Newsom has done anything to — to get to impede ICE officers?
(….)
But you don’t have any more evidence that [Newsom] crossed the line than that I did.
NBC Nightly News was also all aboard the criminal illegal immigrant train. Anchor Tom Llamas’s tease framed it as Trump’s fault:
Tonight, breaking news, the Trump administration ordering hundreds of Marines to Los Angeles. The rare move to send the military into an American city as new rallies take to the streets. It comes after a weekend of protests opposing immigration raids that turned violent in some places. Waymo cars set ablaze, National Guard deploying crowd control techniques, using less lethal bullets. Now, California suing over president trump federalizing the National Guard, as the President floats having Governor Gavin Newsom arrested. Our team takes you on the ground as the community pushes back over raids.
Llamas’s opening riff after the teases was a doubling down (though less heated than, say, Lester Holt or Brian Williams would have delivered):
Correspondent Liz Kreutz was back on the streets of Los Angeles, but at least mentioned some of those arrested in raids had serious criminal records:
Notice that she couldn’t bring herself to use the word “riot” or “rioters.” Instead, she said “the city of angels [is] on edge after violent clashes over the weekend, police in riot gear against protesters who oppose immigration enforcement operations carried out by ICE agents.
And, though it was to celebrate it, she at least brought up the foreign flags dominating the crowd:
Illegal immigration advocate Jacob Soboroff – who masquerades as a journalist for NBC and MSNBC – had a report of his own:
ABC’s World News Tonight featured sensationalist anchor David Muir bemoaning the “clashes between police and anti-ICE protestors” in a tease and then framing the chaos as caused by “sweeping immigration raids” and not the lawlessness:
Chief national correspondent Matt Gutman opened his report from the thuggery by also avoiding the r-word, citing the Marines set to join the National Guard in working “to tamp down violent clashes with protesters angry over the Trump administration’s immigration policies and arrests.”
He then blamed Trump directly for the riots, framing as fact that Trump “creat[ed] the conditions for this chaos”:
“Spontaneous clashes began Friday after operations were conducted in and around Los Angeles. By Saturday, protests, mostly peaceful, grew larger when agents were seen staging in Paramount, California, and by Sunday, a convoy of heavily armed and camouflaged troops arrived,” he added.
He made sure to have the pro-illegal immigration voice represented with one woman telling him: “A lot of us are American citizens. So, then what are we working for? What is the American Dream? It doesn’t even exist when you’re picking people out of the street.”
