Between Thursday night on ABC and Friday morning on CBS and NBC, the major broadcast networks used their flagship newscasts to side with the illegal immigrants — some of them underage — being rounded up Thursday afternoon by Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) officials outside Los Angeles, decrying the “alarming” and “disturbing” scenes. But what kind of farms, you ask? Well, marijuana farms, so not exactly farms helping to feed America.
Friday’s CBS Mornings was crestfallen. Featured co-host Vladimir Duthiers led the show with it and teased it twice in the opening, vaguely referring to “new immigration raids on American farms” that caused “tensions” to “boil over.”
“Let’s begin with the chaotic scenes in California and a new showdown over the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration. ICE agents raided two farms yesterday near Los Angeles and at one workers were lined up against a wall. Neighbors and others came out to protest. ICE agents used smoke canisters and what appeared to be teargas on the crowd,” he later explained in tossing to LA-based correspondent Carter Evans.
Evans went right to the emotions of viewers, saying “relatives have been out here all night” in their cars “hoping their loved ones may still be hiding inside and we’ve actually heard that a couple came out overnight.”
He continued building up the peril and plenty of sympathetic soundbites (click “expand”):
EVANS: Angry protesters clashed with mass federal agents during an immigration raid at a cannabis farm north of Los Angeles in Ventura County. Witnesses say agents tossed smoke bombs at protesters.
MELISSA TAPIA: They threw it under the car, and then all the car inside, it’s got full of smoke.
EVANS: As the situation escalated, agents deployed what appeared to be teargas, sending much of the crowd running.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE PROTESTER #2: There’s got to be a better way than the way that they’re acting right now.
EVANS: Some appeared to throw rocks at government vehicles. At one point, a man appeared to be firing a gun, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. Melissa Tapia was waiting to hear from her family who worked at the farm.
TAPIA: They took my brother, took his phone away. They’re banging on there, not letting people out.
EVANS: In neighboring Santa Barbara County, another raid targeted a second cannabis farm owned by the same company.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE PROTESTER: What about the children that are going to be taken from their families?
After playing soundbites of President Trump insisting there’d be a carveout for farm works vs. strong support for deportations from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, they tried — as ABC and NBC would also do (using Rollins and border czar Tom Homan) — drive a wedge between administration officials.
But it’s hard to suggest a divide when the raids netted not only illegal immigrants growing drugs, but said illegals being underage.
Evans wrapped with the only mention among the networks of said underage workers:
[I]t’s unclear how many were arrested, but it looked like agents were leading away dozens of people. They had a couple of buses here. Now on social media, Customs and Border Patrol said that ten juveniles were found in the facility. All of them were undocumented. And, as for the man seen with the gun, well, the FBI is now offering a $50,000 reward for help finding him.
Saturday co-host Dana Jacobson wasn’t thrilled with ICE’s operation: “Really disturbing images there.”
In the second hour’s “Eye Opener,” Duthiers declared: “Chaotic scenes as protesters faced down ICE agents north of Los Angeles after immigration raids on two local farms.”
Over on NBC’s Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie teased a segment about “the alarming scene” in California with “a violent clash erupting between protesters and federal agents during an immigration raid in California, and the FBI now searching for a man seen in this video appearing to open fire on officers.”
Co-host Craig Melvin had the wherewithal to frame the story as in part an attack on law enforcement: “Meanwhile, to that developing story tied to the crackdown on immigration this morning. The FBI now offering a reward in the search for someone who appeared to fire a pistol at federal agents during a raid on a farm in southern California.”
Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles deemed the raids “a dramatic standoff” and fretted “[r]aids...have become a flash point in the debate over President Trump’s larger immigration policy with some opponents pushing back.”
Only then did the word “cannabis” come up (click “expand”):
This morning, the fallout after dramatic clashes between federal agents and protesters. Agents from ICE and Border Patrol raiding two locations of a cannabis farm in California yesterday and Ventura County the scene growing tense. NBC Los Angeles reporting that officials were seen using flashbangs, smoke, and chemical irritants to keep the crowd back as the confrontation unfolded. Video showing an unidentified man appearing to fire a weapon. The FBI now offering a reward for information about him. Protesters also facing off against federal agents raiding another location of the company Glass House Farm. One Democratic congressman said he was denied entry to the site. The Department of Homeland Security saying the agents were executing criminal search warrants. Glass House Farm saying it “fully complied with agent search warrants.” It’s part of the larger immigration crackdown that President Trump promised through the campaign. California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, saying the White House’s tactics, “evoke chaos, fear and terror with our communities.”
Nobles provided his wedge-driving attempt before concluding with new comments from Homan “responding to the protest and shooting in California by warning protesters that when those protests turn violent, that becomes a felony” and “blamed members of Congress for their criticism of ICE agents claiming that that’s contributing to the heated rhetoric around the issue” that “could eventually lead to someone getting killed.”
The idiocy began Thursday on ABC’s World News Tonight. Anchor David Muir led off the show with it, teasing “federal agents in masks raiding farms” with “smoke canisters used against the protesters.”
Muir’s lead-in to chief investigative correspondent Aaron Katersky’s report was meaningless, making it seem like an innocuous place instead of a drug site:
We do begin tonight with breaking news, a major immigration raid unfolding, masked federal agents raiding two California farms north of Los Angeles at this hour. Clashing with protesters who quickly gathered. Men lined up against a wall under heavy guard. The dramatic images coming in at this hour. Scores of agents on the road between two fields tossing smoke canisters toward the crowd. The chaotic scene on the ground. Flash bangs heard from our reporter right there on the scene.
Katersky called the raids “a dramatic scene” with “[p]rotesters clashing with masked federal agents conducting immigration raids at a cannabis farm in Ventura County” as well as Santa Barbara County.
“Dozens of men lined against the wall. Heavily armed agents standing guard. At least one person is seen kneeling on the ground seemingly under arrest,” he added.
After playing the soundbite games, Katersky concluded by at least admitting the anti-ICE sentiment is violent (albeit without a far-left label): “This kind of immigration enforcement is not only drawing crowds like we’re seeing tonight, David. Online there are calls for violence with the goal of trying to stop these raids.”
To see the relevant transcripts from July 10 and 11, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).
