Here we go again.  By now it is obvious. The media’s candidate for 2028 is the Democrats’ California Governor Gavin Newsom. With a full two years before the next presidential election officially begins, the media has their man. Newsom a Democrat, but of course. The Republicans will also have to pick a new candidate, as President Trump is ineligible to run for a third term. While Vice President J.D. Vance is doubtless the GOP frontrunner, nothing is set in stone. Except for one thing. No matter who the GOP selects, the media will be cheering for Newsom and Democrats. The mistake in understanding this is to believe there is anything new about this.   Not only is media bias for the Democrat nominee predictable, the media’s devotion to any Democrat nominee is by now a longstanding precedent. How longstanding? Start all the way back there in the stone age of 1960. For an appreciation of this readers can thank the long ago Pulitzer Prize winning political journalist Theodore H. White. It was White who first had the idea of covering the behind-the-scenes goings on of a presidential campaign and writing it up in book form. White did just that, winning his Pulitzer for his groundbreaking bestseller The Making of the President 1960.  The book is a gold mine of behind the scenes episodes in that now-legendary campaign between then-Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican nominee, and the Democrat nominee, Massachusetts U.S. Senator, the young (42) and movie-star handsome John F. Kennedy.  As White makes crystal clear, the media of the day had a serious bias in favor of Democrat JFK. White wrote this of the media covering JFK: By the last weeks of the campaign, those 40 or 50 correspondents who had followed Kennedy since the beginning of his electoral exertions into the November days had become more than a press corps—they had become his friends and, some of them, his most devoted admirers. When the bus or the plane rolled out or flew through the night, they sang songs of their own composition about Mr. Nixon  and the Republicans in chorus with the Kennedy staff and felt that they, too, were marching like soldiers of the Lord to the New Frontier. And four years later, in the race between Democrat President Lyndon Johnson and the GOP’s “Mr. Conservative” - Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater? The media of the day was preaching essentially that Goldwater was not merely a conservative nut but was extremely dangerous in the nuclear age and would quite possibly start a nuclear war. Safe to say, a full two years before the 2028 election, the media is flooded with stories praising or admiring the Democrat California governor.  Samples:  Fox News hosts get in fiery clash as panelist says Gavin Newsom is 'doing something very smart’  This from the Tribune News Service: Governor Gavin Newsom is smart to roll the dice  From The List: Side By Side Pics Of Gavin Newsom Prove He's Aging Like Fine Wine (Sorry, Kimberly Guilfoyle)  The Economic Times: Gavin Newsom, rather than Donald Trump, is grabbing headlines in Davos - here's what he said  Reuters: Newsom says he was blocked from speaking at Davos  In short, two years before the election the media has already chosen a side. No matter the GOP nominee, the media is Going for Gavin. There is not the slightest surprise here. This is the same old, quite tired move from the media in a presidential election. 1960 is long gone. 68 years back once we get to the next presidential campaign. But not unlike the Law of Gravity, some things never change. And whomever is the Republican nominee, he and his running mate need to be ready to go, understanding that they are facing more than the Democrat nominee -- Newsom probably -- and be ready to take on the Newsom-loving media. Which is already showing itself.

Alexander Hall at Fox News Digital reported that Michelle Obama found another for all her complaints about how America has failed her -- the "Call Her Daddy" podcast where they used to talk all about hot sex. This time, Michelle unloaded on the media, which has treated her like an American goddess, the black Jackie O with a law degree. Michelle is on a book tour promoting her $50 coffee-table book of photographs, The Look, "a stunning journey through Michelle Obama’s style evolution." But she's claiming the shallow media dismissed her as a woman as she and Barack ascended to the White House. This is, to be blunt, a lie. She was adored. They talked about her clothes, and her wonderful bare arms -- and her law career, and her smarts. So here's the lame complaint:  As my popularity rose, I was being covered more, right? And, so, the press enters the scene, and there are now reports, right? And the first thing after all this great conversation and connection, the top of the article would be, "She was wearing --" you know, not my education, not my, you know, not my professional career, but it started with appearance, and it got worse as we got better. They weren't doing that to my husband, right? They weren't describing him physically, and he was out there more than I was. So, I was like, "OK, well, this is where it comes from." It's like, "Wow, whoever is doing this, when it comes to how we put women in their place, it's like, okay."  NewsBusters has the receipts -- many, many adoring receipts. The liberal media could have introduced Obama as the jerk who said she'd never been proud of America until they considered her husband for president. CNN's Alina Cho in January 2008 was one of many adorers, and she started with the education and the professional career -- after repeating that the Obama campaign called her their "secret weapon." The product of blue collar roots, Michelle grew up on Chicago's South Side, graduating from Princeton and Harvard Law. She met Barack at her law firm. Though three years younger, she was assigned to mentor him. They married in 1992. The Obama campaign hopes their story will resonate with and inspire black women in South Carolina, a place where many have strong ties to the Clintons. Black women could be the key swing vote. Enter Michelle Obama. In February of 2008, ABC's Good Morning America was Gush Morning America.  This was the open: DEBORAH ROBERTS: Fascinating woman, Diane. Critics have taken her on, as you know, for her blunt, straight-talking style. But the Obama camp calls Michelle Obama "the closer." Her husband, they say, makes a good case for his candidacy, but then she comes in and seals the deal. She's the spouse of politics' newest star, but lately, Michelle Obama is attracting a spotlight of her own, drawing big crowds at events last week. This was the close: ROBERTS: An opinionated and charming woman, Diane. I asked her about race in this campaign, because, as you know, so many people talk about it. She and her husband refuse to dwell on it. They genuinely believe that people want to move beyond that, talk about something else. DIANE SAWYER: Yes. She's a Harvard lawyer herself. And he said once, but she has to leave the room during his debates, 'cause she gets way too nervous. This also happened in print. Richard Wolffe began his Newsweek cover story in February 2008: Michelle Obama was never much interested in calling attention to herself. As an undergrad at Princeton in the 1980s, she was interested in social change, but didn't run for student government. Instead, she spent her free time running a literacy program for kids from the local neighborhoods. At Harvard Law, she took part in demonstrations demanding more minority students and professors. Yet unlike another more prominent Harvard Law student who would later take up the cause, she was not one to hold forth with high-flown oratory about the need for diversity. So she's lying. About reporters who relentlessly hugged her in their journalism. Alex Hall highlighted the conservative counterpoint, that "Call Her Daddy" host Alex Cooper had asked her guest about her outfit within the first minute of the interview, the second question after asking her how she was doing. "Talk to me about your outfit, how did you pick it?" Cooper asked 45 seconds into the interview.

HBO’s Bill Maher kicked off Real Times’s 2026 run on Friday by claiming that Renee Good’s shooting “was an execution on the street” and lamented to Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy that President Trump won’t use his “cult leader” status to push “comprehensive immigration reform” now that he has proved “he’s the tough guy.” For his part, Kennedy was able to clear up that if you want to reform immigration, then Democrats need to come up with something other than “amnesty, amnesty, amnesty.” Maher declared that “it is actually a good opportunity for him because he is that kind of guy. That is one of his strengths, I think. It is a cult, I'm sorry but MAGA is a bit of a cult… And a cult leader can change on a dime, as he often does. So, he could be the one because he has been so awful on this issue with— I mean, that woman—that was an execution on the street. I'm sorry, but it was."   Bill Maher kicked off his 2026 season by claiming the Renee Good shooting "was an execution on the street. I'm sorry, but it was." He also compares it to the 1968 "Saigon Execution" photograph. He then asks Sen. John Kennedy why Trump, having proved "he's the tough guy," can't… pic.twitter.com/IH6OQMC9eo — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) January 24, 2026   Reaching for analogy, Maher put a photo of the aftermath of Good’s shooting side-by-side with the 1968 “Saigon Execution” photograph that showed South Vietnamese Chief of National Police Nguyen Ngoc Loan shooting Viet Cong prisoner Nguyen Van Lem in the head, “When I sought, you know what I thought of? Because we are old enough to remember this? Show the picture. Okay, that is it. I'm going to describe this first because this is from the 60s. Remember Vietnam? The Tet Offensive and that ugly picture that we saw after? Show the picture. This is—everybody our age knows this. That's the first thing that flashed in my mind.” Of course, a photo doesn’t tell the story of what happened before the photographer snapped the picture, and nobody understood that better than Eddie Adams, the Korean War Marine vet-turned AP photojournalist that took the picture Maher referenced, “Pictures don’t tell the whole story. It doesn’t tell you why.” Adams took a more nuanced view of his own photo, “I don’t say what he did was right, but he was fighting a war, and he was up against some pretty bad people. Two people’s lives were destroyed that day and I don’t want to destroy anybody’s life. That’s not my job.” Back in 2026, the “why” is that Good drove her car at ICE Agent Jonathan Ross. Still, Maher continued, “So, okay, he made his point. He’s the tough guy. It gives him the opportunity now to be the guy who says, ‘Okay, I'm actually going to do comprehensive immigration reform because this has been’—how long have you been in the Senate?” After Kennedy answered with one of his trademark Kennedy-isms, “Ten years. In dog years, it’s been about seven,” Maher proceeded, “Obama tried with a grand bargain. Why couldn't Trump be the one to get this done? You talk to him. I bet you could put that bee in his bonnet.” Kennedy began, “You know what the real answer is? The real answer is immigration reform. That’s the real answer.” Maher interrupted to protest, “But we did that, we closed the border.” Holding firm, Kennedy resumed, “No, no, no. I'm talking about not only for illegal immigration, but also for legal immigration. And the truth is, Bill, if you're honest, and you are, we have let more people into America legally every year than anyone in the world. Because the whole world wants to come here. When's the last time you heard of somebody trying to sneak into China? I mean, they want to come to America. And—but we could do that better if my Democrat friends would sit down and talk with us. But when we sit down and talk, the first thing they want: amnesty, amnesty, amnesty. And that dog is not going to holler.” It isn’t, and neither is the one that insists on legitimizing reducing a split-second, possible life-or-death decision from Ross into a still image for comedy show hosts to armchair quarterback. Here is a transcript for the January 23 show: HBO Real Time with Bill Maher 1/23/2026 10:22 PM ET BILL MAHER: But it is actually a good opportunity for him because he is that kind of guy. That is one of his strengths, I think. It is a cult, I'm sorry but MAGA is a bit of a cult, and what it is— I mean, so is Taylor Swift, but okay. KASIE HUNT: I’m in that cult. MAHER: And you are in it? Okay. And a cult leader can change on a dime, as he often does. So, he could be the one because he has been so awful on this issue with— I mean, that woman—that was an execution on the street. I'm sorry, but it was. When I sought, you know what I thought of? Because we are old enough to remember this? Show the picture. Okay, that is it. I'm going to describe this first because this is from the 60s. Remember Vietnam? The Tet Offensive and that ugly picture that we saw after? Show the picture. This is—everybody our age knows this. That's the first thing that flashed in my mind. Just, okay. So, okay, he made his point. He’s the tough guy. It gives him the opportunity now to be the guy who says, "Okay, I'm actually going to do comprehensive immigration reform because this has been"—how long have you been in the Senate? JOHN KENNEDY: Ten years. MAHER: Okay, this has been on the table— KENNEDY: In dog years it's been about seven. MAHER: And before Obama tried with a grand bargain. Why couldn't Trump be the one to get this done? You talk to him. I bet you could put that bee in his bonnet. KENNEDY: You know what the real answer is? The real answer is immigration reform. That’s the real answer. MAHER: But we did that, we closed the border. KENNEDY: No, no, no. I'm talking about not only for illegal immigration, but also for legal immigration. And the truth is, Bill, if you're honest, and you are, we have let more people into America legally every year than anyone in the world. Because the whole world wants to come here. MAHER: Yeah. KENNEDY: When's the last time you heard of somebody trying to sneak into China? I mean, they want to come to America. And—but we could do that better if my Democrat friends would sit down and talk with us. But when we sit down and talk, the first thing they want: amnesty, amnesty, amnesty. And that dog is not going to holler.

MS NOW host Jonathan Capehart joined PBS News Hour on Friday for his weekly news roundup with New York Times columnist David Brooks and launched several context-less attacks on ICE, including that it has “kidnapped” people. Brooks wasn’t much better, for he accused ICE of “violating due process rights, First Amendment rights," and the "Bill of Rights.” Moderator Geoff Bennett asked Capehart, “As we speak, there are thousands of people in the streets of Minneapolis protesting. We learned this week about an internal ICE memo that allows agents to enter people's homes without a judicial warrant. They're using administrative warrants. At what point does this aggressive enforcement start to undermine constitutional guardrails, Jonathan?”   PBS anchor Geoff Bennett asks Jonathan Capehart, "At what point does this aggressive enforcement start to undermine constitutional guardrails, Jonathan?" Capehart, almost offended by the question, replies, "Start to? One could argue that it's already happening, that you have ICE… pic.twitter.com/zgTwbxClku — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) January 24, 2026   Capehart was almost offended by the question, “Start to? One could argue that it's already happening, that you have ICE busting into people's homes, snatching people off the streets, or, as folks in Minneapolis are saying, people are being kidnapped, cars left in the middle of the road, sometimes still running with the possessions inside because ICE has snatched people off the street.” He continued, “I mean, what is happening in Minneapolis and Minnesota, it breaks my heart because we are seeing these constitutional norms that you're asking about being eroded before our very eyes, being not just challenged but abused. That's the word I'm looking for, abused.” Capehart then tried to provide some examples, “When you look at a 5-year-old who -- and his father who are in process, the asylum-seeking process, which means they are not undocumented, being used as bait, and then shipped to Texas with his father, or Mr. Thao, the 57-year-old who earlier in the week was hauled out of his home in boxer shorts and Crocs and a robe in 12-degree temperatures, I mean, what is happening to the people of Minneapolis, to American citizens? There was just a report today of a U.S. Army vet who was taken into custody for eight hours there in Minneapolis. At some point, at some point—well, I was going to say the administration will have to see the error of its ways, but they will not.” First of all, the allegation that ICE used a 5-year-old as bait is false. Second, the Thao incident seems to be a case of mistaken identity, not wanton violence. Third, DHS alleges the Army vet assaulted an officer. Nevertheless, Capehart continued, “And this gets to the thing where I say my heart's broken, but my heart is full, watching the protests in Minneapolis of people taking to the streets to stand up for their own constitutional rights, but to stand up for their communities and for their fellow folks who live in Minneapolis, because they—people—should not have to live in fear the way that they're living there in Minneapolis right now.” Finally, Capehart concluded, “It's not—just at a moral level, how can anyone look at what's happening in Minneapolis and not stand up and not fight back and not push back? Because if it's happening in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a state that's 75 percent white, it's coming to you next. And it's already happening in Maine.” For his part, Brooks described the administration’s stance toward the Minnesota situation as “a theory that we should rule by force.” He also claimed, “I think what we have seen is a disillusion of the ideals of what democracy is supposed to be all about. And one of the things I'm curious about is, how will the American people react? How are they reacting to the image of the 5-year-old kid Liam? And I think that we already know from polling that large majorities do not approve of what's going on. They think ICE is overbearing, cruel, and ruthless.”   Meanwhile, David Brooks claims "I think what we have seen is a disillusion of the ideals of what democracy is supposed to be all about." He also thinks ICE agents are troops, "when I first started the conservative movement, there was a strong libertarian presence. And the single… pic.twitter.com/Us2ijdF8z6 — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) January 24, 2026   According to Brooks, ICE are “troops,” “Will it cause a break in public opinion of the sort of we haven't seen since the first Trump term? Maybe. You have to remember—I remember, when I first started the conservative movement, there was a strong libertarian presence. And the single greatest thing they were talking about over and over again was federal troops violating due process rights, First Amendment rights, Bill of Rights.” He finished by hoping that this is the issue that finally breaks the Trump coalition, “And this is exactly what's happening under the Republican Party. So there still is a libertarian element within the Republican Party. Are they going to say, what the heck? I did not sign up for this. And we will see if that happens. But this is one of those issues, if there's ever going to be a break on the Trump coalition, I would think this would touch a chord.” One expects Capehart to parrot the liberal line because that is what PBS pays him to do, but Brooks is supposed to be the conservative. He had three cases where he could’ve pushed back and instead chose to either ignore or echo them. Here is a transcript for the January 23 show: PBS News Hour 1/23/2026 7:35 PM ET GEOFF BENNETT: Let's shift our focus stateside with what's happening in Minneapolis with the ICE enforcement. As we speak, there are thousands of people in the streets of Minneapolis protesting. We learned this week about an internal ICE memo that allows agents to enter people's homes without a judicial warrant. They're using administrative warrants. At what point does this aggressive enforcement start to undermine constitutional guardrails, Jonathan? JONATHAN CAPEHART: Start to? One could argue that it's already happening, that you have ICE busting into people's homes, snatching people off the streets, or, as folks in Minneapolis are saying, people are being kidnapped, cars left in the middle of the road, sometimes still running with the possessions inside because ICE has snatched people off the street. I mean, what is happening in Minneapolis and Minnesota, it breaks my heart because we are seeing these constitutional norms that you're asking about being eroded before our very eyes, being not just challenged but abused. That's the word I'm looking for, abused. When you look at a 5-year-old who -- and his father who are in process, the asylum-seeking process, which means they are not undocumented, being used as bait, and then shipped to Texas with his father, or Mr. Thao, the 57-year-old who earlier in the week was hauled out of his home in boxer shorts and Crocs and a robe in 12-degree temperatures, I mean, what is happening to the people of Minneapolis, to American citizens? There was just a report today of a U.S. Army vet who was taken into custody for eight hours there in Minneapolis. At some point, at some point -- well, I was going to say the administration will have to see the error of its ways, but they will not. And this gets to the thing where I say my heart's broken, but my heart is full, watching the protests in Minneapolis of people taking to the streets to stand up for their own constitutional rights, but to stand up for their communities and for their fellow folks who live in Minneapolis, because they -- people should not have to live in fear the way that they're living there in Minneapolis right now. It's not -- just at a moral level, how can anyone look at what's happening in Minneapolis and not stand up and not fight back and not push back? Because if it's happening in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a state that's 75 percent white, it's coming to you next. And it's already happening in Maine. BENNETT: David, how does all of this strike you? DAVID BROOKS: Yes, the domestic analog of the foreign policy. It's a theory that we should rule by force. And I think what we have seen is a disillusion of the ideals of what democracy is supposed to be all about. And one of the things I'm curious about is, how will the American people react? How are they reacting to the image of the 5-year-old kid Liam? And I think that we already know from polling that large majorities do not approve of what's going on. They think ICE is overbearing, cruel, and ruthless. But how much will they react? Will it cause a break in public opinion of the sort of we haven't seen since the first Trump term? Maybe. You have to remember -- I remember, when I first started the conservative movement, there was a strong libertarian presence. And the single greatest thing they were talking about over and over again was federal troops violating due process rights, First Amendment rights, Bill of Rights. And this is exactly what's happening under the Republican Party. So there still is a libertarian element within the Republican Party. Are they going to say, what the heck? I did not sign up for this. And we will see if that happens. But this is one of those issues, if there's ever going to be a break on the Trump coalition, I would think this would touch a chord.

As our Jorge Bonilla pointedly wrote when analyzing the Thursday night network newscasts, the liberal, elite media have shown — through their new interest in this tall tale about a five-year-old Minneapolis boy being used as “bait” by Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) to lure back his day — a concentrated, new, and sudden concern for the plight of children caught up in the illegal immigration fiasco wrought over the last four years. Friday’s lead morning and evening network newscasts were no different, expressing horror over the “disturbing,” “haunting,” “powerful,” and “upsetting” images and narrative (concocted by a slew of AWFLs that seem to run the school district the child was attending). By the evening, they zoomed out to also celebrate the anti-ICE mobs shutting down the area airport and, in one case, suck up to far-left Attorney General Keith Ellison (D). First up, we have CBS Mornings with co-host Gayle King channeling all the sympathy points of those not fully engaged on what seems to have happened: ‘CBS Mornings’ co-host Gayle King on the “very disturbing,” “very upsetting” “controversy” with the five-year-old and ICE... “Now to the newest controversy over the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. It involves a five-year-old boy, his name is Liam Ramos. Look at his face.… pic.twitter.com/RS9yZzSJIr — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 23, 2026 Correspondent Nicole Sganga picked it up from there: Friday’s ‘CBS Mornings’, using a team of AWFLs that run the school district which the five-year-old attended — fully leans into the emotions and narrative that ICE grabbed the kid and cruelly denied the school board chair the chance to take the child for herself pic.twitter.com/q0AHARxgtl — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 23, 2026 “We spoke with school officials who were there saying that they consoled the boy’s sobbing mother after ICE agents took her husband and son away from her...More than half a dozen federal agents were seen on cell phone video Tuesday surrounding this five-year-old boy wearing a bunny hat and a Spiderman backpack. Liam Ramos was taken into custody, along with his dad, Ecuadorian asylum seeker Andriana Alexander Conejo Arias,” Sganga explained. Amid a slew of soundbites from the AWFLs at the school district (whose story about the child having been “bait” now thoroughly debunked even The Washington Post issued a correction), Sganga threw in a few lines from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (click “expand”): COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, MINNESOTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS SUPERINTENDENT ZENA STENVIK: Over the last few weeks, ICE agents have been roaming our neighborhoods, circling our schools, following our buses, coming into our parking lots multiple times and taking our kids. SGANGA: In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said “ICE did not target...a child,” adding he was “abandoned” by the father who “fled on foot” after officers tried to arrest him and further added that Conejo Arias wanted the child to remain with him once he was detained. DHS also said attempted to reunite the child with his mother, but she refused to take custody. But according to school board chair Mary Granlund, that’s not how it happened. She says she saw it herself. COLUMBIA HEIGHTS PUBLIC SCHOOLS BOARD CHAIR MARY GRANLUND: Somebody else saw me and said to the agents, school is here, the school is here. They can take him. And I said, yes, I am here. I am here. I can help with that. SGANGA [TO GRANLUND]: You offered to take him, and you saw ICE agents drive away with the five-year-old boy? GRANLUND: Yes. Two soundbites from Vice President JD Vance later (though one was Sganga arguing the federal government are the ones who have to be “turning down the temperature”), she concluded by parroting “the family’s lawyer” that the boy and his dad “entered the country in 2024 at a Brownsville border crossing down in Texas” and “submitted an asylum claim through what’s called the CBP1 app and were following through on steps throughout the immigration process.” Unsurprisingly, DHS says they have no record of the father actually doing the latter steps. Friday’s CBS Evening News took things to another level. The set-up even included the debunked “bait” narrative: Friday’s ‘CBS Evening News’ had yet another story on “the battle over the power of that powerful image of the five-year-old” with ICE that promoted the “bait” hoax, claims from the school district AWFLs, and a suck-up interview to AG Keith Ellison (D) fretting ICE came “to punish… pic.twitter.com/gDn4BdGCJq — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 24, 2026 Sganga opened by pointing to the “thousands” who “braved subfreezing temperatures in the Twin Cities to protest ICE, with businesses declaring Black-Out Friday.” Shifting to the child, she aired a brief soundbite from Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino “defend[ing] ICE agents” before reairing her exchange with the school board official and later when she indirectly accused Homeland Security of lying about the father’s immigration status. The bottom really dropped out as she never brought up the Somali welfare fraud and took Ellison at his word that the ICE surge was some vague “political tactic…to punish municipal leaders.” And, when Ellison said he can state for a fact the federal government won’t investigate the ICE agent in the Renee Good case, Sganga expressed horror: “I think that’s going to make a lot of people in the state and in this country angry.” Shifting to Good Morning America, they were still running full-speed aboard the disinformation train: ABC — the most anti-Trump broadcast network — went out on Friday’s Good Morning America with lies about the five-year-old and ICE in Minneapolis, saying “the haunting images spark[ed] a firestorm” and promoting the debunked lie the child was “used...as bait” to lure the father pic.twitter.com/WCxMnCaqaU — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 23, 2026 Correspondent Matt Rivers claimed: A preschool boy standing in the Minnesota cold, swept up in the ICE crackdown. Schools officials say five-year-old Liam and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, had just pulled into their suburban Minneapolis driveway Tuesday when agents took that father into custody. The school then saying an agent “essentially used the five year old as bait,” directing him to see if anyone else was home before taking the boy away. Witnesses say multiple people, including the boy’s mother, offered to take him. Rivers would only for ICE’s position that said “DHS [has been] telling different story saying, ‘ICE did not target a child,’ claiming Liam’s father is undocumented immigrant who ‘fled on foot - abandoning’ his son in the driveway.” Once a short soundbite ran of Vance wondering “what are” ICE agents “supposed to do” in that situation, Rivers went back to the other side of the coin (click “expand”): RIVERS: The attorney says father and son entered the U.S. legally. MARK PROKOSCH: Liam and his dad did enter at port of entry to seek asylum and they have shared their information with the government and they were following the process. RIVERS: Now, the school district says four students have recently been detained. We now know that Liam and his father are both being held together at a processing facility outside of San Antonio.  Rivers stuck around for Friday’s World News Tonight and, on the positive side, he must have thought it was time to tell viewers about Thursday morning’s three arrests in the anti-ICE mob’s Sunday attack on a church: PATHETIC: After nothing on either of ABC's major newscasts Thursday (AM or PM) and Friday morning, Friday's 'World News Tonight' spared 15 seconds from correspondent Matt Rivers to mention three from the anti-ICE, church-storming mob are facing charges from the Justice Department pic.twitter.com/iaUCyGm5rK — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 24, 2026 In totality, however, the piece was still heavily pro-mob: Friday’s ‘World News Tonight’ featured more anti-ICE slop on ABC, touting the “tens of thousands in the streets” and “ICE defending its own agents after taking this five-year-old boy into custody after the local school district said [he] had been detained” and “[t]he family… pic.twitter.com/8FRIn2bhDD — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 24, 2026 NBC’s Today went with co-host Craig Melvin saying Vance “blam[ed] local Democratic officials and agitators for the ongoing tensions there amid new arrests, and the growing backlash after federal agents detained a five-year-old boy.” Of course not admitting the media’s role in driving this, correspondent Maggie Vespa said “the spotlight on the story of this preschooler…is growing rapidly” and a symbol of “the mayhem surrounding President Trump’s immigration crackdown.’ After a he-said, he-said between DHS and the family’s advocates, Vespa touted part of her questions to Vance at a Thursday press conference about whether he sympathizes with those who feel ICE’s existence in the Twin Cities “makes them feel less safe.” Vespa at least had the courtesy to spend 40 seconds on the charges against the ringleaders of the St. Paul church storming. Vespa’s Friday NBC Nightly News report was a catch-all of liberal narratives, including one to keep an eye on in the days to come. Friday’s ‘NBC Nightly News’ trumpeted the “massive protests against ICE,” new images from the controversial incident” with a 5-year-old, that they “pressed” Gregory Bovino on the fact that people are “outraged at the idea of little kids being held in custody,” and a new case… pic.twitter.com/K8ixAn1err — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 24, 2026 To see the relevant transcripts from January 23, click here (for ABC’s Good Morning America), here (for ABC’s World News Tonight), here (for CBS Mornings), here (for the CBS Evening News), here (for NBC’s Today), and here (for NBC Nightly News).