If you’ve been relying on CNN, MSNBC, or one of the alphabet soup networks for your news coverage this week, you’d be forgiven for thinking the riots in Los Angeles were just a spirited candlelight vigil or a community drum circle that got a little too enthusiastic.
“Mostly peaceful,” they say.
Right. And O.J. was mostly innocent.
Let’s get something straight: what’s happening in Los Angeles right now isn’t protest—it’s insurrection. Full stop. The kind of insurrection the media pretends to care about when the wrong people are involved. But this? Vandalizing government buildings, setting cars ablaze, chucking bricks and Molotov cocktails at law enforcement officers? That’s not civil disobedience. That’s a mob.
And yet, from the cathedral pulpits of CNN to the lavender haze over at The Rachel Maddow Show, we’re being told this is just a passionate response to “a broken immigration system.” That’s the new euphemism for violent chaos, apparently. “Democracy dies in darkness,” The Washington Post likes to say—but it sure as hell thrives in willful blindness over at MSNBC.
Let’s be honest with ourselves: this isn’t about immigration reform. It’s about lawlessness. These are not families seeking asylum. These are very bad muchachos—some of whom have been accused of crimes ranging from robbery to rape, trafficking, and worse. If this were an episode of Law & Order: SVU, Benson, Fin, and ADA Carisi would already have these degenerates locked up, with Ice-T giving a classic deadpan: “Looks like this guy was importing more than just dreams.”
But in the real world, instead of arresting them, Democrats are enabling them.
California’s elected officials, from the governor’s mansion to city hall, are tripping over themselves to downplay the violence. Mayor Garcetti’s successor held a press conference to tell us that “we must understand the pain” of the rioters—while a police cruiser burns in the background and a CVS is looted like it’s Black Friday in Caracas. And Governor Newsom? He’s hiding behind his hair gel and issuing statements about “de-escalation” as officers in riot gear get pelted with debris.
But the prize for mental gymnastics goes to Rachel Maddow, who told her dwindling audience that “while some unfortunate incidents occurred, the protest’s core message remains vital.” I’d love to ask her: if a gang of criminals threw rocks at your house while screaming political slogans, would you call it a “vital message,” or would you call the cops?
The truth is, the American left has become so ideologically possessed, they can’t bring themselves to criticize anyone who fits their narrative—even if that person is torching a government office or attacking a police officer. Because to them, lawbreakers aren’t criminals—they’re potential voters.
That’s the dark irony of this moment. The same people who accuse Republicans of undermining democracy are now applauding as radicals desecrate public buildings, defy federal officers, and attack law enforcement—all in the name of “justice.” And the media? They’re not just complicit—they’re co-producing the show.
Where’s the coverage of the ICE office ransacked by a masked mob? Where’s the outrage over DHS agents being cornered and assaulted? Where’s the looped footage of rioters hurling rocks at federal courthouses?
Nope. You won’t see it on CNN. You’ll get carefully curated camera angles, zoomed in on a single flower placed outside a detention center, while the arson behind it rages off-screen. They’ll spend five minutes talking about the “trauma of enforcement actions” but zero seconds on the trauma experienced by a National Guard officer who’s now in the ICU with a fractured skull.
We’re watching a slow-motion abandonment of the rule of law. If these riots had broken out in a red state and were led by Trump supporters, the coverage would be wall-to-wall. They’d be dragging out retired generals and constitutional scholars to demand immediate military response. Adam Schiff would already have opened three congressional investigations. Joy Behar would be having a panic attack on The View. The phrase “domestic terrorism” would be trending for days.
But because this is LA, and because the perpetrators are perceived to be part of the progressive coalition, the media has hit the mute button.
Here’s the bottom line: we don’t have a protest problem. We have a priority problem. A leadership problem. And a media problem.
The American people aren’t stupid. They see the double standard. They know this is more than just a local disturbance—it’s an ideological crusade against the very idea of borders, law enforcement, and national sovereignty. And they know who’s encouraging it: the same Democrats who want to defund the police, decriminalize illegal entry, and keep open borders as the default setting.
It’s time to stop pretending this is about compassion. It’s about control. And until voters demand accountability—from their elected officials and from the so-called “Fourth Estate”—we’re going to see more cities burn, more lies broadcast, and more American institutions eroded from within.
This isn’t journalism anymore.
It’s propaganda with a press badge.
Endnotes
“LA Riots Continue: Federal Buildings Damaged, Officers Injured,” Fox News, June 9, 2025.
Rachel Maddow, “The Vital Message of Protest,” MSNBC, June 8, 2025.
“ICE Office in Los Angeles Attacked During Riots,” Daily Wire, June 7, 2025.
“California Governor Issues Statement on Immigration Protests,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 6, 2025.
Law & Order: SVU, Season 21, Episode 12, NBC, 2020 (referenced for cultural context).
Trevor Anderson is a columnist for Direct Line News. ContactTrevor.Anderson@mcgopclub.com
Direct Line News is a Maryland-based free-access publication committed to the Republican reform tradition.
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