Are Conservatives Overstating the Violence in LA or are Liberal Media Outlets Downplaying It?

As immigration operations in Los Angeles have led to protests and violence, media from left and right have offered very different framings. Many outlets from the left have suggested violence has been minimal, while outlets from the right have accused liberal media of downplaying the situation.

For Context: California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) and President Trump have been involved in a public dispute over the handling of the situation, with Newsom arguing Trump’s decision to send in the National Guard made things worse.

From The Left: ABC News (Lean Left bias) and the Los Angeles Times (Lean Left) offered a similar framing, emphasizing that violence has been isolated to a small part of LA and highlighting President Trump’s framing is different from that of California officials like Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass. ABC wrote that the two “have accused Trump of making sensational public claims about how widespread the violence has been” and “said the Los Angeles police and sheriff's departments could handle the unrest on their own.” Associated Press (Left) similarly wrote, “Much of the city saw no violence.”

From The Right: Some outlets on the right criticized liberal media’s framing of the protests. The New York Post Editorial Board (Right) published an opinion criticizing liberal media that opened, “Get ready for the 2025 version of ‘mostly peaceful protest.’ It’s ‘a small part of the city.’” National Review’s Forgotten Fact Checks (Right) referenced a prolific CNN (Lean Left) TV headline from 2020 that described police brutality protests as “fiery, but mostly peaceful” and suggested “major media outlets flipped back in their playbooks” to this “page.” National Review also highlighted TV coverage from ABC 7 Los Angeles, where an anchor suggested law enforcement had exacerbated what was “just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn” into a bigger confrontation.

Written by the AllSides staff (of humans). Learn more. Support our mission.