Matt Taibbi’s blunt assessment on Newsmax’s America Right Now should be a wake-up call for anyone still trusting the old guard of journalism: the coverage of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has flipped chiefly because Donald Trump is back in the White House. Taibbi told host anchors that many of the enforcement practices now painted as radical were standard operating procedure a decade or more ago, and the sudden outrage smells more like partisan theater than reporting.
He reminded viewers that street detentions and immigration-status checks have been happening in cities like Los Angeles and Georgia for years, long before the current administration decided to visibly enforce the law. That context matters, but too many legacy outlets prefer a narrative that fits their anti-Trump template instead of doing basic journalism.
Taibbi also pointed out why the public perceives a difference now: there are more agents on the streets, often masked, and therefore more visible — not necessarily more unlawful. Conservatives understand that enforcing sovereignty sometimes looks uncomfortable, but uncomfortable is not the same as illegal, and we should applaud officials when they are finally doing their jobs.
What should alarm patriotic Americans is Taibbi’s critique of newsroom reflexes: a lot of media outlets reflexively oppose any policy connected to Trump, regardless of the facts. That predictable bias has hollowed out trust in legacy media and driven viewers toward independent outlets that at least break from the partisan script, even if those outlets aren’t perfect.
He was blunt about a simple remedy — journalists must return to credibility and the basics of reporting, rather than chasing viral narratives — noting that the era when legacy media dominated public discourse peaked around the summer of 2020. If the press hopes to regain any respect, it will have to stop treating every enforcement action as a political cudgel and start telling the whole story.
Republicans and conservatives should take Taibbi’s words to heart: demand honest reporting, defend the rule of law at the border, and keep building independent platforms that hold power to account. The men and women who work hard every day to keep this country running deserve a media that reports facts, not a media that manufactures outrage to fit an agenda.
