CBS correspondent Adam Yamaguchi unraveled the conspiratorial notion on Friday that President Trump has turned the network into state TV. During a report on Evening News, Yamaguchi ran an uncritical profile that featured a trio of anti-ICE activists and the ways they are trying to thwart the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
Yamaguchi quickly got to his first featured activist, “We came to this Home Depot in Pasadena, where we met school librarian Sharon Nicholls and her neighbors.”
After a clip of Nicholls claiming she is “not an activist,” Yamaguchi proceed to promote Nicholls’s activism, “They made their local Home Depot a top priority. It's called Adopt-a-Corner. They are here every morning providing day laborers with information and watching out for ICE agents.”
Nicholls, who told the Los Angeles Times that she actually is an activist, explained, “We have a whole group of people standing out here, and we need to protect everybody in our community.”
Yamaguchi then moved inside a Home Depot with a crowd of protestors and further hyped the movement, “We were not expecting this to happen. So, the Home Depot manager has allowed the protesters to come through this door. They seem to have found a lot of common cause with management and with the customers here.”
After contemplating some polling data, Yamaguchi moved to his second activist, “Pablo Alvarado is co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and offers virtual classes for those who oppose the raids and want to do something about them.”
Alvarado, who Yamaguchi did not disclose that Nicholls informed that same LA Times article is her husband, promoted his cause, “If there are enough people documenting what's happening, then it's a disappearance, and families spend weeks trying to find out where their loved ones are.”
Moving on to activist number three, Yamaguchi highlighted, “Aleca Le Blanc attended one of those classes. Just days before she shot this cell phone video of a vendor clinging to a tree after being chased by an unidentified agent.”
In the video, Le Blanc could be heard accusing ICE of “kidnapping her.”
Back with Yamaguchi, Le Blanc declared, “I like living in Los Angeles because I like living around people that don't look like me. We are fellow Angelenos. Doesn't matter if you've been here for a year or if you've been here for 25.”
For all the ink spilled and rhetoric espoused about CBS caving to President Trump, the network really does love one-sided stories about the supposed horrors of immigration enforcement in California. If CBS really does get a bias monitor that takes their job seriously, illegal immigration would be a great place to start.
Here is a transcript for the August 8 show:
CBS Evening News
8/8/2025
6:44 PM ET
ADAM YAMAGUCHI: We came to this Home Depot in Pasadena, where we met school librarian Sharon Nicholls and her neighbors.
SHARON NICHOLLS: I'm not an activist. We’re all just regular people.
YAMAGUCHI: They made their local Home Depot a top priority. It's called Adopt-a-Corner. They are here every morning providing day laborers with information and watching out for ICE agents.
NICHOLLS: We have a whole group of people standing out here, and we need to protect everybody in our community.
YAMAGUCHI: So you are in it for the long-haul?
NICHOLLS: Yeah, absolutely.
YAMAGUCHI: Home Depots have become a hotbed for immigration raids, so residents have vowed to remain a constant presence at dozens of locations across L.A. County. As the protests move from large gatherings downtown to smaller rallies in the suburbs.
WOMAN: Okay, we can do a little line duty inside.
YAMAGUCHI: We were not expecting this to happen. So, the Home Depot manager has allowed the protesters to come through this door. They seem to have found a lot of common cause with management and with the customers here.
According to the latest CBS News poll, more people now disapprove of the Trump administration's deportation program, even though approval among Republicans remains overwhelmingly high. But 52 percent of those polled say the president is trying to deport more people than they had expected.
PABLO ALVARADO: There are people asking, what can I do?
YAMAGUCHI: Pablo Alvarado is co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and offers virtual classes for those who oppose the raids and want to do something about them.
ALVARADO: If there are enough people documenting what's happening, then it's a disappearance, and families spend weeks trying to find out where their loved ones are.
YAMAGUCHI: Aleca Le Blanc attended one of those classes. Just days before she shot this cell phone video of a vendor clinging to a tree after being chased by an unidentified agent.
ALECA LE BLANC: They’re kidnapping her.
I like living in Los Angeles because I like living around people that don't look like me. We are fellow Angelenos. Doesn't matter if you've been here for a year or if you've been here for 25.
