Evening newscasts on ABC, CBS and NBC have sugarcoated the crisis along the southern border, focusing on Title 42 and "the plight of illegal immigrants" while largely ignoring issues such as drug trafficking, according to the Media Research Center. 

"There's no telling how many thieves, murderers, rapists and child molesters have entered illegally because of [President] Biden's new policies. But the 'news' media couldn't care less -- they like them," Media Research Center founder and president Brent Bozell told Fox News Digital. 

MRC senior research analyst Bill D'Agostino examined ABC’s "World News Tonight," CBS’ "Evening News" and "NBC Nightly News" from October 1, 2022 through July 20, 2023 and found that coverage of the border "continued to focus almost exclusively on the plight of illegal immigrants."

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The MRC, a conservative watchdog, found that 254 minutes, 43 seconds were spent on the border crisis during that time span, and nearly half the coverage was related to Title 42, while less than five minutes was spent on drug trafficking. 

Earlier this year, the Biden administration let Title 42 expire. Title 42, which dated back to 2020 under the Trump administration, allowed U.S. officials to turn away migrants who came to the U.S.-Mexico border because of health concerns at the height of the COVID pandemic. According to the MRC, the border crisis would have received significantly less coverage if Title 42 didn’t force its way into mainstream media. 

Coverage of Title 42 accounted for 48.8% of all border-related stories, while covering the border as a political issue made up another 14.8% of the segments, according to the study. Evening newscasts on ABC, CBS and NBC mentioned the border crisis in general during 12.7% of the coverage while drug trafficking accounted for a measly 294 seconds of total coverage to make up less than two percent. 

"Nearly every full-length report included sound bites from migrants desperate to enter the United States. It was never a question of how many should be let in, or whom. Rather, the answer was already assumed to be ‘everyone,’ and the only question was how best to achieve that goal while making the process as comfortable as possible for the illegal entrants," D'Agostino wrote. 

"The broadcast networks were intensely interested in Title 42, and in fact that topic alone comprised more than half of their border coverage," D'Agostino continued. "Almost every discussion of Title 42 emphasized how difficult the restriction was making life for would-be migrants lined up at the border waiting to cross. Title 42 was also the driving force behind immigration stories dealing with other topics."

The cornerstone of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas' post-Title 42 strategy was an asylum rule that makes migrants ineligible for asylum if they entered the U.S. illegally and failed to claim asylum in other countries through which they passed. It has also ramped up the use of expedited removal and "credible fear" screenings. 

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Linked to that is a requirement that those entering the U.S. at the border schedule an appointment via the controversial CBP One App. Initially there were 1,000 appointments a day for migrants to be paroled into the U.S., but that number has since ballooned to 1,450 a day. 

Meanwhile, other programs open up pathways without migrants having to travel to the border. One allows for 30,000 nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua to fly directly into the U.S. a month, while the U.S. has also set up processing centers across Central America and has recently expanded a family unification program for relatives of citizens and permanent residents from certain countries.

The strategy has drawn criticism from right and left, with left-wing groups challenging the asylum rule in court, arguing that it unlawfully limits the right of foreign nationals to claim asylum. Meanwhile, conservative states have accused the administration of abusing the parole system to allow migrants in by the tens of thousands, noting that Congress says the power is to be used on a "case by case" basis due to urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. Separately, a May policy that allowed for the release of migrants into the U.S. due to overcrowding was blocked in May after a lawsuit from Florida. 

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As for coverage on ABC’s "World News Tonight," CBS’ "Evening News" and "NBC Nightly News," criticism was largely reserved for Republicans, according to the study. 

"Almost without exception, discussions about political issues involving the border portrayed Republicans as ruthless border hawks with no capacity for empathy," D'Agostino wrote. "The broadcast networks never once used the term ‘illegal immigration,’ ‘illegal immigrant’ or ‘illegal alien.’"

ABC, CBS and NBC did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Fox News’ Ashlyn Messier and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

A state senator and member of the California reparations task force dismissed concerns about the financial costs and political will to deliver "free tuition, home loan assistance and tax breaks" to qualifying Black residents in the state, saying these could "be easily provided."

Last month the task force recommended compensating qualifying Black residents up to $1 million in cash payments from the state, along with other benefits such as eliminating child support debt and free tuition to public colleges.

 "If you can inherit generational wealth, you can inherit generational debt. This is a debt that is owed to those descendants of slaves and to their ancestors," California state Democratic Sen. Steven Bradford told NPR.

The Democrat argued that Black Californians were being affected by the state's history of upholding the institution through its fugitive slave law. He further argued that many wealthy people today were reaping the benefits of work done by enslaved Black Americans for their ancestors. 

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"Again, many of the folks who are living in luxury and opulence today weren't alive when their land baron grandparents and great-great-great-parents were enslaving Black folks to do the work in order to acquire their wealth. So I think it's a no-brainer here for me," he said.

Bradford also shot down questions asking how "realistic" massive cash payments were, given the state's budget crisis.

"I would not focus on the cash payments, but all those other things - health care, free tuition, homebuyers assistance, tax breaks - all those can be easily provided to descendants of slaves," he argued. The Democrat recommended the state give eligible Black residents benefits in the same way veterans receive benefits for education or training.

He denied that cash payments were the highest priority of the task force and blasted critics highlighting their cost as "misrepresenting the overall purpose of reparations."

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"I'm just being a realist here and, you know, on a level set for folks that if it's not cash payments, there are other ways that we can compensate individuals. So I think cash payments are a distraction, and that gives the other side a reason to say no to reparations. So to singularly focus on cash payments, I think, is doing this a big injustice and misrepresenting the overall purpose of reparations. And that was to provide some kind of restitution, so to speak, for the harms and atonement for 250 years of free labor in this country," he told NPR.

The Democrat previously warned African Americans in the state not to get their "hopes up" for massive reparations payments.

The task force's final report released in June came after California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that California’s budget deficit has grown to nearly $32 billion.

Economists predicted in a preliminary estimate in March that California's reparations plan could cost the cash-strapped state more than $800 billion. The task force said at the time that the total didn't include compensation for property deemed to be taken unjustly or for the devaluation of Black-owned businesses.

Fox News' Aaron Kliegman and Alexander Hall contributed to this report.