The prime-time hearing began at 8 p.m. When spokesman Benny Thompson ordered the hearing, Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson ignored him. Carlson said the “ruling class” was giving “another lecture on January 6.” He called the hearing “propaganda” and rejoiced at his refusal to broadcast it. “They’re lying,” he said, “and we’re not going to help them do that.”
Carlson then lied to himself: he said that “if something remarkable happens” at the hearing, “obviously we’ll get it to you right away.” But his show didn’t do that.
When Thompson said January 6 was “the culmination of a coup attempt,” Carlson asked why the media was interested. He made little mention of Donald Trump, although the former president’s conspiracy to undermine American democracy was at the center of the hearing. Instead, he talked a lot about Democrats and wondered why other networks were “colluding” with the House by broadcasting the hearing on television. “Because Democrats and the left are desperate,” said his guest Jason Whitlock.
When Liz Cheney revealed many of the committee’s findings for the first time, Carlson said everyone knew that America “may face some real problems very soon;” he hinted that Congress should not waste time on 1/6 investigation; and called Thompson and Cheney “lunatics.”
Carlson sounded like an amateur magician trying to distract children when a show falls apart: “Look here, not from there.” He said: “Gas is over five dollars. Inflation is higher than it has been in most Americans’ lives. Violent crime makes cities uninhabitable, and more than 100,000 Americans were addicted to drugs last year. Why isn’t there the best rumor of any of this? “
Fox neglected his own role
All night, Fox downplayed the Jan. 6 violence and dismissed revelations about Trump’s behavior. The network also ignores its own role in promoting false allegations of pre-riot elections and the commission’s publication of personal messages between some of its hosts.
When Cheney read a text exchange between Fox stars Sean Hannity and Kaylee McEnnany the day after the riot, with Hannit insisting “no more crazy people” and “no more stolen election talk”, Carlson showed the show live on other networks and had fun of these networks. He did not mention anything about the lyrics.
Newsmax, Fox’s right-wing rival, actually showed most of Cheney’s remarks, but was cut off for analysis by pro-Trump commentators. Web banners have also promoted Trump’s conversations and sometimes Newsmax’s own app.
Contrary to Fox, when the committee showed an unprecedented video of the Capitol attack, with horrifying images from surveillance cameras and other sources, Carlson’s producers showed sterile live photos from the hearing room, but not the video. One of his banners read, “TODAY’S LISTENING IS POLITICAL THEATER.”
When the video ended, Newsmax’s Rob Schmidt said: “We saw a lot worse in the summer of 2020, prompted by comments on the other side of the aisle that burned down the country’s big cities. Where is the hearing on the issue? they don’t have that rumor because they don’t care about your life, where you live. “
When Sean Hannity began his Fox program at 9 p.m., he did the same thing Carlson did: he showed a quiet live video of the hearing and spoke all the time. Haniti said the hearing – still ongoing – was “the dumbest, most boring” democratic “fundraising”. He didn’t play a word of Cheney’s words. Instead, he focused on security vulnerabilities and blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
When the commission swore in its witnesses, Fox banners called the hearing “SHAMA” and “ANTI-TRUMP SHOW PRODUCT.”
When the injured policewoman Caroline Edwards described how she was fired in front of the Capitol, the editor-in-chief of The Federalist MZ Hemingway wrote on Twitter: “Is the Soviet-style show going on?” in the blood of the people “outside the Capitol, Haniti said the hearing was a failure:” They promised too much, they did not fulfill. ” In a way, he claimed to already know this, even though he was live on television during the second part of the hearing. And no, he never acknowledged his own texts or his own role as an adviser to Trump.
When the hearing was over and analysts from other networks absorbed the vastness of what was presented, the media story about Trump was already baked. In Newsmax, Schmidt dismissed it as “a completely one-sided hearing on something that happened a year and a half ago.” On Fox, the banner of Laura Ingraham’s show at 10pm read “JAN 6 The 6th Committee Fails in Prime Time”.
“Do not get me wrong…”
Why does the right-wing media opposition matter? Because it ensures that the country remains on two very different paths of information.
“Don’t get me wrong: these hearings are crucial and every American should watch them,” The Atlantic writer Tom Nichols wrote on Thursday. “But the alternate reality in which about forty percent of us live will never be disrupted by real facts.” Dispatch Editor-in-Chief David French estimated that “tens of millions” still do not understand the reality of January 6, largely because the news and the people they trust deliberately lie and / or conceal the pure truth about Trump and this Of course, Fox News said days earlier that it would not show the hearing at its best on its lead network, but it was still amazing to see the network follow its plan to ignore the news. Aidan McLaughlin has not abstained on Mediaite: “The horrific violence footage that is currently being broadcast is the reason this hearing is not being broadcast on Fox News. So they may be lying about it,” he tweeted to Fox Business Network. There is little coverage of the main channel. did not put a box in the corner of the screen, pressing the news. Instead, Brett Bayer tweeted a reminder that he was in Fox Business, and critical responses piled up.
Made for TV?
“We’ve all heard that this is going to be a television hearing, a presentation designed to get the public’s attention in a way that ordinary Capitol Hill events just don’t do,” Oliver Darcy wrote. “In particular, we heard that the 1/6 commission consulted with former ABC News president James Goldston to help with the production. The New York Times is annoyed that Goldston was hired to “produce the hearings as if they were a documentary drama or a must-see mini-series.”
“But in reality, the hearing didn’t look like a ‘docudrama’ or a ‘mini-series to watch.’ It’s not even close, “Darcy wrote.” Instead, he mostly used the style of a standard Capitol Hill hearing. Yes, there was a compelling video package showing the brutal violence of the day. at the hearing, included only part of the two-hour affair. “
The hearing “was not as much shock and awe as it should have been,” Deadline editor-in-chief Dominic Patton wrote shortly afterwards. “Despite the praise from the TV-speaking heads, it was the NPR when it was supposed to be the UFC.” Hollywood Reporter critic Frank Sheck disagreed: “It remains to be seen whether what follows in the coming weeks will do something to move the needle between citizens who appear to have settled in their respective positions. there will be very powerful material for those with an open mind to master. ” A version of this article first appeared in the Reliable Sources newsletter. You can register for free here.
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