This
column is about the media, and this moment exemplifies America's two
parallel tracks of media. So if you watched Thursday night's hearing
by the House's 1/6 committee, shown live by most of the major TV
networks in the United States, let me tell you what I watched on
right-wing TV at the same time.
The
prime-time hearing began at 8 p.m. Eastern time. When Rep. Bennie
Thompson gaveled the hearing to order, Fox News host Tucker Carlson
ignored him. Carlson declared that the "ruling class" was giving "yet
another lecture about January 6." He called the hearing "propaganda" and
reveled in his refusal to air it. "They are lying," he said, "and we
are not going to help them do it."
Carlson
then lied himself: He said "if something noteworthy happens" at the
hearing, "obviously we will bring it to you immediately." But his show
did not do that.
When
Thompson said January 6 was "the culmination of an attempted coup,"
Carlson asked why the news media cared at all. He barely mentioned
Donald Trump, even though the former president's plot to undermine
American democracy was the focal point of the hearing. Instead, he
talked a lot about Democrats and questioned why other networks were
committing "collusion" with the House by televising the hearing.
"Because the Democrats and the left are desperate," his guest Jason
Whitlock said.
When
Rep. Liz Cheney revealed many of the committee's findings for the first
time, Carlson said everyone knows that America "could face some real
problems real soon;" implied that Congress shouldn't be wasting its time
on the 1/6 investigation; and called Thompson and Cheney "lunatics."
Carlson
sounded like an amateur magician who tries to distract kids when a
performance falls apart: "Look over here, not over there." He said, "Gas
is over five bucks. Inflation is higher than it's been in the lifetime
of most Americans. Violent crime is making cities impossible to live in,
and more than one hundred thousand Americans ODed on drugs last year.
Why isn't there a prime time hearing about any of that?"
Fox ignored its own role
All
evening long, Fox downplayed the violence of January 6 and dismissed
the revelations about Trump's conduct. The network also ignored its own
role in promoting false claims about the election before the riot and
the committee's publication of private messages between some of its
hosts.
When
Cheney read a text exchange between Fox stars Sean Hannity and Kayleigh
McEnany from the day after the riot, with Hannity urging "no more crazy
people" and "no more stolen election talk," Carlson showed the live
coverage on other networks and made fun of those networks. He did not
mention anything about the texts.
Newsmax,
Fox's right-wing rival, actually showed most of Cheney's remarks, but
cut away for analysis from pro-Trump commentators. The network's banners
also promoted Trump's talking points and, at times, Newsmax's own app.
Back on Fox, when the committee showed a never-before-seen video
of the Capitol being attacked, with terrifying images from surveillance
cameras and other sources, Carlson's producers showed sterile live
shots of the hearing room, but not the video. One of his banners said
"TODAY'S HEARING IS POLITICAL THEATER."
When
the video concluded, Newsmax's Rob Schmitt said, "we saw a lot worse in
the summer of 2020, spurred on by comments from the other side of the
aisle, that burned major cities in this country down. Where's the
hearing on that? Well they don't have that hearing, 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 silent live video of the hearing and talked over
it the entire time. Hannity said the hearing -- still in progress -- was
"the dullest, the most boring" Democratic "fund-raiser." He didn't play
a word of what Cheney said. He focused instead on security lapses and
laid the blame directly at House speaker Nancy Pelosi's feet.
When the committee swore in its witnesses, Fox's banners called the hearing a "SHAM" and an "ANTI-TRUMP SHOW TRIAL."
When
injured police officer Caroline Edwards described how she was tear
gassed outside the Capitol, The Federalist editor in chief MZ Hemingway tweeted, "Is the Soviet-style show trial still going on?"
When Edwards described "carnage" and said she was "slipping in peoples' blood"
outside the Capitol, Hannity said the hearing was a failure: "They
overpromised, they underdelivered." Somehow he claimed to know that
already, even though he was on live TV during part two of the hearing.
And no, he never acknowledged his own texts or his own role as an
adviser to Trump.
When
the hearing concluded, and analysts on the other networks absorbed the
enormity of what was presented, the pro-Trump media narrative was
already baked. On Newsmax, Schmitt dismissed it as a "completely
one-sided hearing about something that happened a year and a half ago."
On Fox, the banner on Laura Ingraham's 10pm show said "JAN 6TH COMMITTEE
FLOPS IN PRIMETIME."
"Don't get me wrong..."
Why
does the right-wing media opposition matter? Because it ensures that
the country stays on two wildly different tracks of information.
"Don't
get me wrong: These hearings are crucial and every American should be
watching them," The Atlantic contributing writer Tom Nichols wrote
Thursday. "But the alternate reality that about forty percent of us
live in will never be breached by actual facts." The Dispatch senior
editor David French estimated
that "tens of millions" of people still don't understand "the reality
of January 6 in large part because the news outlets and personalities
they trust are deliberately lying and/or withholding the plain truth
about Trump and that dreadful day."
Of
course, Fox News said days in advance that it would not show the prime
time hearing on its flagship network, but it was still extraordinary to
see the network follow through on its ignore-the-news plan. Mediaite's
editor in chief Aidan McLaughlin did not hold back: "The footage of
horrific violence being aired right now is why this hearing isn't airing
on Fox News. So they can lie about it," he tweeted.
Fox's
actual hearing coverage was relegated to the Fox Business Network,
which has a tiny fraction of the main channel's viewership. The coverage
also streamed on Fox Nation and was available to Fox broadcast
stations. Notably, however, Carlson and Hannity's shows did not point to
those outlets or promote those options. They did not put a box in the
corner of the screen pushing to the news. Instead, Bret Baier tweeted a
reminder that he was on Fox Business, and critical replies piled up.
NBC News correspondent Yamiche Alcindor worried Democrats would have a difficult time making Americans "care" and pay attention to the January 6 hearings, amid high gas prices, inflation, and a baby formula shortage. Appearing in a MSNBC panel Monday, Alcindor told host Andrea Mitchell that the "biggest challenge" the January 6 House Select Committee faced was getting Americans to have the same level of concern for their investigation. "I think the biggest challenge for lawmakers here as they talk about these sort of huge ideas of American democracy and sort of the experiment that we’re all living and benefiting from possibly being brought to his knees is whether or not they can make people care, Andrea," she said. Link 1 Link 2 Link 3 September 18 Post By Học Để Thi | Breaking News, Latest News and Videos Tranganhnam.xyz
Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon discuss President Donald Trump's comments about race after the 2019 Oscars. Be nice if Spike Lee could read his notes, or better yet not have to use notes at all, when doing his racist hit on your President, who has done more for African Americans (Criminal Justice Reform, Lowest Unemployment numbers in History, Tax Cuts,etc.) than almost any other Pres! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 25, 2019 The left loves to hate on Trump, calling him a racist and what not. I know Trump can be juvenile sometimes – certainly – but the racist and hateful name-calling is just what it is, garbage.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez scrambled Sunday to explain why neighbors at her listed Bronx address never saw her there — and ended up claiming she recently relocatedto a larger place nearby. The day after The Post reported that residents said they had never seen her around — and she ducked questions about it after an appearance — her spokesman said the Democratic freshman congresswoman now lives with her boyfriend in a two-bedroom apartment “a block and a half away.’’ The pair relocated there earlier this month, he said. “She lives in the same neighborhood she’s lived in for years,” said the spokesman, Corbin Trent. “She is not living in the exact same condo.’’ The recent move still didn’t explain why residents at her previous digs — a one-bedroom Bronx condo owned by her mom — insisted they had never seen her there. U.S. reps and senators are required to have a residence in their home districts. Trent claimed that Ocasio-Cortez, 29, was at her new home Sunday afternoon, al
