Fox News made headlines earlier this week with the announcement that they would be the only network to not provide live coverage of the House Jan. 6 committee hearing, but instead would “cover the hearings as news warrants.” Which meant an uninterrupted Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity—they had no commercial breaks—providing a full-throated defense of Donald Trump. They brought in a pack of lying grifters to help, as The Washington Post’s Philip Bump called them, the “who’s who of the Carlsonverse.” Carlson made clear early on what to expect.
“The whole thing is insulting. In fact, it’s deranged,” Carlson said. “And we’re not playing along. This is the only hour on an American news channel that will not be carrying their propaganda live. They are lying, and we’re not going to help them do it.” By which he meant they were not showing the reality of that horrific day. Literally. An NBC News producer captured what Fox was doing in this clip:
That, as Bump says, is far worse than just ignoring the hearing. It, as usual, presented an alternate reality in which nefarious Democrats were pushing propaganda to distract the nation. "Look over here, not over there," Carlson 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?"
While the committee was airing new, raw, and grisly footage of the attack on the Capitol, the attack on police, the mob trying to break onto the House floor where members of Congress were trapped, Carlson was blaring “political theater.”
When injured police officer Caroline Edwards was testifying about her injuries, about being tear-gassed, about the “carnage,” the “hand-to-hand combat” and how she was “slipping in people’s blood,” Hannity had Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) discuss how the committee was fueling “more unhinged anti-Trump rage,” and attack Democratic committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin (MD). Here’s one banner displayed during Edwards’ testimony, declaring they had “exposed” the committee as a “partisan sham.”
Speaking of Republicans, the supposed constitutional scholar Lee wasn’t the only one trying to change the subject.
Which tells you precisely what was going on here. Carlson, Hannity, and the entire network are functioning as the propaganda arm of the MAGA/GOP, and Republicans like Mike Lee are enthusiastically on board. They’re going to present a flurry of conspiracy theories and lies as their rebuttal against the very real news that was presented Thursday night, and that is coming in the days ahead.
As Mark Sumner writes, the previews of what’s to come in follow-up hearings is very, very bad for Donald Trump, and very, very bad for Republicans. Especially those who participated in what the committee is on its way to proving: a seditious conspiracy. Oh, and Sean Hannity? Don’t think you’re not going to feature in it.
We talk to gun control advocate and executive director of Guns Down America, Igor Volsky on Daily Kos' The Brief podcast
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