RWNJ media remain viable still. The insurrectionists and their planners have had to provide insights to the 1/6 Select Committee about the timeline and order of battle for what some claim was LARPing and cosplay. Bannon remains a person of interest because of his subpoena resistance (trial in July) and Alex Jones pled the Fifth 100 times. 1/6 had brought attention to what is a much broader range of insurgent behavior, likely including other groups that will eventually mock our intelligence.
Two years after being cast out of the White House, Stephen K. Bannon spoke from a steep, dusty hill outside El Paso, asking for donations. The former investment banker and Hollywood producer wanted cash in 2019 for his latest quest, to privately build President Donald Trump’s stalled border wall.
Not many news outlets were paying attention — except for one focusing on his every word.
It wasn’t Fox News or Newsmax. It wasn’t even Breitbart News, the far-right website Bannon once led, using it to help remake the GOP and elect Trump.
The coverage came from an upstart network run by a little-known media mogul in Colorado, a felon with a record of unpaid taxes and a family history marked by tragedy and violence. The mogul, Robert J. Sigg, found news value in Bannon’s mission to the desert, which ultimately resulted in fraud charges.
When Bannon launched his own talk show in the fall of 2019, calling it “War Room,” he quickly handed over its distribution to Sigg.
More than two years later, the arrangement has paid off for both men. Sigg used “War Room” as a springboard for an expanded network of conservative hosts — bringing him the commercial opportunity he sought.
The network, Real America’s Voice, helped sustain Bannon despite his removal from YouTube, Spotify and other mainstream platforms. It brings his show into as many as 8 million homes hooked up to Dish satellite television, many in rural, conservative areas without reliable cable coverage.
The rise of Real America’s Voice, built around Bannon and distant from the traditional power structures of cable television and talk radio, reveals how the country’s fractured media landscape has empowered unconventional actors following market incentives toward more and more extreme content.
www.washingtonpost.com/...
Pro-Trump broadcaster and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones told listeners that he asserted his Fifth Amendment rights nearly 100 times during an interview Monday with the Jan. 6 select committee.
But during a Monday evening broadcast, Jones, who had been subpoenaed last November, gave his audience what he characterized as his “unofficial testimony.” He described the questions the committee asked him about his contacts with GOP fundraiser Caroline Wren — who he described as a liaison with the White House for logistics related to Donald Trump’s rally — and his movements throughout Jan. 6, as Trump supporters attacked the Capitol.
“My contact for the fifth and the sixth was Caroline Wren,” he said. “And that's what I called [a] White House contact.”
Jones attributed his decision to plead the Fifth to advice from his attorneys, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
www.politico.com/…
The highlights: Here’s the rundown from Jones, who called the committee’s questions “overall pretty reasonable.”
- Jones said the Jan. 6 committee seemed to have a lot of detailed information about him — that they displayed images of text messages he had with Wren and Cindy Chafian, who organized a pro-Trump rally on Jan. 5. Both Wren and Chafian had been subpoenaed by the committee last fall.
- Jones said he started to have doubts about leading a march to the Capitol when he saw the unwieldy crowd that had formed at Trump’s ellipse speech. “You know, maybe we just won’t do this,” he said he thought to himself. He said he continued, however, when Secret Service agents came and opened up the gate. After he arrived at the Capitol and witnessed some of the ongoing mayhem, Jones was seen on video repeatedly attempting to steer the crowd away from police lines.
- Jones said the committee asked about his contacts with Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. On his show, he said he ate at a Hooters in Atlanta with some members of the Proud Boys after a pro-Trump rally there.
- He said he didn’t use Proud Boys or Oath Keepers as security — and that he didn’t see them as a significant paramilitary threat. “I saw it all as LARPing. I saw a lot of it as playing soldier in the backyard,” he said, mentioning the recent indictment of the group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes, and others on a seditious conspiracy charge.
www.politico.com/...
“In 2017, Seddon trained Project Veritas operatives at Mr. Prince’s family ranch in Wyoming, according to training documents and former operatives. He helped oversee a surge in hiring, often interviewing prospective employees at an airport in Wyo., close to the Prince ranch.”
Maybe the anti-mandate cops will come for your teachers. The LARPers have already come for the school boards.