How the news media reported domestic terrorism on Capitol Hill

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The events on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, January 6, 2021 will be remembered as an act of domestic terrorism against the United States; like a national tragedy; and as a real-life manifestation of online radicalization. Here are the top questions leading up to Thursday:

– Is President Trump a danger to the republic? Is he suitable to remain in office until January 20?

– Will the 25th Amendment be invoked, as a wide range of opinion leaders are urging?

– Will retired White House aides like Stephanie Grisham and Sarah Matthews speak in public? If not, why not?

– How many White House assistants will resign? Does Trump have any spokesmen left?

– Will the Murdochs do anything to rein in inflammatory programming on Fox News? What about Newsmax and OAN?

– Will the insurgents attack other locations in DC in the coming days?

– Far from Washington, there were skirmishes in several capitals on Wednesday. Will this continue?

– What will this disaster be called in ten years? The “Trump Riots?”

Now let’s take a look at how the nation’s news media covered this shameful day, starting with Thursday’s front pages. The New York Times says, in capital letters, “TRUMP INCITES MOB.” Washington Post banner headline says “Trump mob storms Capitol.” The Wall Street Journal says “MOB STORMS CAPITOL.”

Writing for history

– Peter Baker’s lead actor for The New York Times: “So this is how it ends.”
– Dan Balz’s head for the Washington Post: “January 6, 2021 will be remembered as one of the darkest days in the history of the United States.”
– Kevin Liptak’s lead for CNN: “Three years, 11 months and 17 days after President Trump warned from the Capitol’s West Front that ‘the American massacre will end here’, the place where he stood was overrun by his own protesters who own massacre. “
America is in a “crisis of reality,” wrote Charlie Warzel, “in which millions of Americans are actively courting conspiracies and violent, radical ideologies to understand a world they do not trust.”
– Jake Tapper from CNN tweeted shortly before midnight, “Folks, it was a dark day. The president and his enablers – and those they lied to – are continuing to test and threaten to destroy the US experiment. But many are pushing back, and I am convinced that we will survive and emerge stronger. Thanks for watching and God bless you. “

“Lies Have Consequences”

Senator Ben Sasse said that on Wednesday: “Lies have consequences.” Other reality-based members of the Republican Party, such as Adam Kinzinger, also denounced the conspiracy theory within their party. But they remained a minority within the GOP.

Many Democrats were much more vigorous in their rejection of the political and media climate in which this was unfolding. Bill Clinton said, “The attack was fueled by more than four years of poison politics that spread deliberate misinformation, sowed suspicion in our system and Americans against each other.” Barack Obama proclaimed both “a political party and its associated media ecosystem” because they were “largely unwilling to tell their followers the truth” about Biden’s victory. And the upcoming majority leader Chuck Schumer denounced Trump along with “the imprisoned media pursuing his lies.”

The rioters organized online

They “had been making plans openly for weeks on both mainstream social media and the pro-Trump Internet,” reported Jane Lytvynenko and Molly Hensley-Clancy of BuzzFeed News. “On forums like TheDonald, a niche website formed after Reddit banned the eponymous subreddit, they pledged violence against lawmakers, police and journalists if Congress didn’t reject the 2020 election results.”
Some rioters have live-streamed their crimes, so there’s a huge amount of video evidence. The FBI is now appealing to the public for information about the riots.

Members of the media were attacked

There were several cases of journalists targeted by rioters on Wednesday. Some news crews traveled with private security – in the country’s capital. In one particularly blatant case, a live shot location outside of the Senate was surrounded by men threatening news crews and damaging TV equipment. The AP confirmed that some of the outlet’s equipment “was stolen and destroyed during today’s violent protests in Washington.”

Postal journalists arrested

“Two Washington Post video journalists,” Zoeann Murphy and Whitney Leaming tweeted on Wednesday night that they had been arrested during the Capitol turmoil, “Lindsey Ellefson of TheWrap wrote. policeman should know. “Our journalists were just doing their job and should never have been arrested. However, we are pleased that the police released them quickly, “said a Post spokesperson.

Notes on cable and transmitter coverage

– “The chaos intensified at an hour when most television networks focused primarily on the convention process,” wrote Jeremy Barr and Paul Farhi of The Post, summarizing the day’s coverage. “It took many reporters and producers time to realize what was going on and shift their coverage as congressional correspondents turned into war correspondents and called up reports while looking for cover.” At the time, anchors and commentators “were quick to mention the rioters’ behavior in fierce, direct language – even on Fox News.”

As the minutes and hours passed, many news outlets stopped saying ‘protesters’ and started saying ‘rioters’ and ‘mobs’.

– CNN “sent internal directives saying staff may call the Capitol Hill riots today” domestic terrorism, “said Max Tani reported.

– Former NBC News director Mark Lukasiewicz, who has been quite critical of his former network and the other broadcasters in recent months, expressed “respect and admiration for the work they did and the risks they endured today. Journalism has never been this way. been essential. “

– ABC and NBC have scrapped their entire prime time lineups for news coverage. CBS initially aired sitcoms at 8 p.m. Eastern, but then resumed a special CBS News report.

– The down-to-earth coverage up and down the dial made Fox’s prime time talk show programming seem all the weirder.

The new story from the right: Antifa, Antifa, Antifa

If you thought Wednesday’s invasion of the Capitol was going to break the fever, think again. “The rioters were Antifa” becomes a standard topic of conversation at the far right. From Sarah Palin to Candace Owens, Laura Ingraham to Lin Wood, many commentators have raised the idea that left-wing radicals were responsible for some of the violence that took place on Wednesday. Texas AG Ken Paxton even tweeted, “These aren’t Trump supporters.” But as Ben Collins pointed out, there were, in fact, recognizable Trump supporters in the Capitol. Blaming the left winger is just a cynical way to apologize for what happened and change the conversation.

What the viewers heard from Fox and Newsmax

Along with all the “Antifa” excuses, here’s a sampling of what was heard on pro-Trump TV, through Oliver Darcy. Everyone condemned the violence, but then …

– Newsmax’s Greg Kelly attacked the media for their coverage, arguing that journalists had been condescending towards Trump supporters. Kelly also interviewed Rudy Giuliani who expressed disappointment in Mike Pence.

– On Fox, Tucker Carlson seemed to exonerate his audience for what had happened: “It’s not your fault, it’s their fault,” he said, continuing his show’s “us-versus-them” theme.

– Carlson also claimed that Wednesday’s events will be used to tackle “civil liberties”.

– At the same time on Newsmax, Grant Stinchfield also slapped the media for not buying into the conspiracy theories for voter fraud.

– Sean Hannity continued to lie about the election, obsessed with voter fraud and focused on the Capitol complex needing more security. His guests complained about left-wing gangs, saying Republicans are held to double standards.

– Laura Ingraham, who made fun of those who said the Black Lives Matter uprisings were predominantly peaceful, continued to point out that most people in DC were peaceful, but “because of a small contingent of Loons, these patriots have been unfairly maligned. “

Notes and quotes

– Stephen Colbert went live on CBS Wednesday night and started his show by asking, “Hey, Republicans who supported this president … are you fed up?”

– Daniel D’Addario of Variety: “ Despite all that Trump’s use of social media has been announced, he was and remains a television animal, and – today – television outdid him by posting violent and disturbing images for the American people to judge. for himself with Trump’s own words. “
– New York Times TV critic James Poniewozik: When the riot unfolded, “Everyone knew he was watching. They would have known even if he hadn’t announced it. Donald Trump is an obsessive binge watcher of his own TV. “He’d spent hours a day as president. Of course he’d be stuck on the next act.”

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