I thought it would be interesting – despite being distasteful — to watch Fox “News” coverage of the events held for the one-year anniversary of the January 6, 2021, insurrection – so I did. There was a full day of events scheduled beginning with addresses by President Biden and Vice-President Harris, followed by testimonials from members of Congress who were hiding in the Capitol that day in fear of their lives, and closing with a vigil. I watched some of it and found the testimonials moving and illuminating and Biden’s talk hard hitting. I agree with MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace who called it a “blistering speech…slamming Donald Trump.”
Fox followed coverage of Biden and Harris’ talks with a show hosted by Fox commentators Trace Gallagher, Dana Perino, and Brett Baier. The first reaction was from Perino who called Biden’s speech “divisive and political,” points echoed in Fox shows throughout the day. It certainly was political in the sense that it went after Trump and the Big Lie. I don’t think it contributed to making us more divided than we are already. To the contrary, my hope is that Biden’s forceful enumeration of the evidence countering the Big Lie convinced some of the 60% or so of Republicans who believe it! Polls indicate that that percentage has gone down, and perhaps the main hope for our democracy is for it to go down a lot more.
Baier’s first reaction to Biden’s talk almost sounded admiring — that it was “forceful, aggressive, and pointed.” Baier is more moderate than the more extreme Fox commentators like Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham. On his own show later in the day, Baier even had an interview with Liz Cheney and offered “reflections on a dark day.” Other commentators downplayed what happened on January 6, 2021. Carlson put insurrection in quotes and said it was “barely a riot,” that it barely deserves a footnote in history and asks; “Why are we still talking about it, obsessing over it.” Carlson and Hannity were especially incensed by Kamala Harris likening it in significance to the December 7th attack on Pearl Harbor and 9/11. They called her “absurd” and “ludicrous.”
But it is far from absurd. All Fox commentators only consider Jan 6 as a one-day, one-off event that got “ugly.” None of them recognize that the January 6 attack/riot/insurrection is so significant because it was just one part – a very violent part, yes — of a coup attempt orchestrated by Trump, the President of the country, and his many allies in and out of Congress, a plot to overthrow the elected government of the United States. This never happened in the history of the country, and that is why the date should be seen as significant as the others Harris mentioned.
Carlson and Hannity spent a lot of both of their shows trying to compare the insurrection to violence that sometimes accompanied BLM protests during the summer of 2020. They recited statistics of over 500 violent acts, people killed, injured police, and billions in damage and showed violent footage. They both ask, “Where is the commission to investigate this violence?” They basically ignore that the BLM protests were overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrations by millions of people. They excoriate Harris, showing clips of her supporting the BLM protests making it seem like she was supporting the violence that sometime occurred. There is no investigation needed of that violence beyond what local officials have done to bring the perpetrators to justice. If a national commission is needed, it is to investigate the racism in this country that BLM is responding to. This comparison of January 6 and BLM makes no sense. The January 6 committee is investigating a coup attempt!