This past week, the nation's media complex fell prey to paroxysms of glee over the anniversary of the riot on the Capitol on January 6. Considering their obsession with this event for a full year, you just knew they would be in a state of embarrassing ardor for the arrival of that date on the new calendar. That the utter misrepresentation of things has been the practice all that time, it is of zero surprise that we would see hyperbolic remembrances and a day-long.
What is a surprise, however, is that the media still believes they are swaying minds on this matter. After all the time spent building up the riot as some far larger nefarious action, fewer people are buying into the hype. Yet they persist with the pitch, like wayward car salesmen desperate to get people onto their lot. They hung the banners, strung up the bunting, and installed balloon arches, but they found few buyers.
It began on New Year's Day, with The New York Times sending out its editorial, "Every Day Is Jan. 6 Now." This is how misbegotten the news outlets have become. After trying to outdo each other with the hysteria – this has been the worst attack on the country since 9/11, since Pearl Harbor, since the Civil War, since 1812, since EVER – The Times now declares it is taking place every day in "Groundhog Day" fashion. They cannot even grasp the inherent contradiction they are delivering; that the riot was a never-before-seen event of historic propositions, AND it is a quotidian occurrence we experience each day of our existence.
This hysterical sales pitch has led to mounting apathy in the populace. Despite their strained efforts to keep this story alive all year, the general public is not responding accordingly. Take a look at the various ways this push to declare the Capitol riot as the worst blot on this nation has failed to take root.
Recommended
The January 6 Commission
Considered another sequel in the Impeach Trump franchise, this production has been ineptly performed and poorly received by audiences. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did her work in making this a rigged kangaroo court by denying the Republicans their proper placement of names on the commission. She instead hand-picked RINOs Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, meaning this is not a valid committee. Rep. Liz Cheney incorrectly asserted she is a ranking member on the commission, which is not only incorrect but has possible legal ramifications.
This is something the press has failed to address with any enthusiasm. When Mark Meadows was subpoenaed by the commission, he cited the lack of proper minority party representation as one of the causes for not honoring the subpoena. He has a lawsuit drawn up against the committee.
Even with this rigged setup, Pelosi is not exactly delivering the goods. The press has energetically covered the hearings, despite an abject lack of evidence to any true plotting. The biggest revelation has been the release of text messages between Fox personalities and Trump administration officials – messages that called to end the riot, proving they were not encouraging the alleged takeover of the government.
The Provably False Claims
All year long, the media has declared the riot an "insurrection" and those arrested as being guilty of treason. Doing so sees the press abandoning the common journalism practice of assuming innocence before a conviction, as they abandon the use of "alleged" or "accused," which has been the common practice. Despite few court appearances thus far, this detail cannot be said enough – because they cannot stop with the accusation – that is, of the hundreds of people arrested over the January 5 riot, not a single person has been charged with insurrection or treasonous acts.
Yet, we have the press declaring them guilty of crimes not even charged. Couple that behavior with the complete disinterest in the FBI declaring it has found zero evidence of plotting behind the riot and the mere fact only a handful of individuals have weapons charges against them, the claims of this being an armed insurrection dissolve completely.
The Polls
Just ahead of the glorious anniversary, Morning Consult released a poll that showed the results of a question concerning whether the Republican Party was moving in the right direction. The results were shown from August 2020, last January after the riot, and today. Across the political spectrum, the favorability of the GOP has not only recovered, but it's slightly higher than it had been before the riot. Most surprising, the favorable impression among Democrats has doubled, from 7% to now at 15%.
Another poll from CBS News shows the vast bipartisan majority view January 6 as a riot that went wrong. Across most polls, you saw that interest in the story was waning, support for the commission was eroding, and any influence shifting the thinking to more agreement with the press was nonexistent.
The Ratings
This is where the yearlong obsessive practice reaches mystifying levels. You would think that eventually, the realization would arrive that people are simply not being drawn into the hysteria. The claims of insurrection, ongoing threats to the nation, and the promise of our democracy being on the edge of ruin have been perpetual for the entire year, and people have tired of it. They are not on board, and this was shown on Thursday. The day of events and coverage on CNN and MSNBC led to miserable ratings. From Joe Biden's speech in the morning to the replays of the videos to the intonations of doom for the nighttime hours, both networks saw only a blip of increase in audience.
Brian Stelter predictably moaned how Fox News was not covering much of the day's activities. He even stated how with his speech, "Biden set the non-Fox news agenda for the entire day, and his words will carry through into Friday's coverage too." And that has led to dismal returns. No matter how you measure it, MSNBC and CNN were trounced by Fox throughout January 6. Fox led every hour, and in total day numbers, it was near 50% higher than MSNBC and more than doubled CNN's audience.
And once Mr. Stelter resorts to his tried methods of downplaying the ratings, recall that his network was deeply impressed with themselves one year ago, as they crowed about their ratings during the riot.
Yesterday was @CNN's most watched day in history w/ 5.221 million tuning in on television during the Capitol Insurrection. CNN outperformed other broadcast and cable news nets. 72 million turned to CNN Digital with a peak streaming audience of 1.8 million. https://t.co/HGVOCwdQxK pic.twitter.com/d7Nu03LSId
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) January 7, 2021
The Commission Makeup
If you do not want your investigative body to be regarded as theater, maybe starting your January 6 session being serenaded by the cast of Hamilton was a bad look? This display was a perfect example of just how tone-deaf and melodramatic all of this operation has been.
What is the most revelatory aspect in all of this coverage from the past year is how manufactured the entire narrative has been. I already listed off the disqualifying details the press has elected to overlook. But now look at the reports from last week where they listed off the names of those officers who supposedly died in the riot. Starting with Officer Brian Sicknick, who was shown to have died from natural causes sometime after the riot, also included have been those who committed suicide well after the events. Politicizing their deaths in this fashion is just ghoulish.
Added to this list was William Evans, an officer killed in April last year, in a completely unconnected event. It is egregious and desperate for them to build up this list in such a partisan fashion in order to dramatize what they are selling. It only goes further to illustrate that people are rightfully walking away from these carnival barkers.
It remains a mystery to see how much longer they will cling to this methodology. At some point, a dawning has to come over the Democrats, the journalists, and their networks that this gameplan is a losing proposition with the American public and their audience.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member