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There was a startling, gloomy uniformity on most major TV channels Thursday night, as broadcast networks abandoned their usual comedies and dramas to side with cable news channels to offer coverage. live from the select committee of the House investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN and MSNBC were among the channels that took two full hours of the audience, an event that largely left it to develop on its own, with few interruptions or improvements, waiting until in the end for your presenters and guests to offer a solemn comment.
“That was horrible,” CBS Evening News presenter Norah O’Donnell said after a Capitol police officer described slipping the blood of an injured colleague and knocking him unconscious. “So many first big bombs,” Jake Tapper told CNN.
The select committee of the House held its first session at prime time on June 9 after spending almost a year investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol. (Video: Mahlia Posey / The Washington Post, Photo: Demetrius Freeman / The Washington Post)
Fox News, however, clung to its usual block of conservative opinion programs, often showing a live view of the proceedings on Capitol Hill, but clearly omitting the accompanying audio, while its hosts and guests went criticize the committee bluntly.
“The most boring, the most boring, there’s absolutely nothing new, a multi-hour Democratic fundraiser disguised as a Jan. 6 hearing,” Fox host Sean Hannity said.
“They’ve interrupted their regularly scheduled programming to offer you another extended harangue in Nancy Pelosi and Liz Cheney’s prime-time schedule on Donald Trump and QAnon,” mocked his fellow Fox Tucker Carlson. “He’s upset and we’re not playing. This is the only time on an American news channel that he won’t broadcast his propaganda live.”
A banner on the screen read: “THE ‘SAMPLE TEST’ ON JANUARY 6 IS IN PROGRESS.”
Live audience coverage was relegated to Fox’s much-watched sister channel, Fox Business Network, where two Fox News presenters spoke during a break. Bret Baier reflected on a compilation video of the riot shared by the committee: “It does take away the thoughts and feelings of that day,” he said. “It was hateful. It was dark.”
“I don’t think there is a lot of new ground that was really pushed here,” co-host Martha MacCallum said. He questioned why the audience did not explore the death of Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter shot by a police officer while storming the Capitol.
Most of the networks were left with a rather austere presentation, adding some of the cool touches that decorate their election nights and other live events. Some offered some current graphics, such as a bulletproof biography of Deputy Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), The committee’s vice chair. There were few attempts at instant synthesis: instead of an updated chyron, the ABC mostly just made a “Attack on the Capitol: The Investigation” banner at the bottom of the screen.
Careful follow-up of the hearings extended to the occasional outbursts of vulgarity revealed in testimonies and documents. Jan. 6 from an adviser to Vice President Mike Pence to a legal adviser to President Donald Trump.
At the Jan. 6, June 9 hearing, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) Stated that President Donald Trump said Vice President Mike Pence “deserved” to be hanged. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post)
Only when the committee paused did the screen images vary greatly from channel to channel. CBS cut a moving scene in a corner of the courtroom of two people weeping together: Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Sandra Garza, longtime girlfriend of Dunn’s late colleague Brian D. Sicknick, who was engaged to the rioters on January 6 and died on January 6. next day.
On CNN, viewers learned of Chris Wallace, the veteran Fox presenter who left the network late last year and later said it was in part because of Carlson’s efforts to minimize Jan. 6 or promote the vision of a conspiracy theorist as a “false flag.” event. Wallace praised the audience as “a very powerful and well-produced presentation,” with special attention to the images of the riots: “They don’t lose their ability to shock and horrify you,” he said. “This is a mob that breaks down the walls of the citadel.”
On NBC, host Chuck Todd told presenter Lester Holt that the audience had provided “the investigation we didn’t get into the second dismissal.” Compared to most Trump-era audiences, he said, “This one really has the receipts. That connects the dots.”
However, they were not convinced on Fox News, where MacCallum and a fellow anchor were more directly related to the background of the audience, after opinion shows were held at 11 p.m.
“Did that move the needle?” asked Shannon Bream, wondering about undecided or hesitant voters.
“I doubt it,” MacCallum replied.