Fox News refuses to air Jan. 6 violence while trashing hearing as “boring” and “propaganda”
Fox News was the only news network not to carry the first day of the Jan. 6 committee hearings as its hosts repeatedly trashed the two-hour hearing without providing their audience any of the content.
The committee detailed a lengthy case against former President Donald Trump’s role, using clips of depositions from former Attorney General Bill Barr, former White House adviser Ivanka Trump, and other former officials to show Trump was well aware his fraud claims were false even as he continued to stoke his supporters ahead of the deadly Capitol riot. The committee also played new video of the violence that took place inside the Capitol and questioned Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards and documentarian Nick Quested, who was embedded with the Proud Boys, about what went on.
Fox News viewers were the only news watchers who didn’t see the hearing Thursday night.
At one point, as the committee showed damning footage of the violence in the Capitol, Fox News cut away from its side graphic showing the hearing to a panned-out shot of the hearing room.
Host Tucker Carlson bragged that his network was the only one not to air the hearings — which were even carried live by far-right Newsmax.
“This is the only hour on an American news channel that will not be carrying their propaganda live,” Carlson said. “They are lying and we are not going to help them do it. What we will do instead is try to tell you the truth.”
Media Matters’ Matt Gertz reported that Carlson did not go to commercial break once during the hearing he did not show.
“Fox is desperate to keep its viewers from switching to another channel and seeing the hearing in real time,” Gertz tweeted, adding that “they want to push his propaganda so much that they are leaving money on the table to do it.”
Fellow host Sean Hannity also did not air any of the hearing, describing it as the “dullest, the most boring — there’s absolutely nothing new — multi-hour Democratic fundraiser masquerading as a Jan. 6 hearing.”
After the hearing wrapped up, Hannity declared that the “one person that looks good is Donald Trump.”
Though Hannity did not air the hearing, he did make an appearance. Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice-chair of the committee, read Hannity’s text to former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
“No more crazy people” and “no more stolen election talk … Many people will quit,” Hannity warned the White House spokeswoman. McEnany texted back: “Love that. Thank you. That is the playbook.”
Longtime former news anchor Dan Rather trashed the network for not airing the hearing on Twitter: “Maybe the new slogan for Fox News should be: ‘For those who can’t handle the truth.'”
Read more:
Ivanka tells Jan. 6 committee she trusted Bill Barr over her dad on “bullsh*t” fraud claims
Jared Kushner: Trump White House counsel’s threat to quit over Jan. 6 was “just whining”
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