I didn’t watch the Jan. 6 hearings because I figured I could get most of the second-hand information from the Washington Post columns and repeat sessions on CNN. MSNBC, Fox Business and the Networks.
You didn’t disappoint us. Without seeing a minute of the hearings live, I can tell you exactly what Liz Cheney was wearing, how drunk Rudy Giuliani appeared to be, and how Ivanka trusted Bill Barr when he said there was no voter fraud. I can echo Al Schmidt’s statement verbatim on how safe the Philadelphia elections were (good to know, having had my own experience of voter suppression in our city when he was Commissioner of Elections). I can confirm that Attorney General Barr, once the prince of darkness in the eyes of most Democrats, is now something of a hero for calling the allegations of voter fraud bullshit. My trust in the media was restored, they did the heavy lifting for me. Sunday morning programming was particularly insightful, with all channels except Fox talking at length about the hearings and their impact.
But as I listened to the long list of events surrounding January 6th, which were indeed legitimate news, I realized something was missing. At first it wasn’t clear, like when you have a word on the tip of your tongue and it just doesn’t come out.
And then I looked on my bookshelf and noticed all the many books I have on the Supreme Court (yes, I’m a total nerd) and it hit me like Will Smith did at the Oscars: there wasn’t a single news story about the assassination Brett Kavanaugh.
Not on CBS’ Face the Nation. Not on NBC’s Meet the Press. Not on ABC’s World News Sunday. Not on NPR’s “Weekend Edition” as far as I could tell. The only place I could find anything about the man who went to Kavanaugh’s house to kill him was on Fox. Which is ironic because Fox is the only broadcaster that didn’t live stream the Jan. 6 hearings.
When liberals discussed Fox’s refusal to air the Jan. 6 hearings (ignoring that Fox Business Network did just that), they attributed this to the fact that the network was complicit in the “riot.” They called Fox viewers ostriches with their heads stuck in the sand. They cried out about the pathetic nature and character of the station’s so-called journalists. And they’ve been very careful to educate themselves about Tucker Carlson, the High Priest of the White Nationalists. And because I didn’t follow the hearings and made it clear on all social media, I was also labeled as “seditiously neighboring”.
And honestly that’s fine as people believe what they want to believe about the events that happened over a year ago. I know absolutely no one who supports what happened in the Capitol or who excuses it as a legitimate protest. I’ve unfriended and blocked people who babble on about an FBI conspiracy, the same tinfoil hat makers who fill my feed with stories about Dominion voting machines. I’m sorry, Biden won the election. I wish he hadn’t, but he did. Forward to 2024.
But the Jan. 6 hearings are nothing more than a Stalin-era show trial, an attempt to rehash events already well known to the vast majority of Americans, even those unwilling to accept them. It was rioting, it was illegal, it was reactionary, and it was violent. Some of the people who planned it were actually traitors and they should be sentenced to harsh prison terms. Those who dismiss it as a rowdy assembly are not my kind of American. We must have the integrity and honesty to call this a dangerous and despicable moment in our recent history.
And they have impeached Trump for it. It’s garnered more attention than any of the acts of violence that took place during the BLM summer, and if you dare mention that bit of hypocrisy you’ll be told the two events are vastly different. Fair enough.
But since we are talking about hypocrisy, let us return to the attempted assassination of a sitting Supreme Court Justice. The mainstream media’s silence on this event, which happened a week ago and before the court will give a one-off opinion on abortion, is disgusting. Moreover, it is clear evidence that the mainstream media really does carry water for the Democrats these days.
We have prime time productions of an event that took place over a year ago (the country is still here, our institutions are still functioning), but there is virtual silence over the attempted murder of a Supreme Court Justice. Digest that, folks. Think long and hard about what that says about our priorities. It’s not nice.
Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and all the usual suspects hardly break a sweat when confronted with Kavanaugh’s near-assassination. They say that like all Supreme Court justices, he enjoys the protection of US Marshals. They poop any hint that their own rhetoric has fueled the very dangerous, searing flames of anger on the left. They refuse to admit that they and their followers are complicit in the stalking of Kavanaugh’s family by remaining silent.
As someone who writes comments, I do not expect an expert who supports abortion rights to address the terrorist actions of someone who agrees with them. It’s counterintuitive. I don’t expect them to condemn groups like Ruth Sent Us, who posted online where Amy Coney Barrett’s kids go to school and encouraged people to stake out their Catholic church. They’re partisans, like me.
I expect real journalists to write about breaking news, current events, and crime. They’re doing such a cracking job at the January 6 hearings, so I know they have the skills. It’s a damn shame they chose to carry water for the pro-abortion community, violate their professional duties, and literally ignore the deadly harassment of a civil servant they don’t like. The next time one of them stands up and talks about the dangers they face by “breaking the news,” try not to laugh in their face.
Christine Flowers is a lawyer. Her column appears Thursday and Sunday. Email her at [email protected]
