FLASHBACK: How Fox News cheered on Jan. 6 insurrection in real time
Fox News ran cover for the Jan. 6 insurrection as it played out in real time, even as its anchors have condemned the violence since then.
The conservative network's "straight news" side has denounced the riots, although its prime-time hosts like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity have downplayed the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol, but Fox News covered the insurrection as a "peaceful" protest as Donald Trump supporters assaulted law enforcement and forced their way inside the building, reported The Daily Beast.
"Over wide-angle footage of the mob violently clashing with police officers, clouds of tear gas visible in the foreground, Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich touted the 'energy' of the MAGA mob and how 'it can be funneled to places where it can make a difference next time around,'" the website reported. "Daytime anchor Harris Faulkner gushed over her colleague’s remarks: 'Yeah, I love the positivity of that,' she said."
Chief political anchor Bret Baier downplayed the violence playing out moments later, perhaps unaware that Trump supporters had broken inside the Capitol chanting their intention to "hang Mike Pence."
“It’s not like it’s a siege," Baier said. "It seems like they are protesting.”
Fellow anchor Martha MacCallum agreed, claiming the event "remains peaceful" despite reporting moments earlier that an injured police officer had just been carried away from the chaos.
“It has been peaceful, everything we have seen so far has been nothing but peaceful, but they are definitely fired up,” reported correspondent Griff Jenkins, who was stationed outside the Capitol. “The chants I heard the most today was, ‘Fight for Trump.’ That is what many feel they are doing here, protesting. We will see where the day goes.”
The anchors eventually were forced to acknowledge the violence, and they switched their focus to justifying the mob's assault on Congress.
“There is tear gas being used in the rotunda, members are being told to get the gas masks under their seats, the other question, where is the vice president?” MacCallum said. “We were told he was rushed out of the chamber… This answers the question: I was under the assumption they would be safe in the chamber, that was before we realized people had breached the building and were walking through the rotunda.”
“This is a huge victory for these protesters," she added. "They have disrupted the system in an enormous way!”
Even before the network's prime-time hosts engaged in whataboutism comparison of the Trump mob to Black Lives Matter protests, Fox News reporters floated the idea as the riot raged.
“One of the points that the demonstrators are making is that this is different from what we've seen with the BLM-type demonstrations because aside from some of the things that were broken getting into the Capitol and, disregarding the reports now of the woman who was shot, but aside from the things that were broken getting into the Capitol in terms of doors, they say there is no vandalism taking place,” Fox News reporter Mike Tobin told viewers. “This is people sending a message.”
“I'm just reflecting their viewpoints and what people have said to me out here," he added.
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