“In the early stages of the siege, Newsmax chose to pretend that nothing unusual was happening on Capitol Hill; that, in fact, those who had shown up in D.C. to express their displeasure with the election results exemplified the best of American democracy in action
“There are thousands of people outside the Capitol who have walked up Pennsylvania Avenue … and they are making their voices known,” said Newsmax fill-in anchor Tom Basile.
“I’d like to know who the agitators were,” Fox News host Sean Hannity told viewers, referring to the people seen marching on the Capitol after Trump urged them to in a speech outside the White House. Hannity maintained that “those who truly support President Trump … do not support those that commit acts of violence.”
Fox
Around 2 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, as a horde of violent, paranoid morons, inflamed by fictitious tales of electoral malfeasance and goaded into action by a nihilistic president, stormed the U.S. Capitol, a Touro College professor named Thane Rosenbaum went on Newsmax TV to praise the crowd for its forbearance.
“I think today is a demonstration of the vibrancy of our democracy. You’ve got tens of thousands of people standing outside of the Capitol, exercising their First Amendment rights of freedom of association and freedom of speech,” said Rosenbaum, who in his royal-blue blazer and eyeglasses looked a bit like an emissary from Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium. “I think that’s sort of a romantic idea.”
Newsmax
“. . . . .the right-wing news ecosystem ― from the mainstream Fox News to far-right conspiracy networks such as Newsmax and One America News Network ― has spent months priming audiences to believe in delusions that the election had been rigged and corrupted by nefarious Democrats. At times, it has even suggested radical solutions.
“The biggest stars at Fox News and other outlets have repeatedly promoted the lie that Trump was the rightful winner and that the election was being stolen from him. There has been a relentless message that the United States faces a crisis of democracy and that Trump is the only thing standing between the country and left-wing anarchists.
But right-wing media has amplified and legitimized these baseless conspiracies, sharing fringe theories and debunked claims with millions of viewers each night.
A common refrain was a claim that the protesters were “infiltrated” by outside “agitators” in an effort to embarrass the president and his supporters — a claim for which no evidence was presented. (Cont)
Source: Washington Post Slate Huffington Post
