Jan. 6 hearings need to be watched
Jan. 6 hearings need to be watched
Will Doolittle goes out on top with writing award
The Front Page
Morning Update
Wednesday, June 8, 2022
By Ken Tingley
At times, Congressional hearings have played an important role in American history, especially when they were televised.
The Kefauver hearings in the early 1950s starred real-life mobsters straight out of central casting and exposed that organized crime was a real thing.
The McCarthy hearings in 1954 sent shock waves through the United States government that communists had infiltrated the military and State Department. Many were black-listed and had their careers ruined. Eventually, it also led to the fall of Sen. Joe McCarthy.
The Watergate hearings explained the complicated coverup of political espionage to the American people in ways that Woodward and Bernstein’s reporting never could. It led to the resignation of President Nixon. Most importantly, it changed what people believed about a president they had just re-elected.
Those were more innocent times when people trusted the media and those in political office.
The January 6 Commission hearings, which begin in prime time Thursday night, may be the most significant hearings of all. We all saw the events of January 6 unfold on national television. We’ve read news reports about those arrested and those who were plotting to stop the election. It is important for us to understand those events if we want to be considered good citizens.
It is important to understand whether this was an attempt to overturn the will of the American people and whether our democracy is at risk for the future. In other words, this is not only big news, but the future of our country may be at risk.
The major networks - NBC, CBS and ABC - will provide coverage in prime time beginning Thursday at 8 p.m.
MSNBC and CNN will be providing gavel-to-gavel coverage.
But Fox News will not be covering the hearings.
That should be of concern.
Its omission is sending a message the hearings are not only not important, they are not newsworthy at all. The events of Jan. 6 were newsworthy and any investigation into those events are newsworthy as well.
Fox News will be farming out its hearings coverage to its sister network Fox Business. I did not know that network even existed before Wednesday. It averages about 136,000 viewers at any one time, compared to 1.5 million for Fox News.
The news media is not supposed to be partisan. It is not supposed to base its coverage decisions on a political ideology. Many no longer believe that to be true.
The question now is who do we trust. If you believe that every reporter and editor in the main stream media is biased and politically motivated - that would be thousands of journalists - then what about the journalists at PBC or NPR and your local newspapers?
Are they all part of a vast left-wing conspiracy?
If you regularly watch prime time cable outlets and their “opinion” shows you should know by now that it is entertainment. The shows with the highest ratings make a lot of money for their networks and their hosts. They are not journalists. They are not reporters. And their ethics - and their facts - are often in question.
What is even worse is that the emails of Fox News entertainers have shown up as part of the investigation while trying to influence the events of Jan. 6. Any real journalist who did that would be fired.
The January 6 Commission will be provide the American people with facts from their investigation.
If we are open-minded citizens, we should hear what they have found and see if the evidence is persuasive and compelling.
Fox News may not be covering the hearings because it believes it will be bad for its business. It may believe that its core viewers have already made up their mind about Jan. 6 after listening to the prime time entertainers on their network. There is probably some truth to that. In the weeks after Fox News became the first network to declare President Biden’s victory in the election, Fox News ratings went down.
The divisions in our country are intense, but we all should be open to a review of the facts. Sadly, many have made up their mind based on the entertainers they watch regularly on cable news.
That does not bode well for the future of our country.
Make a commitment to being a good citizen this week and tune into the January 6 hearings.
Next event
My next speaking event will be at the Rockwall Falls Public Library in Hadley on Thursday, June 23 at 6:30 p.m.
I will be speaking about life, newspapers, journalism and my first book “The Last American Editor.” I hope to see you there.
I hope to give folks a preview of my second book “The Last American Newspaper” as well. It is expected to come out sometime in July.
Kudos Will Doolittle
It was great to see that retired Post-Star Projects Editor Will Doolittle had been honored for his editorial writing by the New York State News Publishers Association.
Will retired earlier this year. Always good to go out on top and Will has definitely done that.
I most definitely do not consider Fox News newsworthy. It is the most prominent t.v. show that is as fake as the day is long! They operate on a low class mentality. I understand this country has freedom of speech, but should not have freedom of out right lies and deceit. For integrity's sake alone, they should be banned!
Well said, Ken. Once again, a thoughtful analysis. I fear that the folks that need to watch them won't. We're that much more jaded as a nation than we were in 1974, when fervent Nixon supporters were actually capable of watching and changing their minds, when presented with facts. Facts now are an endangered species. "Alternative Facts" and their purveyors have wrought much devastation to this great land.