Politifact says Carlson’s claims are false; That means Stefanik claims are false, too
Local film was just as good as any of documentaries nominated for Oscar
By Ken Tingley
Last week, Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson reported during his show that video footage from the January 6 Capitol riot was a mostly peaceful gathering despite everything the public witnessed first-hand while it was happening.
In other words, we didn’t see what we thought we saw.
Remember the photos of the security guards drawing their weapons while piliing furniture in front of the doors in the House chamber?
Remmeber Vice President Pence fleeing?
Remmeber Rep. Josh Hawley running?
Remember members of Congress being told to put on their gas masks?
This mass panic was unwarranted according to Carlson.
After the Carlson show, Rep. Elise Stefanik, our congresswoman, tweeted that Carlson’s findings “confirmed what I’ve been saying for well over a year.”
Rep. Stefanik, who won election by a wide majority in her district, said she knew the riot did not happen. But I don’t recall her sounding alarm during her campaign.
Can any of your wrap your arms around that statement?
This is no longer politics.
This is an endorsement of propaganda by a sitting member of Congress who we support.
This is the selling of America in a quest for television ratings by a TV personality with no ethics.
Politifact, a non-partisan fact-checking website owned by the prestigious Poynter Institute, found there was no truth to Carlson’s claims, writing “Carlson used the footage to falsely portray the riot as a peaceful gathering and to continue pushing long-debunked claims, including that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.”
That’s what Rep.Stefanik is doing, too.
Politifact reported that Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger denounced Carlson’s segment in an internal memo, saying the opinion program "aired commentary that was filled with offensive and misleading conclusions about the January 6 attack."
Carlson had the audacity to say, "These were not insurrectionists, they were sightseers."
Politifact concluded this was a “Liar, liar, pants on fire” falsehood, pointing out that rioters attacked police, smashed windows, broke doors and ransacked offices.
"The program conveniently cherry-picked from the calmer moments of our 41,000 hours of video," Manger said in the memo. "The commentary fails to provide context about the chaos and violence that happened before or during these less tense moments."
The Justice Department reported that 140 officers were assaulted at the Capitol that day, including 60 Metropolitan Police officers and 80 Capitol Police officers.
Stefanik is saying they all lied.
Politifact went painstakingly through the facts presented in Carlson’s broadcast and found them either mostly false, false or pants-on-fire false.
What Tucker Carlson did last week was not his opinion. It was a gross misrepresentation of what happened on Jan. 6.
The fact that Rep. Elise Stefanik is supporting it as well is something we should all be worried about.
Rep. Elise Stefanik was at the Capitol that day, yet I don’t ever recall seeing a account of her minute-by-minute actions from the time the Capitol was stormed until she objected to presidential election later than night. She should provide those details.
Did she greet the “sightseers” as they entered the building?
Or did she run for her life as the rioters approached?
Did she don her gas mask?
Or did she thank the crowd outside for coming?
What I find especially curious is that this weekend, Rep. Stefanik tweeted that her latest newsletter was out. It has a collection of all the work she has been doing on our behalf, but there is no mention that the Jan. 6 riot did not happen.
If she truly believes this, why is she not screaming it from the rooftops?
Why has she waited two years to tell us that this lie has been perpetrated on the American people and that she knew about it for more than a year?
She was at the Capitol?
She was an eyewitness?
She should tells us what we she saw that day?
And the, where she went to hide.
Oscar night
I finished watching the the Best Picture nominees Sunday afternoon by viewing “Everything Everywhere” and “Women Talking.”
If I had a vote, it would have been for “Women Talking.”
Local film holds up
I also viewed all the documentary features and when I was done I felt the local documentary about Lyme Disease, “The Quiet Epidemic” was just as good as any of the nominees.
It’s in the mail
One of the things folks in Greenwich were talking about last week was the news that their daily newspaper would only be delivered through the mail.
This is one of the latest trends for newspapers who have had great difficulty in finding people to deliver the newspaper. The Watertown Daily Times started doing it a year or so ago. It makes sense on paper for the newspaper, but the readers will have to adjust. If you get your mail later in the afternoon, the morning paper is now an afternoon paper.
Maybe families that lost people or were harmed in the insurrection should file lawsuits against Carlson and Stefanik. Seems today nothing talks like money. Something needs to stop this mischaracterization of reality.
When I think of Carlson and Stefanik, my mind wanders to Groucho Marx at his mustachiod sleaziest as Rufus T. Firefly in "Duck Soup," trying to sell a screamer to Margaret Rutherford with the line: "Who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" In the movies it's funny. In real life, not so much.