Fox News manufactures dissent over officers' searing select committee testimony

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Matthew Gertz
@MattGertz
1. Bret Baier was adamant after yesterday's hearing on Jan. 6 that it would be impossible for anyone to downplay the devastating testimony.

Then his colleagues went to work.

Fox News manufactures dissent over officers’ searing select committee testimony
mediamatters.org
8:58 AM · Jul 28, 2021

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-manufactures-dissent-over-officers-searing-select-committee-testimony

When Fox News turned to Bret Baier for comment shortly after the conclusion of Tuesday’s hearing of the House select committee investigating the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump rioters, the network’s chief political anchor was adamant that it would be impossible for anyone to downplay the devastating testimony heard that day. Over the previous several hours, four police officers had described in searing detail how they had risked their lives defending Congress from a violent, bigoted throng that sought to halt the counting of electoral votes formalizing President Joe Biden’s election.

“If you were watching, you saw compelling, at times damning, emotional testimony from these four officers who fought the line to try to protect the Capitol and the lawmakers inside,” Baier said. Highlighting the officers’ descriptions of how they “fought to hold on to their lives,” he added that while Republicans are trying to argue that the investigation is politically motivated, “you can't watch the testimony and say that's not a big deal.”

Baier was describing an emerging consensus that is damaging to Republicans. But Fox exists in part to manufacture dissent, disrupting such consensuses with narratives that are more palatable to its right-wing audience. And so that evening, Baier’s colleagues -- who helped lay the groundwork for the riots by trumpeting Donald Trump’s baseless claims of a stolen 2020 election and then spent the last seven months downplaying and concocting justifications for the resulting insurrection -- went to work.

“We’re being lectured by phony politicians about threats to our country,” The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld sneered amid a whataboutist rant, going on to describe the January 6 Capitol riots as “having politicians’ jobs disrupted for two hours.” He added that the hearing was “a circus” and “a clown show.”

*snip*