The Real Problem With Tucker Carlson's January 6 Footage
On Tuesday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell joined congressional colleagues like Chuck Schumer in condemning Fox News’ Tucker Carlson for releasing and framing footage from the January 6, 2021 events at the Capitol. McConnell said his take on the issue is aligned with that of the U.S. Capitol Police Chief. He did not appreciate Carlson playing other video that showed peaceful protesters being escorted into the Capitol by police, given tours, and generally left alone to wander peacefully as they snapped photos and even prayed in the chambers.
“It was a mistake in my view for Fox News to depict this in a way that is completely at variance with what our chief law enforcement official here at Capitol thinks.”
My colleague Teri Christoph noted an issue with his statement that made me holler.
Mitch, please. What if the truth is hiding somewhere in that “variance?” McConnell’s lack of curiosity about the truth could be the sign of an old man who’s spent far too much time in DC
It is the use of the word ‘depict’ that ruffles my feathers. I find it to be a very telling word. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word ‘depict’ means “to represent by, or as if by a picture” or to “describe.”
It is word for telling a story, and all stories have a storyteller.
McConnell may have thought he was simply saying he thinks the Capitol protests were a Very Bad Thing™, but I heard what he (and so many others like him) really thinks. He means he didn’t like THE STORY Tucker Carlson was telling with the new footage. THE STORY already had its tellers. THE STORY had already been framed. THE STORY had already been written. How dare Carlson come in with rewrites? Who approved him to retell THE STORY?
And isn’t that the big takeaway here? McConnell basically admitted that the J6 footage we’ve been seeing for two years is really a story, and not an objective set of facts. If it had been just the facts, there wouldn’t be any controversy about the new footage being released. It never would have been secret in the first place. Like old Twitter threatening to benevolently “add context” to Trump’s tweets for the benefit of their incurious audience, McConnell and company have decided for the rest of us how January 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol should be viewed and observed.
It was such a benign but chilling word in this context…depict.