Reactions to Senate report on January 6 events at the capitol
Two Senate committees, Homeland Security and Government Affairs and Rules and Administration, released a report, Examining the the US Capitol Attack, which reviews the intelligence about and response to the attack on teh capitol on January 6th, 2021. I first read about the report in the New York Times, and then read some of the comments. I was curious about how people who believe that Trump won the election would feel about this report, so I then went to Fox News, and read the some of the comments on their story.
Comments on both stories ranged over many ideas, and although a few ideas were repeated, many comments were unique. On both sites many comments were not clearly partisan, and I labeled them neutral (20/82, 24% for Fox News, and 44/97, 45% for New York Times).
Fox News had the most comments from people who appeared to support Trump (40/82, 49%). It also had five comments from Republicans who do not like Trump (6%), but I didn’t see any comments like that on the New York Times. The New York Times had the most comments from people who appear to support the Democrats (49/97, 50%). Fox news had 17 comments from people who appear to support the Democrats or 21%, compared to only 4 comments on the New York Times from people who seem to support Republicans or Trump.
On Fox News, ten people suggested that Nancy Pelosi was responsible for the problems the report was focused on such as miscommunication among intelligence and lack of planning for the insurrection. A few people went farther and suggested that she or Democrats let the insurrection happen because it was good optics for them. One person said that President Trump requested 10,000 National Guard to be on hand, and Speaker Pelosi said no. Six people brought up the Antifa protests over the summer as a bigger problem that also needed to be investigated, and two people stated the perpetrators on January 6th were Antifa. One person said it clearly wasn’t BLM/Antifa because they would have burned the place to the ground. Six people said it was not an insurrection but a peaceful protest, and four people stated that only Ashley Babbit was killed, and by a police officer. They suggested the rest of the deaths were from natural causes. One person said that Trump ended his speech by saying “Go Peacefully and Patriotically”.
People on Fox News also brought up issues around defunding the police and urban crime. They mentioned that Democrats only want to fund the police to protect themselves or similar ideas.
On both the New York Times and Fox News one or two people mentioned that the police should lock the doors to the Capitol.
On the New York Times, fourteen people felt that the report missed that the intelligence failures and unpreparedness were deliberate malfeasance by the Trump administration. Eleven people felt that Republicans are undermining democracy, and ten felt that Trump should be tried for treason. Nine wanted a full investigation. Seven people remarked that they knew about January 6th so how could law enforcement have missed it? Six people were concerned it would happen again. Six mentioned either that only white people would be able to get away with this or that if it had been a Black Lives Matter protest it would have been handled differently.
I admit, I read more comments on the New York Times (97) than on Fox News (82). This is partly because I came across probably the most racist statement I have ever seen on Fox News, and had to take a moment and a breath to recover. I am trying just to present what was said, so that you can have a picture of how people responded to this report, but some comments are easier to read than others. I was surprised that Fox News had a wider range of comments than the New York Times, with more left-leaning comments.
