January 6th: Top 10 pieces of media that defined that dreadful day

Greetings, reader!

Well, today is a somber day - January 6th, the one-year anniversary of the attempted insurrection where Donald Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. capitol in a violent attack on our democracy. Watching those scenes unfold was quite traumatizing for many Americans, myself very much included, although one can't call it too surprising, having followed the groundwork that was laid during the previous four years. This blog topic was suggested by my father David, as looking at different portrayals of the attempted coup in the media felt like the right way to process those events that definitely called for some processing. Going across news (both real and fake), talk shows and other media, these are the ten pieces of media that stood out the most from that period in time, defining the insurrection and its surrounding context.

10. Fox News changes history

"There's some confusion about who exactly was at the capitol on January 6th. Was it really a gang of white supremacists?"

(Yes, Tucker, it was).

Now, by the phrase "changes history", I don't mean to imply that Fox News's coverage changed history in the way that influential historical figures and events have altered the course of history. I mean it a more literal sense - their coverage took events from recent history, and fundamentally changed the narrative, twisting facts to make it seem like January 6th was all about heroic patriots doing the right thing. You know, like propaganda machines do. I've seen enough horrifying clips and blatant lies about January 6th from the likes of Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity in order for Fox News's cover-ups to qualify as one of the defining pieces of media concerning those events.

9. Seth Meyers's rant

"What we saw today was a violent insurgency in attempt to overthrow the legitimately elected government of the United States. And it was incited, directed, and encouraged by the president, Donald Trump"

Obviously, many late-night talk shows hosts reacted to the events of January 6th in quite a powerful manner. But few were as powerful as Seth Meyers's monologue, from the very same night. It speaks volumes of Meyers's charisma and confidence as a comedian (and, let's face it, social commentator), that despite the absolute shock of the day's events, he was able to keep his cool and deliver a clear, factual monologue on his thoughts. With no unnecessary dramatization and no visible shock, Meyers laid out the facts and came to his conclusion - calling for the immediate removal of President Trump from office. He claimed that anything less would be "tacit permission to continue to use his office, and his influence after he leaves office, to foment sedition and dismantle democracy".

Luckily, shortly thereafter, our brave women and men in Congress did exactly that.

Ha ha, I'm obviously kidding - those spineless shits let President McRacism walk away with blood on his hands, setting the precedent that no consequences will be faced for instigating violent coup attempts. Now, who's to say whether or not Seth Meyers was right about the long-lasting consequences of an event in which Trump isn't removed from office? I can't say for sure, but I think I got some hints from all the "TRUMP WON THE ELECTION" signs I saw in front of proudly gun-toting households in Colorado last October, almost a year after Trump's election loss.

8. Saluting the Heroes of the Insurrection

"President Trump won this election, so everyone who is listening: do not be quiet, we can not allow this to happen"

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah was especially poignant in their comedic-yet-profound reactions to January 6th - more than one clip from the show has made it into this Top 10. The video compilation titled "Saluting the Heroes of the Insurrection" may be comedic, but it also hits the absolute core of the problem - basically, to the backdrop of heroic music, we see multiple instances of Republican politicians and Fox News anchors in the moments leading up to January 6th, urging their followers to do, well, exactly what they did.

Videos like this are important, because the far-right media has being pushing a narrative that the insurrectionists were acting on their own, or perhaps being lead by planted Democrat operatives et cetera, but that they were under no circumstances following the orders of their Republican leaders. This video is a powerful reminder of just how false this narrative is, as we see the people Trump supporters get their news from telling them that "The election was rigged and we must fight back", literally encouraging them to use violence on more than one occasion. Not to mention multiple senators and congressmen giving the same instructions, while the President's personal lawyer demands "Trial by combat" and the President himself instructs the rioters to "March up to the Capitol and fight like hell". Yikes.

7. "We Love You"

"We love you. You're very special. You've seen what happens, you see the way others are treated, that are SO bad, and SO evil...I know how you feel"

One of the reactions that spoke the most to the nature of January 6th was the President's own reaction. After whipping his crowd into a violent frenzy, Trump had gone home and wasn't heard from for hours and hours while his supporters stormed the capitol, killed a police officer and erected a noose with the idea of hanging Vice President Pence. As the world looked for President Swastika to do the bare minimum and tell his supporters to stop doing what they were doing, he was nowhere to be heard from, reportedly watching the coverage on TV with giddiness and excitement - until finally, he spoke out.

And yes, he did finally tell his supporters to go home. Y'know, after the damage was done. And he somehow managed to make things worse even then, by repeating the "This election was stolen from us" shtick several times throughout his one-minute speech, thus making sure that his followers will stay bitter and vengeful. The words "I know how you feel" rang especially true, as the man saying them had been telling these people exactly how to feel for the past four years.

6. Stephen Colbert has had enough

"Hey - republicans who supported this President, especially the ones in the joint session of congress today - have you had enough?? After five years of coddling this President's fascist rhetoric, guess whose followers want to burn down the Reichstag!"

When discussing #9, I mentioned how impressive it was that Seth Meyers kept his cool when discussing the storming of the Capitol in its immediate aftermath. But, in a way, it's even more powerful to witness a talk show host who usually always keeps his cool, totally losing it. In his live show on January 6th, Stephen Colbert is a chaotic mess, and watching his monologue as it came out resonated with me quite a bit, because so was I at the moment.

It is clear that while delivering his monologue, Colbert cares about nothing else than simple outrage, and really, who can blame the guy? Watching this monologue again is a powerful reminder on how quite many of us felt on that day - betrayed, sickened, furious, yet not one bit surprised. The main point in his monologue is asking a simple question from the Republicans who stuck by President Whitepower - "Are we great again yet?". And on that particular day, that was one hell of a good question to ask.

5. Jordan Klepper in the figurative trenches

"You can tell these people really love America by the number of weapons they brought to hurt other Americans"

So, for those of you not familiar with his work, Jordan Klepper is a Daily Show correspondent (and national hero) who goes "undercover" in all manner of questionable events, interviewing people with a wonderful tongue-in-cheek satirical touch. Throughout the Trump era, he specialized in Trump rallies, and words can't describe the morbid curiosity I felt when, on the night of January 6th, the Daily Show posted a picture on their Instagram of Klepper standing in the midst of the pro-Trump crowd outside the Capitol, with the mere 👀 emoji as the picture's caption. "No, he fucking didn't, the absolute madman", was my thought process.

About one week later, the Daily Show released the full scale of interviews and findings that were shot on that fateful day, with Klepper interviewing a bunch of insurrectionists just moments before things got violent. All humor aside, I have to appreciate the man's insane bravery to enter a setting like that for his inside scoop, and I'm so glad he survived the ordeal unscathed. His coverage will always remain a unique look at the events of that infamous day.

4. Jake Tapper and the Goddamn Point

"Hello, I'm Jake Tapper in Washington, where the state of our union is just...utterly devastating. After one of the darkest days in our nation's history - a coup attempt, no longer bloodless, instigated by the President of the United States - the flags at the U.S. Capitol are at half-staff this morning, for the police officer Brian Sicknick, who was murdered this week. But they are not half-staff at the White House, perhaps because Officer Sicknick was the enemy of the terrorist mob - and the mob loves Trump. The mob, by trying to intimidate, threaten, or even kill the Vice President and members of Congress who were counting the electoral votes - that mob was, in turn, loved back by Trump.

According to Republican Senator Ben Sass, White House aides told him that the President was "delighted" watching the insurrection. In Trump's view, they were fighting for him. Trump put out a statement - "We love you", he said, after the attack. "You're very special". Now it might be difficult to hear these words - it's difficult to say them, as it's so ugly - but it's true. The flag isn't down at the White House, because the President is not mourning Officer Sicknick. He hasn't personally decried the terrorists in any way, because the President loves the terrorists. And he reportedly hasn't even spoken to his own Vice President, whose life was at risk, since Wednesday. The images of this attack were so shocking that many of Trump's enablers are finally, with just a few days left in his presidency, beginning to get the goddamn point"

Not much to add here. Give 'em hell, Jake.

3. The video footage and testimonies the hearings

"One woman in a pink MAGA shirt yelled: 'You hear that guys? This n***er voted for Joe Biden!' Then the crowd joined in, screaming: 'Boo, fucking n***er!'"

It goes without saying that in many ways the most damning piece of media from January 6th was everything that was uncovered in the so-called January 6th hearings. The narrative had been twisted so much by Fox News and others to look like it was just a bunch of well-intentioned patriots causing little harm, that it was quite powerful to see just how much video evidence there was to prove this narrative wrong.

I'm glad that the Republican congressmen who backed President Neonazi were forced to watch just how incredibly violent and dangerous and out-of-control the insurrection was, although it makes it extra heartbreaking when considering that the people behind it all still managed to get away without consequences.

2. The November 4th press conference that caused it all

"This is a fraud to the American public. This in an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election - frankly, we did win this election"

Let me tell you a story of the most frustrating moment of my life.

2020 had been for me, like many others, a rough year. The whole Covid-lockdown period was tough, school stress had reached a previously unforeseen high, and just a few days before Election night, I had broken up with a long-time girlfriend and was naturally bummed about that. Come Election night, my brother and I followed our tradition of staying up the whole night to watch it all go down in real time, so around 08:00 A.M. Finnish time, I was very sleep-deprived. It was clear that it would take more time for the winner to be declared, so at that point in the morning, I decided to give up watching it from the TV and go to school. On my walk over, all of these stressful factors were playing around in my tired brain, when I checked something on my phone and saw from Instagram that President Trump had just started a live press conference.

Naturally, I was morbidly curious, so I opened a livestream and put my phone to my ear - thus hearing in real time the very moment where the President of the United States tried to declare himself dictator. In front of a room filled with people, good old President Klansman claimed, with no base of facts, that he had won the election. I was walking by a river at the moment, and let me tell you, my immediate impulse was to throw my phone into the river in an act of desperate frustration and was barely able to keep myself from doing just that. Part of me probably wanted to jump into that freezing river myself. I don't recall ever feeling as frustrated in everything, as completely hopeless about the state of the world, as I felt when walking by Tourujoki after zero hours of sleep when the President of my home country showed a gigantic middle finger to democracy.

Now, you might be asking, "That's a great story and all, but what does a press conference from two months earlier have to do with January 6th?". The answer, dear reader, is "Everything". It is due to this very press conference that the events of January 6th, while incredibly disturbing and even traumatizing to follow, were not one bit surprising. Because I, just like many others, had known for pretty much exactly two months that something like that was bound to happen - that it was only a matter of time. The very moment that Trump tried to declare himself dictator, it was so clear that things were going to get violent eventually. And the fact that his fascist speech was so crystal-clearly going to cause a violent uproar makes it extremely frustrating that he decided to give such a speech, most likely knowing exactly what it would lead to.

1. The mere image of the confederate flag being carried into the capitol

Here's a quick history lesson for you.

In colonial times, white Europeans had a strong worldview of Black people being inherently lesser than them - less intelligent, less human and simply worth less. African countries were significantly more poor than the colonial overlords of Europe, and therefore couldn't properly defend themselves when the Europeans started to raid areas of Africa, taking their people as slaves. When the 13 British colonies in North America gained independence, thus becoming the United States of America, slavery already was a staple of this area's culture, and it thus became a staple of this new country. Black people were seen as inherently lesser, and therefore it was deemed okay to deprive them of their human rights, using them as unpaid laborers. They were whipped, raped and lynched, and this was all deemed okay, due to the color their skin.

As years went by, the country became more and more divided intro a slaveholding South and a free North - the Southern states were more economically dependant on slavery, and therefore held on to it with a stubborn blindness to its inherent immorality, while human rights started to slowly but surely become a thing in the North. A nationwide abolitionist movement grew, calling for the end of slavery, because maybe, just maybe, it was wrong to enslave a whole culture and deprive them of all rights just because of their skin color. When Abraham Lincoln was elected President, with his platform including controversial ideas such as stopping the expansion of slavery, the Southern states decided to secede from the Union.

Thus, a new country was formed: the Confederate States of America. They had their own government, their own leaders, and their own flag. And this is an important bit that many people still don't understand 150 years later - this country was based on the very ideal of racism. It was no more complicated than that - the view that Black people are inherently lesser, that they don't deserve to be treated as humans, was so integral to the Confederate leaders, that when the idea of stopping the expansion of slavery was put to the forefront, they literally left the United States and formed their own country. And, as you know, a bloody Civil War was fought. These people went to war against their own American people, fighting a war that ended close to a million American lives, for the idea of preserving slavery. So that they could keep enslaving Black people, using them as inhumane unpaid labor, and freely whipping, raping and lynching them without consequence.

Well, the war was lost and slavery was abolished. Nowadays, many of us agree that slavery wasn't a good thing, that racism isn't a good thing, and that Black people aren't inherently lesser beings. Therefore, it's extremely peculiar that the Confederacy is very much romanticized to this day, with its flag being a central symbol among many groups of people, especially Trump supporters. Sure, you may have heard the bullshit about the flag being "about states' rights", "about the South in general", or any number of lies. But none of that is true - the Confederate Flag always was, and always will be, a symbol for hatred and oppression, akin to the Nazi swastika or the white hoods of the Ku Klux Klan. The only reason why the flag was normalized and deemed acceptable for such a long time was that racism itself was normalized and deemed acceptable for a long time. It was the flag of a country that was founded on the very principle of racism, on the idea that when the government called to end slavery, there were people who held slavery so dear that they fought a war for it.

Well, the Southern forces never reached the Capitol in Washington, D.C., before losing the war - there is some beautiful symbolism to the fact that even in such dire times, the Confederate flag never found its way into the nation's Capitol.

Except that over 150 years later, it finally did.

On January 6th, 2021, a mob of Donald Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol, many of them bearing the Confederate Flag. One image in particular, of an insurrectionist walking the halls of the Capitol with a large Confederate Flag in his hand, is the defining piece of media from that day to me. I remember seeing it on the news and almost throwing up on the spot. The fact that a flag that stands for the oppression of Black people found itself into the nation's capital, one and a half centuries after the Civil War, is such a strong testament to the endurance of racism.

It proves that despite the abolition of slavery and the Civil Rights movement, despite the Black Lives Matter protests and the Voting Rights act, racism has very much endured and happily lives on in the States. Despite all the progress we've made, a racist madman can be elected President, and he will have such a strong support that he can react to losing an election by ordering his supporters to overthrow our democracy, and they will do their very best to comply. And they will do it with Confederate Flags in hand. Because apparently that is still who we are as a nation, and it's about time that we address that fact.

Thank you for reading. Next week's post will be a tad less serious and depressing, as I will share my list of 2021's greatest television shows.