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A large group of Americans watched the House committee investigate the January 6 attack on the US Capitol hold a hearing live on television. Those who have followed the story have not been told the facts about the insurrection. It aired on at least six networks and became fodder for late-night shows. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert broadcasted a live episode after the hearing. I kept thinking about what people choose to look at in this era of too many screens.
People have been following the actions of the January 6 committee for more than a year on a number of websites. The Thursday night broadcast was different. The hearings were brought in to look less like C-SPAN and more like ABC. They want to tell the story of a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election and block the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. It is on par with the Watergate hearings.
Must-see TV is what I mean. The committee wanted their findings to be given to the public. The goal is to train the electorate to see what has happened to democracy in the US. The hearing got some of them. Tucker Carlson's show was run without commercials. The TV and the smaller screen were the focus. Discussing politics on the social internet can feel like there is more talking and analysis than actually observing.
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I think it's about looking. Kim Phuc Phan Thi wrote in The New York Times that the photo of her made her feel unattractive and ashamed. The Uvalde, Texas, school shooting last month was one of the images that America usually doesn't see. She wrote, "but we should confront them."
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