Television news scrambles to cover ‘frightening spectacle’
Unprecedented images shock even longtime Washington, D.C., reporters
TV news networks covering the certification of electoral votes in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday were forced to quickly pivot to unprecedented scenes of violent chaos described by commentators as, among other things, a “nightmare scenario” and a “frightening spectacle.”
“In my 60 years covering national politics, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Fox News Channel’s Chris Wallace said as he watched a mob of pro-Trump extremists storm the Capitol building. “And frankly I hope I never do again. It’s pretty disturbing.”
In the hours that followed, TV viewers all over America and the world watched an ongoing horror show as insurgents smashed windows, trashed offices and broke into House and Senate chambers.
“We are watching an attempted sedition,” CNN’s Jake Tapper said. “We are watching an attempt at a bloodless coup in the United States.”
“T his is the nightmare scenario,” Norah O’Donnell said in a CBS News specia l repor t . “… This is a democracy. Protest is protected and allowed but violence is not. And there are concerns among a number of officials about how these images will be used by our foreign adversaries.”
At times, TV journalists struggled to get their arms around exactly what they were witnessing.
“I certainly feel the loss of words to describe what we’re seeing and how this will resonate,” said NBC’s Lester Holt during the early going.
But as the day wore on, astonishment and shock turned to outrage and condemnation as commentators lashed out at the outgoing president for having egged on the rioters.
“This is Trump’s legacy,” said an angry Tapper. “A divided people. Millions of Americans who have been fed lies about the election. Millions of Americans who have been told that journalists and those who would defy Trump are traitors. And they are expressing their frustrations and their anger with violence. And they are not being discouraged to do so by President Trump.”
At one point, networks broke into coverage to air a short speech from President- elect Joe Biden, who told viewers, “Our democracy is under unprecedented assault, unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times.”
After being urged by Biden and others to address the situation, Trump finally responded with a taped message that proved to be somewhat problematic for TV news operations. That’s because Trump once again insisted that “we had an election stolen from us.”
After the video ended, Tapper said, “I want to note that in that video, he lies about the election being stolen and pours more fuel on the fire. … He continues his shameful behavior of lying to his supporters about what happened. It is absolutely disgraceful. I feel ambivalent about the fact that we even aired it.”
There was no ambivalence on CNBC, where anchor Shepard Smith told his producers to “Stop the tape” before it elapsed. “That is not true, and we are not airing it,” he said of Trump’s assertions. Other networks chose not to air the video at all.
Outside the Capitol, the media became a target as protesters smashed cameras and other equipment while shouting “CN N sucks!” ( The equipment actually belonged to The Associated Press.) Also, on one of the Capitol doors was scrawled a message: “Murder the media.”
Much of the televised ire was directed at not only Trump and his violent supporters, but what was deemed by many to be a lackluster response by Capitol Police during the melee. On Thursday morning, for example, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough dropped an F-bomb during a boisterous rant against the cops.
“Why do you scream at people for walking across the street three blocks away from the Capitol? Why are you known as ‘badasses’ around the Capitol but then Trump supporters come in and you open the f—ing doors for them?” Scarborough asked. “You open the doors for them and let them breach the People’s House! What is wrong with you?”