Fox News ignores the newly released Jan. 6 text messages Fox News hosts sent Mark Meadows
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), vice chair of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol siege, read urgent Jan. 6 text messages Monday between Mark Meadows, former White House chief of staff to former President Donald Trump, and "multiple Fox News hosts," including Laura Ingraham, Brian Kilmeade, and Sean Hannity, plus lawmakers in the Capitol during the riot, administration officials, and Donald Trump Jr.
All of them strongly urged Meadows to get Trump to tell his rioting supporters to leave the Capitol immediately and go home, something Trump did not do for several hours.
"The hearing was not carried on Fox News on Monday evening," The Washington Post reports. On Monday night, Hannity had Meadows on his Fox News show to discuss the committee's vote to hold Meadows in contempt of Congress, for the reasons Cheney laid out. In their eight-minute interview, "Hannity did not ask Meadows about the texts from Trump Jr. or others and did not mention the message he had sent the former chief of staff," Axios reports.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Ingraham, whose show aired immediately after Hannity, did not mention that her text to Meadows had also been read by the committee," Mediate reports. "On the other hand, she did not interview the former chief-of-staff." Kilmeade co-hosts the morning show Fox & Friends.
The Fox News website also had no mention of the text messages Monday night, including in its article about the Jan. 6 panel voting to hold Meadows in contempt of Congress.
The Jan. 6 text messages made public Monday "stand in contrast with some of the messages that Ingraham, Hannity and Kilmeade sent to Fox News viewers in appearances on the night of Jan. 6," the Post reports. While they all expressed discomfort and displeasure with the siege on Jan. 6, they also all suggested it was carried out by left-wing agitators, not Trump supporters, or insisted the majority of Trump supporters were protesting peacefully.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
The environmental cost of GLP-1sThe explainer Producing the drugs is a dirty process
-
Greenland’s capital becomes ground zero for the country’s diplomatic straitsIN THE SPOTLIGHT A flurry of new consular activity in Nuuk shows how important Greenland has become to Europeans’ anxiety about American imperialism
-
‘This is something that happens all too often’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
House votes to end Trump’s Canada tariffsSpeed Read Six Republicans joined with Democrats to repeal the president’s tariffs
-
Bondi, Democrats clash over Epstein in hearingSpeed Read Attorney General Pam Bondi ignored survivors of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and demanded that Democrats apologize to Trump
-
El Paso airspace closure tied to FAA-Pentagon standoffSpeed Read The closure in the Texas border city stemmed from disagreements between the Federal Aviation Administration and Pentagon officials over drone-related tests
-
Judge blocks Trump suit for Michigan voter rollsSpeed Read A Trump-appointed federal judge rejected the administration’s demand for voters’ personal data
-
US to send 200 troops to Nigeria to train armySpeed Read Trump has accused the West African government of failing to protect Christians from terrorist attacks
-
Grand jury rejects charging 6 Democrats for ‘orders’ videoSpeed Read The jury refused to indict Democratic lawmakers for a video in which they urged military members to resist illegal orders
-
Judge rejects California’s ICE mask ban, OKs ID lawSpeed Read Federal law enforcement agents can wear masks but must display clear identification
-
Lawmakers say Epstein files implicate 6 more menSpeed Read The Trump department apparently blacked out the names of several people who should have been identified
