My latest over at @mmfa: on the phony calls for "unity" in right-wing media https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/after-week-excuses-blame-and-insincere-calls-unity-right-wing-media-must-own

Been fascinating/disturbing to watch the world of right-wing media shuffle through its narratives so quickly:

First, what happened at the Capitol was fine.
Then, when it became clear that it wasn't looking good, they went, "But what about BLM!? Or maybe it was a false flag!"

It always comes back to painting themselves as the victims.

They eventually shifted to arguing that banning people on social media plotting/planning/promoting the insurrection was evidence of anti-conservative bias, and THAT was the REAL story.

But seriously, look at this progression.

"It's not like it's a siege ... it seems like they are protesting." - Fox News' Bret Baier as the siege was happening https://www.mediamatters.org/bret-baier/foxs-bret-baier-trump-supporters-attacking-us-capitol-its-not-its-siege-it-seems-they

InfoWars was cheering on the "patriots" attacking the Capitol at the time https://www.mediamatters.org/infowars/infowars-guest-host-praises-patriots-who-are-trying-violently-take-over-us-capitol

Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum called it "a huge victory" for the rioters. https://www.mediamatters.org/martha-maccallum/fox-anchor-breaching-capitol-building-was-huge-victory-trump-rioters

Fox News started just reporting things that were totally false and minimized what was happening. For instance:

“Aside from the things that were broken getting into the Capitol in terms of doors, they say there is no vandalism” - Fox News' Mike Tobin https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-reporter-aside-things-were-broken-getting-capitol-terms-doors-they-say-there-no

"Everything we've seen so far has been nothing but peaceful." - Fox News' Griff Jenkins at 2:20pm ET on 1/6

https://www.mediamatters.org/griff-jenkins/protesters-storm-capitol-fox-news-correspondent-calls-demonstrations-peaceful

Newsmax was one of the first outlets to lean hard into the "It was antifa!" conspiracy theory https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/newsmax-host-suggests-leftist-groups-may-have-infiltrated-violent-pro-trump-rioters-stormed

The message over at Newsmax was... muddled. https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/newsmax-guest-cheers-insurrectionists-storming-capitol-i-think-thats-absolutely-correct

But a bunch of Trump's biggest supporters in media were huge fans of what was happening. Sebastian Gorka: https://www.mediamatters.org/sebastian-gorka/sebastian-gorka-praises-patriots-who-have-taken-over-capitol-hill

Sean Hannity: https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/sean-hannity-defends-mob-storming-us-capitol

Hannity tried to play both sides of this, also spreading the conspiracy theory that it was actually antifa https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/sean-hannity-speculates-groups-antifa-are-ones-storming-us-capitol

Over at OAN, they tried to argue that the insurrection was evidence that the election should be overturned (no, it didn't make any more sense when watching it) https://www.mediamatters.org/one-america-news-network/oan-figures-say-capitol-riots-are-perfect-justification-pence-overturn

Over at Newsmax, they were just throwing everything at the wall. Greg Kelly blamed... George Soros https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/newsmax-guest-suggests-george-soros-behind-insurrectionists-storming-capitol

Sean Hannity wasn't going to let a little terrorism stop him from promoting the lie that sparked the terrorist attack, though: https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/sean-hannity-pushes-election-conspiracy-theories-hours-after-mob-swarms-us-capitol

But the next morning, Fox was again praising the attackers https://www.mediamatters.org/pete-hegseth/fox-news-host-defends-jan-6-insurrectionists-they-love-freedom

Sinclair's James Rosen promoted the baseless lie about "far-left infiltrators" https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/sinclair-gives-pro-trump-insurrectionists-pass-broadcasting-lie-far-left

They *really* tried to compare this to Black Lives Matter protests, which made no sense https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/right-wing-media-launch-gross-comparisons-between-anti-fascists-black-lives

Laura Ingraham tried to use the attack as an excuse to promote voter suppression measures. The justification was basically that if Republicans win every election they won't be upset https://www.mediamatters.org/voter-fraud-and-suppression/fox-news-says-we-should-respond-january-6-insurrectionists-implementing

This was interesting. After the phrase "hang Mike Pence" trended on Twitter BECAUSE THERE WAS A VIDEO OF TRUMP SUPPORTERS CHANTING THAT, Fox tried to point to that as proof of anti-conservative bias on Twitter (again, it trended bc it was part of a story) https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/fox-news-lies-about-trending-topic-twitter-violent-threat-against-vp-mike

Fox personalities kept promoting the "stolen election" conspiracy theory even in the days following the attack. (Again, that conspiracy theory was the driving force behind the violence) https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/fox-anchor-maria-bartiromo-still-trying-undermine-confidence-2020-election

The big message at the end of this is basically: oooooooh, I thought you wanted unity and healing!? https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/fox-news-dont-impeach-trump-january-6-insurrection-youll-just-make-his

It's basically a different version of "Wow, so much for the tolerant left."