The violent insurrection in Washington, D.C. Wednesday was both utterly predictable and unimaginable. My feelings about those events go well beyond the scope of this blog, so instead of laying out my feelings, I’m going to share a variety of responses to how our media responded to these events over the next few days.
Reporters & photographers put their lives on the line to bring us the news
An incredible image. Trump supporters have breached the Capitol and are outside the Senate chamber.
📸 by @erinschaff
Live updates: https://t.co/9b3MOBhHKf pic.twitter.com/yKhHzXgYXm
— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) January 6, 2021
A harrowing account from three NY Times journalists on what they experienced covering the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. Staff photographer Erin Schaff writes:
Suddenly, two or three men in black surrounded me and demanded to know who I worked for.
Grabbing my press pass, they saw that my ID said The New York Times and became really angry. They threw me to the floor, trying to take my cameras. I started screaming for help as loudly as I could. No one came. People just watched. At this point, I thought I could be killed and no one would stop them. They ripped one of my cameras away from me, broke a lens on the other and ran away….
But then the police found me. I told them that I was a photojournalist and that my pass had been stolen, but they didn’t believe me. They drew their guns, pointed them and yelled at me to get down on my hands and knees. As I lay on the ground, two other photojournalists came into the hall and started shouting “She’s a journalist!”
The reporting team from Politico tells the story of their Wednesday at the Capitol
This oral history from the entire Politico team of what happened yesterday is…yeah. Insane. https://t.co/IyMsUzdp7F
— Carrie Brown (@Brizzyc) January 8, 2021
Politico had five reporters and a photographer in the Capitol Wednesday along with two more reporters outside. This is their first person account of their day in roughly chronological order. This is what journalism is about.
Non-profit journalism group ProPublica shows their work on why Wednesday’s attack was not a surprise
Why were capitol police and other DC security forces so woefully unprepared for Wednesday’s violence? Well, it wasn’t because they couldn’t have found out about it in advance. In the following tweets, the non-profit (and Pulitzer Prize-winning) journalism organization ProPublica shows their work on what they knew in advance.
But far-right supporters of President Donald Trump had been rallying on social media and saying the election had been stolen even weeks *before* that.
They openly discussed the idea of violent protest on the day Congress met to certify the result.
— ProPublica (@propublica) January 7, 2021
On Dec. 13, Todd A. Slee suggested the rally should be taken seriously. “Some of the old timers, who don’t get easily rattled, say it’s coming,” he wrote. “We’d best be ready.” pic.twitter.com/rpKIWG3C76
— ProPublica (@propublica) January 7, 2021
By late December, leaders of the Stop the Steal movement were texting supporters.
“We came up with the idea to occupy just outside the CAPITOL on Jan 6th,” says a message from Dec. 23. pic.twitter.com/SfJKXSIIxV
— ProPublica (@propublica) January 7, 2021
For reasons that remain unclear, the law enforcement authorities charged with protecting the nation’s entire legislative branch did not seem prepared to contain the forces massed against them:
— ProPublica (@propublica) January 7, 2021
Tomorrow – Headlines and editorials about Wednesday’s riots. (Actually, getting banned from social media and the First Amendment, because news keeps happening!)