NEW YORK: America’s top television networks on Thursday turned prime time over to a gripping account of former President Donald Trump’s actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol — with one prominent exception.
The top-rated news network, Fox News Channel, stuck with its own lineup of commentators. Sean Hannity denounced the “show trial” elsewhere on TV just as he was featured in it, with the House’s Jan. 6 committee examining his tweets to Trump administration figures.
Hannity aired a soundless snippet of committee members entering the hearing room as part of a lengthy monologue condemning the proceedings.
That was all Fox News Channel viewers saw of the hearing.
“It’s really just a cheap, selectively edited political ad,” Hannity told his viewers.
Meanwhile, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN and MSNBC aired the second prime-time hearing, focusing on Trump’s real-time response to the riot. The committee said it was the last hearing until September.
“This very much sounded like a closing argument, certainly of this chapter of their investigation, and it was profound,” ABC News anchor David Muir said.
About 20 million people watched the first prime-time hearing on June 9, the Nielsen Company said. Generally, reaching that big an audience in mid-July would be a long shot, as it is the least-watched television month of the year.
Yet the seven daytime hearings have proven something of an oddity. Buoyed by strong word-of-mouth, the hearings grew in audience as they went along. CNN, for example, reached 1.5 million people for the second daytime hearing on June 16, and 2.6 million for the last one on June 12, Nielsen said.
Fox’s broadcast station in New York, which did not air last month’s prime-time hearing, showed the Thursday night session.
There’s little interest at Fox News Channel, which televised the daytime hearings, although only up until the demarcation line of the network’s popular show “The Five.” Ratings show that roughly half the network’s audience flees when the hearings start, and return when they’re over.
That would be a much more serious problem in prime time, where Fox’s audience is more than double what it is during the day. Fox News Channel’s decision not to air the prime-time hearings is almost certainly a function of the demands of their audience and prime-time hosts, said Nicole Hemmer, an expert on conservative media and author of the upcoming book “Partisans: The Conservative Revolutionaries Who Remade American Politics in the 1990s.”
“It creates an awkward situation when a host like Tucker Carlson tells his audience that the hearings are a debacle not worth their time, and then the network preempts his show to air them,” Hemmer said.
Carlson found plenty of things to talk about besides the hearing Thursday, including President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 diagnosis, a “meltdown” by liberals over the US Supreme Court’s abortion decision, the failure of drug legalization, “climate crazies” and “trans-affirming” lessons in Los Angeles schools.
Hannity’s lead story was the “grand finale” of the Jan. 6 committee, although he didn’t show it — at least with the sound on.
He brought on guests like GOP Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, who said that if the hearings have done anything, “they’ve exonerated President Trump and the people supporting him.”
Talk show host Mark Levin told Hannity the US Justice Department is corrupt because “the Colbert 9 are roaming free.” That’s a reference to federal prosecutors’ decision not to bring charges against nine people associated with CBS’ “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” who were arrested in a US Capitol complex building last month.
While Hannity was on the air, the Jan. 6 committee showed tweets that Hannity and other Fox News personalities had sent to Trump administration officials, warning that the Capitol riot was making the president look bad.
In a closing statement, Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair, noted that most of its case against Trump has been made by Republicans. She ridiculed the notion that the committee’s findings would be much different if Republicans other than she and Rep. Adam Kinzinger were members.
“Do you really think that Bill Barr is such a delicate flower that he would wilt under cross-examination?” she said.
The Republicans watching Fox News Channel on Thursday night didn’t hear her.
Jan. 6 hearing dominates top TV networks — except one
https://arab.news/c33mk
Jan. 6 hearing dominates top TV networks — except one
- Fox News Channel was the only top-rated news network that decided not to carry Thursday's Jan. 6 Hearing Live, dismissing it as "show trial"
Gems of Arabia magazine launched to spotlight talents shaping Saudi Arabia’s evolving cultural landscape
- The publication features established and emerging talents elevating the region across design, fashion, art, tech, music, architecture and media
- Saudi fashion designer Hatem Alakeel seeks to highlight the richness of the Kingdom, and wider modern Arab culture to global audiences
DUBAI: When Saudi fashion designer Hatem Alakeel interviewed Princess Reema bint Bandar Al-Saud before her appointment as Saudi ambassador to the US, the longtime advocate of women’s empowerment made a powerful prediction: “I look forward to the day that the Saudi woman is no longer the story but rather a phenomenal achievement.”
That moment would become the foundation for Gems of Arabia, an arts and culture audio-visual podcast that spotlights the creative talents shaping the landscape of Saudi Arabia and the broader region.
Over six years, Gems of Arabia has documented the sweeping transformation of the Kingdom’s art and culture scene, and is now evolving into a full-fledged magazine.
“It started off as a column I used to write, and from there, it turned into a podcast. Now it is growing into a magazine,” Dubai-based Alakeel, the magazine’s founder and editor-in-chief, told Arab News ahead of the launch of the digital publication on Thursday.
Besides spotlighting celebrated regional artists, Alakeel said Gems of Arabia is in search of the “hidden gems” elevating the region across design, fashion, art, tech, music, architecture and media.
The magazine serves as a platform for talented, authentic creatives and tech entrepreneurs unable to articulate their work “because they don’t have the public relations or capacity to promote themselves even through social media.”
Alakeel added: “Our job is to identify all these authentic people; you don’t have to be famous, you just have to be authentic, and have a great story to tell.”
The digital publication offers a dynamic blend of short-form podcasts, coverage of regional cultural events, in-depth features and editorials, long-form interviews and artist profiles — spotlighting both celebrated and emerging talents. This is complemented by social media vox pops and bite-sized coverage of art events across the region.
Alakeel, who also runs Authenticite, a consulting and creative production agency connecting creators and brands who want to understand Saudi culture, said the magazine content is “carefully curated” to feature topics and personalities that resonate in the region.
What differentiates Gems of Arabia, he said, is its story of continuity and substance amassed over the years that has captured the evolution of the wider regional landscape.
“The website represents an archive of nearly 150 articles compiled through years of podcasts and long-form conversations that show continuity and depth changes,” he said.
“So, it’s an evolution and it’s another home for all our content and our community.”
Growing up in France, Alakeel said his mission started early on when he felt the need to represent his Saudi culture “in a way where it can hold its own internationally.”
Through his first brand, Toby, he sought to bring the traditional thobe into modern designs and introduce it to the luxury fashion world. This mission was accomplished when his thobe designs were placed alongside global labels such as Harvey Nichols, Dolce & Gabbana and Prada.
What began as a personal design mission would soon expand into a broader platform to champion Saudi talent.
“I was articulating my culture through fashion and it just felt natural to do that through the incredible people that the region has,” Alakeel said, adding that the magazine aims to highlight the richness of the Kingdom, and wider modern Arab culture to global audiences.
“Art is such a great way of learning about a culture and a country,” he said.
On the ground in Saudi Arabia, the publication hosts GEMS Forum, a series of live cultural gatherings that bring together prominent artistic figures for in-depth conversations later transformed into podcast episodes recorded with a live audience.
Alakeel said the print edition of Gems of Arabia will debut in March, designed as a collectible coffee-table quarterly distributed across the Gulf.
He envisions the platform growing into a long-term cultural record.
“It's a Saudi-centric magazine, but the idea is to make it inclusive to the region and everyone authentic has a seat at the table,” said Alakeel.
