Say what you like about America, it knows how to produce good soap operas.

Last week’s hit show – let’s call it Insurrection — was the first of a six-part miniseries presented live by the House of Representatives panel investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

After spending a year researching evidence and interviewing more than 1,000 people, the committee presented its findings in a compelling prime-time hearing on Thursday.

For two hours, we heard how former President Donald Trump, knowing he had lost the election, orchestrated nothing less than an “attempted coup” to try to block the peaceful transfer of power.

For a political audition at least, it was captivating. The carefully scripted, fast-paced drama has kept millions of Americans glued to their televisions.

A former president of ABC News advised the panel of nine members and women in Congress on how best to present their findings and increase viewership, which led to a polished presentation.

Heartbreaking and tearful testimony was punctuated by footage of the deadly violence the day thousands of Trump loyalists stormed into the Capitol.

Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney recounted how Mr Trump told aides that protesters, who literally wanted to hang then-Vice President Mike Pence for certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, may have had the right idea.

The incumbent president’s furious cry “We are fighting like hell” during a speech outside the White House was shown alongside footage of protesters closing in on the seat of America’s democracy.

However, the question that came to mind while watching Insurrection was it: Does any of this matter?

Audience was a staple for at least 20 million Americans who tuned in, but for millions more, it was a staple.

Fox News, America’s most popular cable network and the go-to for right-leaning news, was the only major news channel not to broadcast the audience live.

Instead, two of his favorite agents provocateurs — Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity — hosted their shows without any commercial breaks.

Presumably this was to prevent the channel hoppers from tripping over Insurrection and watch Ms Cheney describe how the committee would detail ‘conspiracies to commit a seditious plot on January 6’.

Hannity described the panel’s findings as a “made-for-TV smear campaign against President Trump” and lambasted the committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, for a partisan witch hunt.

He then turned to the big issues facing America today and the perceived failures of the Biden administration.

Record inflation, rising crime, baby formula shortages, sky-high gas prices and what some Fox commentators describe as an “open” border with Mexico.

These are the real issues we should be focusing on, it seemed to be the argument, not the Capitol under attack by dozens of militiamen in combat fatigues.

For many Americans, that’s a fair point. After all, people here are in a bad mood, with three-quarters of those recently polled saying the country is headed in the wrong direction.

You can hear it at the supermarket and gas station: gasps of horror at the checkout or as a station wagon gobbles up $100 and is still hungry.

But by carefully avoiding the elephant in the room — the fact that Jan. 6 was almost an American coup — Fox News is doing the country and its viewers a disservice.

It seems obvious that in less than five months, barring an unforeseen reversal, the Democrats will lose control of the House and probably also of the Senate.

At that point, the January 6 committee will either be disbanded or taken in a whole new direction with Republicans at the helm.

Instead of hearing about Mr. Trump’s plans to overthrow democracy, the panel would focus on security and policing failings on Capitol Hill, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s actions about it.

We will also hear a lot more about Hunter Biden’s laptop, Mr. Biden’s atrocious handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal, and the “misinformation” about the Covid vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and by Dr Anthony Fauci.

Season 2 of Insurrectionif it is renewed, will probably be very different.

Posted: Jun 13, 2022, 6:18 AM