TV news has to grapple with the "gaslighting" of Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol Insurrection on its first anniversary

The Hollywood Reporter

The events of Jan. 6, 2021 were shown all over the world, "but it is the things that TV viewers didn’t see that stick with those who were covering the events that day. And the reverberations are still being felt," says The Hollywood Reporter's Alex Welprin, adding that the dissonance between what Republicans and Democrats felt about that day "was a recurring theme in the days, weeks and months since Jan. 6. While many Republicans and Trump administration officials quickly condemned the attack, over time those condemnations have wavered, or in some cases vanished. In their place, justifications or dismissal have taken hold." "I do think there is a certain degree of gaslighting that happens from some Republicans who try to downplay what we all went through that day, and it started immediately,” says Garrett Haake, NBC News' senior Capitol Hill correspondent. “I remember being in the tunnel that night and asking (Sen.) Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) what happened and whether he felt like the president had any responsibility for what happened, and he told me, in that moment, ‘no.’ There are plenty of lawmakers on that side of the aisle who try to downplay the severity of what happened that day, and it is just not acceptable, and it is not reality.” ALSO: How to watch coverage of the first anniversary of the U.S. Capitol Takeover.