January 6 – an unofficial release

Ever since Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), now Speaker of the House, announced his release of 41,000 hours of footage from the January 6 event exclusively to Tucker Carlson at Fox News Channel, he has faced a firestorm of criticism. A lawyer for ten other media outlets sent the Speaker a letter demanding that his clients see the footage, too. Mike Lindell has also announced his intention to sue McCarthy over the footage. Laura Loomer has poured contempt on the release, calling it meaningless. But yesterday a professional film editor published to Twitter a long thread of unofficial video from the January 6 event. This footage raises several interesting questions, about the conduct of the Capitol Police and the official narrative.

January 6 – a quick review

On January 6, 2021, President Donald J. Trump called a rally on the White House lawn. He anticipated the rally would overfill the area, so he arranged large repeating screens with speakers on the National Mall. An estimated 100,000 people attended that rally. (For perspective, a single infantry division usually has 10,800 enlisted.)

After making a short speech, Trump urged his followers to walk – calmly and peaceably – toward the Capitol. But the scene at the Capital rapidly became anything but peaceful. About 200 people were involved in actual fighting, with Capitol Police forces using tear gas. One civilian – Ashli Babbett – died from a Capitol Police gunshot, Apparently four CP officers suffered heart attacks and died in the excitement. The Capitol has been a fenced-in fortress, off and on, ever since.

CNAV has done several retrospectives on the January 6 event, focusing mainly on the:

1. Political posturing by President Joe Biden and his administration, the
2. Provocative acts of some claiming to be event organizers the night before, and above all, the
3. Suspicious nature of certain persons, most notably Ray Epps, getting a “pass” for behavior that objectively constituted incitement to riot. As long as he remains free, on his own cognizance, with the FBI attaching no suspicion on him, his activities take on the appearance of provokatsiya at the specific instigation of the government.

With that in mind, let us examine the latest thread, released yesterday beginning at 10:09 a.m. EST.

The thread

Ford Fischer describes himself as a “primary source documentarian.” He has a profile at the Internet Movie Database, that lists ten production credits. The lesser-known The Movie Database credits him as a camera operator on the Frontline special “American Insurrection.” But apparently few knew that he had set himself the mission to collect footage that might not appear in a Public Broadcasting Service special.

Herewith his thread, as every other tweet beginning with the anchor tweet. Every tweet has embedded video, or still images.

Toward the end, Fischer quotes this anchor tweet of a long thread from November 5, 2022. In it, his interview subject, Bobby Powell, sets forth his thesis that the FBI had agents provocateurs on the scene and is protecting them to this day.

The last tweet is an embed of this video from YouTube:

An earlier tweet contains the full archive, also on YouTube, from Mr. Fischer’s new services, News2Share:

At least one user noticed something “missing” from this footage:

Another user, replying to the last tweet, asked bluntly why Mr. Fischer professes not to be convinced of wrongdoing by the government. This user definitely raises the question of a double standard.

Analysis

Mr. Fischer makes a monumental effort to preserve ideological neutrality. That could reflect healthy skepticism of hyperbole from any quarter. Or it could simply represent his effort to avoid “cancellation” by the executive producer(s) and donor(s) of/to Frontline and PBS.

This program is made possible by such-a-company, such-a-social maven, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the generous support of viewers like you. Typical PBS boilerplate acknowledgment

But the footage Fischer shared yesterday shows two things above all. First, Donald Trump’s supporters gathered in the sincere belief that he actually won the Election of 2020. Second, the Capitol Police did some questionable things, like leaving key access points unguarded at critical moments. If the ~200 people who apparently fought their way to the eastern and western doors of the Capitol really did decide on the spur of the moment to force their way inside, why did Capitol Police officers leave doors or windows unguarded?

The footage shown here is one of several batches of footage that already cast doubt on the official narrative. This in turn raises the more serious question of why authorities have held large numbers of people without trial.

Will Tucker Carlson manage to shed any further light on those events? Stay tuned.