This alarming news from FBI Director Wray’s House Testimony demands more coverage!

Corporate media again favors drama over substance

We have yet another example of the corporate media choosing to amplify drama over substance because drama is good for the bottom line. The latest episode came Wednesday with the corporate media’s coverage of FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony before the GOP controlled House Judiciary committee.  

Overall, the coverage focused on how the GOP “grilled” Wray and how the FBI head faced his “harshest critics” yet.  We saw articles and cable news stories—for the most part—focus on how Republicans attacked Wray for allegedly going after conservatives.  GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz—continuing his never-ending audition to be a Fox News host—made press by asking Wray, “Are you protecting the Bidens?”

In response, Wray made it clear the FBI was not protecting the Biden’s—and he scoffed at the suggestion he was targeting conservatives, saying, “The idea that I am biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me, given my own personal background,”  That’s pretty obvious given Wray was appointed by Donald Trump to head the FBI, before that he was appointed  by President George W. Bush as associate deputy attorney general and is a longtime member of the conservative group the Federalist Society.

But the substantive issue that should have made headlines was Wray testifying that since the FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022, there has been such an alarming threat of violence directed against FBI and DOJ officials that the agency set up a new dedicated unit to monitor them.  As Wray revealed for the first time, “We did stand up a whole dedicated unit to focus on threats to FBI, individuals, FBI employees and FBI facilities because of the uptick that we saw over that time period.”

As a reminder, shortly after the search of Trump’s residence (aka his crime lair) there was an “unprecedented” number of threats against the FBI and even violence. Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen asked Wray specifically about the attack on a Cincinnati FBI field office carried out by a self-professed Trump supporter just days after the search.  Wray noted that this attacker—who was later killed by the police in a shoot out—was wearing a tactical vest while carrying an AR-15 and a nail gun when he tried to breach the FBI field office.  The attacker—who had attended Trump’s Jan 6 rally-- per his past posts on Trump’s social media platform in the days after the search had urged violence while declaring, “We must not tolerate this one.”

As I wrote about for CNN in the weeks after this attack on the FBI offices and the unprecedented threats to the FBI, neither Donald Trump nor GOP leaders in the House denounced either. Nor did they denounce the threats and anti-Semitic comments directed at the time against the magistrate who approved the search warrant.  Instead, both Trump and House Republicans continued spewing irresponsible lies about the FBI as well as federal prosecutors.  

Wray, in response to Cohen’s questions, testified that the threats against the FBI were part of a “broader phenomenon” against not just the FBI but law enforcement in general. Wray added that these threats leveled against the officers and agents included some “calling for attacks against their families,” which he slammed as being “truly despicable.”

Rep. Cohen then raised recent reporting by The Washington Post that “prosecutors involved in the classified documents case against former president Donald Trump are facing substantial harassment and threats online and elsewhere.” That reporting also alarmingly explained that “Far-right Trump supporters are posting the names of prosecutors and government workers online and yelling them at demonstrations, threatening them and sometimes revealing details about their personal lives.”

It was in response to that questioning that Wray revealed the new unit dedicated to protecting FBI and other DOJ employees.  

How can this not make headlines? The FBI created a new unit to protect FBI agents and federal prosecutors from violence threatened by Trump supporters to stop his prosecution! 

By not reporting this more visibly, the media is unintentionally helping normalize what should never be normal.  It must be reported and loudly denounced given that threats of violence in the political arena—as I’ve written about many times in the past—is a classic trait of fascist movements.

“What differentiates fascism from other ideological movements is the use of violence and anger to achieve political ends.,” explained the late Madeline Albright in 2019 when discussing her book, Fascism: A Warning.  She added instructively, “Whatever else it is, fascism involves the endorsement and use of violence to achieve political goals and stay in power.”

Today, the go-to move from many in the GOP is to implicitly or even explicitly threaten violence. For example, last August after Trump’s home was searched, Sen Lindsey Graham appeared on Fox News where he warned: “If there is a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information after the Clinton debacle … there will be riots in the street.”

Trump himself has nurtured violence on his behalf beginning at his rallies in 2016 right through today with his attacks on the FBI, DOJ and special counsel Jack Smith. He knows—especially after Jan 6—that when he targets his enemies, some in MAGA will respond with threats or even violence. We were reminded of this just a week ago when Trump posted on his social media platform what he claimed was the home address of former President Barack Obama and on the same day a Trump supporting man with guns in his van was arrested near the property,

And after his Jan 6 attack, Trump has repeatedly vowed to pardon those who waged the terrorist attack on his behalf if he wins in 2024. Again, this is not what we see in American political parties, it’s rather the trademark move of fascist movements.

I get covering the back and forth between the House GOP and Wray is newsworthy. But there is no excuse for not covering at least as much—if not far more—the substantive news from the hearing that the FBI has created a new unit to protect themselves and DOJ officials from MAGA violent extremists.  Instead, the corporate media irresponsibly and dangerously continues to pursue ratings and clicks at the expense of our democratic Republic.

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