If the loudest voices in the media get their demand for a "9/11-style commission" to investigate the January 6th Capitol riot, one thing they should investigate is how the media misreported the story so badly.
Almost every detail of their original reporting we now know to be untrue. To wit:
Claim: “Rioters planned the attack on Parler”
Reality: Actually most of the planning occurred on Facebook
Claim: “Rioters had plans to kidnap lawmakers”
Reality: There's no evidence this is true
Claim: “No left-wing activists were part of the riot”
Reality: A self-described Antifa activist was arrested for leading the rioters into the Capitol Dome; other registered Democrats were likewise arrested
Claim: “Rioters killed 5 people”
Reality: The only people who died on January 6th were Trump supporters (one of whom was an unarmed woman who was shot; two others died of heart attacks)
Claim: “Rioters brought zip ties to the Capitol”
Reality: The man photographed with zip ties actually took them from a Capitol police officer so that they wouldn't be used against the rioters
Claim: “Rioters bludgeoned a cop to death with a fire extinguisher”
Reality: The officer died of natural causes
This last claim proved the most enduring, but has now likewise been debunked.
"Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick suffered two strokes and died of natural causes a day after he confronted rioters at the Jan. 6 insurrection, the District’s chief medical examiner has ruled," the Washington Post reported recently. "The ruling, released Monday, will make it difficult for prosecutors to pursue homicide charges in the officer’s death. Two men are accused of assaulting Sicknick by spraying a powerful chemical irritant at him during the siege, but prosecutors have not tied that exposure to Sicknick’s death."
Despite there being no evidence Sicknick died at the hands of murderous Trump activists, that didn't stop CNN and MSNBC from repeatedly telling their viewers the officer was "murdered" January 6th.
MSNBC's Vaughn Hillyard "reported": "Officer Sicknick was the one officer who was beaten to death." His MSNBC colleague, Lawrence O'Donnell, said Sicknick's death was "murder."
Joe Scarborough spent almost every show in January, February, and March intoning against Trump’s “cop killer” supporters. (He’s yet to issue a correction.)
CNN's Evan Perez said, "One of the top priorities for prosecutors is the hunt for cop killers; the people responsible for the murder of police officer Brian Sicknick.
During Sicknick's memorial, CNN's Don Lemon intoned that it was taking place "at the scene of the crime."
MSNBC's Jim Cavanaugh went further, all the way inside of the minds of the Trump activists who partook in the riot. "They have extreme desires for murder and overthrowing the government. If they had gotten in there and gotten their hands on a senator or congressman, they would have slit their throats, they would have hung [sic] them, they would have beaten them to death."
For more, check out the supercut above.