It was a terrible day in American history.
And also a bad day to “stick to sports.”
The horrifying images at the nation’s Capitol on Wednesday — during what should have been a peaceful counting of electoral votes — was well-covered by the news media, which had been expecting a raucous 24 hours (both inside and outside the government chambers).
It also pulled in a lot of media that’s been carefully trying to toe the line between acknowledging the real world and reporting on non-“newsy” subjects. Which is pretty impossible when you have domestic terrorist cosplayers pushing aside security and invading the offices of elected officials without fear of arrest.
Below, how the non-news world covered yesterday’s awful moments. Some of it was strange, some surprisingly incisive and obviously a few were tone-deaf. (If you want to critique us, go ahead.)
The Onion
Of course our nation’s best source of satire nailed the hypocrisy of the moment.
E!
The glossy entertainment site chose to look at yesterday — once — through the lens of a model/Kushner in-law.
Teen Vogue
Teen Vogue‘s been an excellent source of news and commentary for years now, and the writers there are well-versed in subjects of politics, race and gender (both pertaining to their audience and the world at large).
ESPN
While individual accounts from ESPN personalities shined at times yesterday, the increasingly stick-to-sports network did little but provide an ABC News link on their homepage and wait for sports stars to comment … and yesterday, that commentary was more about the acquittal of the police officer who shot Jacob Blake.
Dan Le Batard
The popular radio/TV show left ESPN somewhat acrimoniously on Monday, partially for not emphasizing sports. In an expert trolling aimed at their former bosses, the show — which had labeled the sports network “cowardly” for its apolitical stances in the past — tweeted out meaningless college basketball updates during the most tense parts of the siege.
Good Housekeeping
To be fair, right after this the magazine seemed to take social media offline until today.
Wired
This was a single, news-y tweet and rather disappointing, given that there were plenty of other sites that discussed how the agitators used social media and tech to plan their “protest.”
Rolling Stone
The long-running publication — full disclosure, a few InsideHook editors are former employees — has never had issues mixing culture and politics. So tweets from yesterday interspersed on-going commentary side-by-side with a piece on Phil Collins and “In the Air Tonight.”
Hypebeast
The culture site occasionally discusses — usually through the lens of art or commerce — political and social topics. Yesterday, not so much.
US Weekly
For some publications, it’s quite OK to sit these things out.
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