For those readers and other fringe right types who feel the January 6th insurrection was a leftist affair, this is a blow – if, of course, they hear about it:
In the six months leading up to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Anthony Antonio spent his days watching Fox News — a habit that actually made him ill, his attorney told a D.C. federal magistrate judge on Thursday.
His ailment? “Foxitis,” his attorney said, the HuffPost reported. “He became hooked with what I call … ‘Foxmania.’ ”
In the virtual hearing, which went awry when another alleged Capitol rioter interrupted with obscenities, Antonio’s attorney, Joseph Hurley, claimed that Fox News’s decision to regularly air then-President Donald Trump’s false claims of mass election fraud contributed to Antonio’s decision to participate in the insurrection.
Whether or not this defense, if it even is such a thing, is accepted, it squarely plants the blame on the fringe right, with Fox News as its representative. Every attempt to cast blame on Black Lives Matter or antifa can be met with, “And how do you explain Mr. Antonio’s defense strategy?”
And it leaves the far right fringe, in the person of the opinion leaders at Fox News, such as Tucker Carlson, as well as every single GOP House of Representatives member who voted against accepting the electoral college results, guilty of attempted insurrection. The latter’s behavior is incompatible with the requirements of Congress, and they should resign.
