As I begin writing this piece, it’s 7:38 p.m. CST on Thursday, June 9th. I’m 38 minutes into watching the overly-hyped January 6th hearings from Capitol Hill. Sure, I’d rather be getting waterboarded, but such is life, and it is part of the job.
Regardless, I went into my viewing with an open mind and was curious to see if we might learn anything new from that day 18 months ago. Like any rational person, I was disgusted by those who broke the law that day and believed they should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. That being said, it’s undeniable this is very much political posturing by Democrats to try and have the issue of January 6th at the top of voters’ minds before the midterms.
And on Thursday evening, the hyper-partisan committee had a small window to capture people’s attention and suck them into the event. For most Americans, the issues like gasoline prices, grocery prices, general inflation, record-setting numbers of drug overdoses, and rising crime are much more likely to be topics they discuss at the kitchen table over January 6th.
So if this committee wanted to get the American people to care en masse, they had to knock it out of the park right away.
But the committee failed.
And considering the made-for-TV event was being put together by former ABC News President James Goldston, a longtime television executive who started working with the committee several weeks ago to help produce the hearing, I’m shocked at how impressively he appears to have failed.
In fact, he could have been taught a thing or two from any talk radio programmer based on our PPM principles. We know that in radio, you have seconds come out of a break to hook in a listener. It’s that great opening line that sucks in your audience and makes them not want to leave.
That’s more true than ever today as media continues to get more fragmented and attention spans keep dwindling. With those standards in place, the January 6th committee’s opening presentation could not have gone worse.
The first 15 minutes were spent with Chairman Bennie Thomas telling us about his personal life story and why we should care about January 6th. But most importantly, no new information.
Then, it was Liz Cheney’s turn to pontificate on the importance of the hearings while also bloviating, saying, for example: “Please remember what is at stake. Remember the men and women who have fought and died so that we can live under the rule of law and not the rule of men.”
There were also multiple occasions where Cheney used the phrase, “You will hear…”, as she was setting up what’s to come for the committee in future hearings. This is not a novel. This is a prime-time, politically-motivated hearing being promoted to specifically help the party in power maintain it. If you have the goods, the opening hour, frankly the opening 10-15 minutes, was the time to share it. That did not happen.
It felt like it was a show being put on for the media sycophants and Trump-hating Americans. Here’s the problem: That is NOT the audience that the Democrat party needs to care about with this hearing. They already have that audience. They needed left-of-center Democrats, Independents, and even some Republicans to be lured in by their opening act. And based on the information or lack thereof that was provided, it was a total dud.
Thomas and Cheney each spoke for nearly one hour combined, with no “bombshell” information that would have been useful to keep the attention of the American people. Maybe that’s because that information doesn’t exist. It probably doesn’t, because if it did, and James Goldston didn’t have the foresight to use it right out of the gates when the audience for the hearings was going to be the largest, then he failed at his job.
We’ll wait to see what gets presented moving forward, and none of it takes away from a disgraceful day and national embarrassment. But if this was supposed to be the moment that the American people shifted away from the Republican Party (which polls are showing is continuing to happen) and over to the Democratic Party, then the moment fell flat on its face.
And to think that a few simple radio PPM principles for James Goldston might have been of service. What a shame, huh?
Pete Mundo is a weekly columnist for Barrett Media, and the morning show host and program director for KCMO in Kansas City. Previously, he was a fill-in host nationally on FOX News Radio and CBS Sports Radio, while anchoring for WFAN, WCBS News Radio 880, and Bloomberg Radio. Pete was also the sports and news director for Omni Media Group at K-1O1/Z-92 in Woodward, Oklahoma. He’s also the owner of the Big 12-focused digital media outlet Heartland College Sports. To interact, find him on Twitter @PeteMundo.
