Fox News could become only major network to skip covering Jan 6 hearings

Fox News could become the only major network in the US that will skip covering the first public hearing for the House Select Committee investigating the 6 January Capitol insurrection.

Instead, coverage of the hearings will move to the Fox Business Network and the right-leaning news channel will only cover the hearings “as news warrants”, said a Fox press release cited by Business Insider.

After almost a year-long exhaustive investigation, the select committee will hold its first primetime hearing on Thursday at 8pm ET.

Most of the other major networks have announced their plans to run live coverage of the proceedings that are expected to outline how Donald Trump and some of his associates allegedly violated the law and tried to overturn the 2020 election.

The first hearing will run at the same time as two of Fox News’s top shows Tucker Carlson Tonight by Tucker Carlson and Hannity by Sean Hannity.

Fox News’ Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum will anchor coverage on the hearings for Fox Business and will be joined by Shannon Bream for a two-hour reaction special starting at 11 PM ET, reported Deadline.

Fox News will also offer live streams without authentication.

Carlson and Hannity, who are Fox’s top conservative hosts, will not cover the hearings. Both have previously denounced the House committee and its investigations against Mr Trump.

On his primetime show, Carlson has downplayed the Capitol riot and said the attempt to overturn the election was no longer newsworthy as “the presidential election was not overturned”.

“The Capitol was not destroyed, the government was not toppled, no matter what you may have heard, not a single elected official was injured, thank god,” Carlson had said on his show on the first anniversary of the riot.

Carlson also advanced conspiracy theories about the origins of investigation in his documentary called Patriot Purge while Hannity and another primetime host, Laura Ingraham, have found themselves in discussions during the committee’s investigations.

The committee released text messages from 6 January last year in which Hannity and Ingraham urged Mr Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows to force the president to take steps to stop the riot.