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This week on CounterSpin: As we recorded on January 7, the Washington Post was calling for Donald Trump’s removal from office. To which one might respond: Ya think? Media who egged on Trump’s candidacy, trivialized his venality and normalized as extreme-but-within-range his and his party’s every anti-democratic outrage, are poorly placed to take principled umbrage when that juggernaut takes the course that everyone and their mother said it would. Headlines suggesting the insurrection at the Capitol was the Trump era’s “last gasp” suggest a continued refusal to acknowledge the multiple factors that drove and abetted it, that go well beyond Trump and are going nowhere with Trump’s deposal, today or in two weeks’ time.

Some say the deferential police treatment of rampaging white nationalists who brought their own gallows, as opposed to the abuse that routinely meets nonviolent Black and brown protestors, betrays a double standard; our guest says no, it reflects the single standard of white supremacy. We talk about coverage of the January 6 attack on the Capitol with political scientist Dorothee Benz.

Washington Post image of police barricades at the Capitol. assaulting the Capitol.

And speaking of law enforcement: We’ll also hear briefly from activist/attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund. They’re demanding an investigation of federal and local police planning and response to yesterday’s events.

Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at media coverage of Julian Assange’s extradition denial and Trump’s Blackwater pardons.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.