Friday, a Blaze TV journalist, Steve Baker, was arrested for his part in the January 6 riots. A journalist was arrested for filming the event? Why was he arrested?
There were many journalists on Capitol Hill that day (more than sixty per Baker, including several journalists who went through a broken window).
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/media/congressional-reporters-capitol-hill-riot/index.html
New York CNN Business — When pro-Trump rioters breached the Capitol building on Wednesday, the TV cameras in the House and Senate chambers were abruptly turned off.
Thankfully there were quick-thinking reporters and photographers inside the Capitol who showed the world what happened next.
CNN says we should thank the many quick thinking journalists who followed the crowd into the Capitol and recorded the events of that fateful day, but CNN didn’t thank Baker for being quick thinking and showing the world the events of that day. They didn’t decry his arrest or say it is extreme for a journalist to be put in be put in leg irons for four misdemeanor charges. Instead, they view Baker as a conservative who says “suspect” things (i.e. things they disagree with) about January 6, so they likely think his arrest appropriate. What if Andrea Mitchell or George Stephanopoulos or some other well known liberal journalist was arrested? When Jim Acosta was thrown out of the White House press corps by President Trump, the howling from the DC press was intense, and his credentials were restored shortly after. Why does our media come to defense of only some journalists?
There are many questions to pose about all this. Did the other journalists enter the grounds without lawful authority? If entering the Capitol (a restricted area) is a problem, why haven’t all journalists been charged along with Baker?
What constitutes disorderly behavior and how can we distinguish it from ordinary protest? Why does the one-channel media characterize some journalists as quick thinking heroes who showed the world what it needed to see that day, but they believe others, like Baker, were rightly charged for doing exactly the same thing? Did Baker discredit himself that day? Did he violate journalistic integrity (if there is still such a thing these days) and give the government good reason to charge him for unruly or inappropriate behavior? How does Baker’s behavior compare with those of protestors during that day?
Who Was There January 6?
Sarah Ferris of Politico was not arrested for knowingly entering or remaining on the Capitol grounds. https://www.npr.org/2022/01/05/1070700663/2-reporters-who-were-in-the-capitol-on-jan-6-talk-about-media-coverage-of-the-at
Sarah Ferris of Politico had a different experience. She was inside the House of Representatives chamber, where lawmakers were crouched on the floor of the gallery. And she remembers them praying, fearing for their lives.
Luke Mogelson entered the Senate chamber as well. According to Steve Baker, Mogelson was on of several journalists who entered the Capitol through a broken window. You might not consider that particular behavior in itself to be especially problematic, but protestors who did so (and apparently did nothing else of note) were charged. https://lawandcrime.com/u-s-capitol-siege/missouri-men-and-alabama-woman-who-climbed-through-a-broken-window-to-enter-the-capitol-on-jan-6-plead-guilty/.
Mogelson works for a one-channel media outlet instead of a conservative outlet, so he was not charged.
There are ample accounts from other reporters that day; many other journalists offered first hand accounts and even videos. Official government footage released by the January 6 committee showed bad behavior on the part of many individuals. Video was also released to journalists like Tucker Carlson in February 2023. According to partisan Democrats like Adam Schiff, it was wonderful the January 6 committee selectively released official government video, but it was extremely dangerous for Tucker Carlson to do the same. https://www.newsweek.com/january-capitol-riot-video-footage-calm-twitter-1631994. Jacob Chansley, the infamous protestor wearing the horns was released from prison after Carlson’s video release (it was evidence never allowed in his trial), but I am sure Schiff does not consider that justice.
Protestors in the following video from Luke Mogelson (which had several million views) are indeed acting badly and are hurting the cause they attempt to defend: reporters-footage-inside-the-capitol-seige. These folks were not violent, but you could certainly say they were disorderly and disruptive. I am sure they were charged. They have no business walking into the Senate Chamber or rifling through papers of legislators. Interestingly, they tried to act respectfully; they even prayed inside the Senate Chamber, thinking they are doing the nation and God some great service, but it is not appropriate at all. They foolishly believe they are helping their cause. The one-channel media calls this activity “chilling”. I would not go so far; this behavior is inappropriate, but falls dramatically short of being an insurrection.
We can legitimately compare the behavior of these protestors in the Senate chamber with the actions of a young Joe Biden, who in 1963 (per his own words) also illicitly entered the Senate Chamber. Just like Jacob Chansley in 2021, Biden sat in the chair reserved for the Vice President. During the thirty-second clip below Biden comes across like a regular guy exercising his right to protest. He chuckles as he recounts being arrested for his actions, which he treats as totally innocuous. Yet, today, he says entering the Capitol on January 6 and acting as he himself did in 1963, was “the gravest of threats”. Really?
The video of Baker’s time at the Capitol is very different from Mogelson’s video account. After Baker was arrested, The Blaze released forty-seven minutes of him at the Capitol on January 6. https://www.theblaze.com/news/blaze-media-releases-never-before-seen-video-of-steve-baker-in-us-capitol-on-jan-6-baker-others-blast-charges-against-him
Baker’s actions are totally mundane. Where is the disorderly or disruptive conduct? You can’t find it. There certainly is parading, demonstrating, and picketing from others, but not from Baker. There is no shocking activity on the part of any individual protestor throughout this video, and there are literally thousands of people caught on tape. The crowd is not violent. Protestors have no guns (no weapons at all, in fact) and no fights break out. The crowd is quite large but not antagonistic towards the police. We do know there were indeed many incidents of individuals acting very badly in interactions with the police, but they are not captured in this rather lengthy video.
Baker is mostly by himself throughout, at times speaking with police officers, but mostly filming and observing the activity of others.
The video starts at 2:15 PM outside the Capitol and ends at 3:06 PM. During that period Baker entered the building, followed and observed the crowd, and exited without demonstrating, picketing, parading or acting disorderly or disruptive. Find the fault for yourself if you don’t believe me.
Sound is intermittent throughout, but we do hear profanity, shouting, chanting, and the like. At the video start, there is one person standing on the rampart, waving his hand to encourage others to join in. A few others join the crowd above by climbing the wall. This activity looks suspicious, but if they had walked around to the entrance, there would have been no need to enter in this fashion. The overwhelming majority simply walked in peacefully as police stood by and monitored. In this video, we see quite a few others acting foolishly but not violently.
The first fifteen minutes is consumed with the crowd entering the building; people are chanting, shouting, milling about, and filming themselves. Baker is swept along by the large crowd during this period. Initially, the scene is chaotic as a large number surge into the building, but the crowd mostly appears to be filing into the building orderly. It looks like a garden variety protest in the USA, certainly not anything on scale with the riots across the nation during the Summer of 2020.
During the last two-thirds of the video, Baker is able to separate himself and moves from room to room following the path of others from afar. The police are present throughout this video. In some instances they are trying to control the crowd, but mostly they are just watching as the crowd slips by.
Americans are accustomed to protesting in this fashion. It is protected speech. Some people behaved badly this day, but there is no violence in this video. These people are not armed and are not attempting an insurrection. They are protesting what they believe to be an insurrection themselves. Many are indeed upset, but nobody in this video is out-of-control.
Throughout, the video captures Baker among the crowd, noting his location with a red circle. He is following, not leading. He is not demonstrating, shouting, or interacting with any of the protestors. Baker’s actions alone are quite mundane, dull and boring for the most part. You can rely on my word or the word of the folks on The Blaze or you can watch all forty-seven minutes yourself. There is nothing to support the claims of disorderly and disruptive behavior, and nothing with regard to demonstrating, parading, or picketing (others were, yes, but not Baker). Baker appears to be doing his job as a journalist, moving off the beaten path into places he could observe events. He follows or is swept along by the crowd as they meander throughout the building. He does not interact with any participant and he was not a participant himself.
All but a few minutes of Baker’s time during this period have been captured by the video. Most of the gap in time is near the end of the video when he is about leave the building or is actually outside the building. Baker exits the building at 2:55PM (minute thirty-eight of the video). His total time inside is about thirty-five minutes.
There is a notable event captured beginning around minute thirty. At that point, tear gas disperses the crowd milling about. The crowd appears distressed to have been assaulted in this manner, but there is no significant impact. Police have guns drawn and the protestors stop their forward movement when they encounter this barricade. It is not clear what is happening at the time, but we learn the reason a few minutes later. At minute thirty-eight, Baker is escorted from the building by a female police officer. He speaks with a police officer outside the building and then waits a couple minutes. We then see a person on the stretcher exiting the building. Baker films blood which has stained the pavement as the victim is wheeled out. This person is Ashley Babbitt, a female protestor shot by a Capitol police officer that day. Babbitt died later that day.
Babbitt was the only one who died as a result of the event. In the video below, we see protestors trying to break through a door in the lead-up to this tragic event. Clearly protestors pushed too far. There is not enough evidence to say if the police officer acted inappropriately or not. This two-minute clip shows the lead-up and the shooting.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2021/01/08/ashli-babbitt-shooting-video-capitol
The Arrest: March 2024
Baker knew he was under investigation the last two-and-a-half years. He had been interviewed by the FBI in November 2021, but was left in limbo until 2024. In 2022, the local news in Raleigh did a story on him: they mentioned his status as an independent journalist, talked with Baker about the criminal investigation, and discussed what he saw. Baker labeled it as a relatively “polite” protest, not exactly peaceful, but not out-of-control as it is so often depicted.
https://abc11.com/steve-baker-january-6-riot-committee/11956684/
In November 2021, Baker was told arrest was imminent, but it was delayed until March 2024. There were long stretches during which Baker was provided little information. He didn’t know if he would ever be charged or arrested. In 2024, when it appeared charges would finally be coming, The Blaze interviewed Baker several times regarding his ordeal. Glen Beck interviewed Baker the evening before his arrest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0QoGov0SlQSteve.
Baker reveals the day before he is to turn himself in, he still does not know the charges. The government is apparently concerned he will speak too freely about this and perhaps even portray the government in an unfavorable light. Baker talks also about the unprecedented nature of the FBI’s role in the January 6 investigations. “This is retribution,” he says, retribution for all that he has said regarding January 6 since that day (some of which is mentioned in the interview). It is not justice for the actions of the day itself, which were nothing worthy of prosecution based on the tape from that day. Baker also speaks of another journalist, Steven Horn, who was contracted with a TV station, and was arrested under similar circumstances. Horn eventually spent eight months in prison for his misdemeanor charges (basically the same as Baker’s).
Why did the government charge and imprison Stephen Horn and why are they going after Steve Baker now? If entering a restricted area is a crime, why haven’t all sixty journalists who entered that day been charged? Glenn Beck says Baker is an innocent man, a journalist who should not be charged. The lengthy video of Baker’s activities confirms that statement. Yet, the legal-fare continues. Was that red hat he was wearing a MAGA hat (or some other dangerous propaganda)? Perhaps that was the real problem for the FBI?
Steve Deace interviewed Baker the day of his arrest. He was arraigned early in the day and released in the afternoon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLD_p5740yQ. Baker says his experience was “humiliating.” He refutes all charges (this interview was done before the chronicle of Baker’s activities was released). He adds also that “all of these trials [of J6 defendants] are about scary words” and that this is “about the suppression of speech”, specifically suppression of Right wing speech. He supports this claim by noting that the speech that is referred to in the charges are what he said before the event or after the event, nothing about his activity that particular day.
Baker did nothing wrong. The government is attempting to shut him up by threatening more serious charges if he continues speaking out. Obviously, he is not going to stop as attested to by this comment to Deace:
I have read hundreds of these J6 charging documents and I know from experience how overly-exaggerated they are, how distorted the narrative is . . . The problem is half the country doesn’t care. The other half are influenced it by it still . . . People are still going to believe a modicum of that.
Amen, brother. From my perspective, the government has destroyed its credibility; however, as Baker indicates, many in our country still defer to the government’s authority; they trust it is a disinterested player seeking the best for the country as a whole. They still view government as a force for good and not a tool for the party in power. Wake up, folks. The world has changed dramatically in recent years. On the other hand, many J6 protestors believed they were doing what was best for the country; they should have turned around instead of attempting to confront lawmakers directly, but they thought they were supporting a good cause. I think many of them were rightly charged. However, the vast number of protestors did not realize what they were caught up in; they did little more than walk into the Capitol, take a selfie, and walk out; they were not stopped by police and they did not confront anyone, nor did they ever intend to confront anyone. Why are so many of them along with journalists like Baker charged? The system is corrupt. Baker’s arrest is evidence of the corruption.
At the root, this whole charade is about the last presidential election and manipulating J6 events to influence the 2024 election. Anything helping the one-channel media’s preferred candidate is promoted and anything not helping that candidate is ignored. That might be a tolerable position if only truth were promoted, but as we can see in Baker’s case, lies are promoted and the law is not applied fairly or equally.
Where is the one-channel media when it comes to charges filed against Baker? Are they are unconcerned about intimidating journalists and the threat to the free press? No. They are concerned only if they agree with the journalist’s speech. They join in the attack on fellow journalists. The one-channel media prefers to focus on the activities of a few people and attribute that to all protestors; we are ALL extreme Right wing MAGA lunatics, even if we distance ourselves from the most extreme behavior. Here is a one-channel media take on Baker’s arrest: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/musician-libertarian-writer-works-blaze-arrested-jan-6-charges-rcna140041.
NBC focuses on Baker’s interest in music, but that has nothing to do with the story. They want to portray him as a dilettante who is not really part of their club, and should not be treated as a journalist. The charges are addressed as follows:
William Shipley, indicates that federal prosecutors will focus on comments from Baker that show he was sympathetic to the mob, including when he referred to Nancy Pelosi as a “b—-” after talking about the mob raiding the former House speaker’s office, and a comment in which he said he regretted that he didn’t steal government property during the attack.
Maybe Baker’s comments do not sit well with you, but if Baker didn’t actually take anything during the event, where’s the beef? He thought about doing something illegal, but never acted on that thought. Further, if calling other politicians names is a problem, then nobody would be left in government. As Baker said in his interviews, these charges are not related to his activity that day. These are opinions Baker expressed in an affidavit AFTER the event; they don’t address comments or actions during the actual event. Why should offering a political opinion be a problem?
As I mentioned in prior posts, only a fraction of the folks attending President Trump’s speech that day entered the Capitol, and a fraction of those entering the Capitol did anything even remotely suspect.
Dave https://seek-the-truth.com/about/
https://seek-the-truth.com
https://seek-the-truth.com/category/elections
what-did-we-learn-from-jan-6-committee
what-does-an-insurrection-look-like
when-there-are-no-consequences-the-corruption-continues
Seek the Truth 
2 thoughts on “Corruption Alert: Journalist Arrested for January 6”