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Truth can be a career-killer at MSNBC. Perhaps The Atlantic is more daring.On Memorial Day, during the Annual Ashli Babbitt Freedom March in D.C., I had the chance to speak with Hanna Rosin, who was covering the march for the Atlantic magazine with fellow reporter Lauren Ober.
As I tried to explain while we were walking, Ober and Rosin have an extraordinary opportunity. They can be the first journalists to share with their half of America the epic story of January 6 — the true story, that is. I cautioned, however, that as MSNBC learned the hard way, there are powerful people who do not want that story told.
The ignorance about January 6 is staggering. The tourists near the Peace Monument where the march began just looked confused. They all know who George Floyd was, but most, I am sure, had not a clue about Ashli Babbitt.
Ashli, 35, was the 14-year Air Force veteran shot and killed by the Capitol Police on January 6. The corporate media have no interest in sharing her story and even less in telling the story of Rosanne Boyland. Few, even on the right, know about Rosanne. A year younger than Ashli, Rosanne was the second woman killed by police action on January 6 and the woman whose death MSNBC vainly tried to investigate.
As the marchers, perhaps 50 strong, proceeded eastward toward the D.C. jail down Massachusetts Avenue, the neighbors alerted Ober and Rosin to the character of the D.C. jury pool. Many, virtually all white, volunteered their disgust at the caravan, some in very colorful language. I was particularly impressed at how well young D.C. women have mastered the F-bomb.
The Atlantic has as its motto “Exploring the American idea through ambitious, essential reporting and storytelling. Of no party or clique since 1857.” This is not exactly true, but in contrast to CNN or the New York Times, as Rosin conceded, The Atlantic has at least the potential to be unpredictable.
After leaving the march — I had a flight to catch — I texted Ashli Babbitt’s mother, Micki Witthoeft. “Had a long talk with Hanna from the Atlantic. You never know when the media might crack.” Replied Witthoeft, “We’ve been talking with her partner Lauren for months — she follows us to the courthouse — hearings — even CPAC — because you’re right, you never know.”
I handed Rosin a copy of my newly released book, Ashli: The Untold Story of the Women of January 6. Given the depth of their reporting, she and Ober will have no excuse not to read it. When they do, they will confront the towering wall of official disinformation that has shielded America from the truth these last three-plus years.
Rosin was unaware of MSNBC’s futile attempt to crack that wall. As I explained, network anchor Ayman Mohyeldin had an inside track on the death of Rosanne Boyland. He attended high school with Rosanne’s brother-in-law, Justin Cave. Cave and his liberal wife Lonna wanted help in exposing what they saw as the diabolic seduction of Rosanne by President Trump and the elusive QAnon. Mohyeldin was eager to oblige them.
Soon enough, however, Mohyeldin discovered that the plot line he hoped to follow was a red herring. The real story would lead him beyond the MSNBC pale and down a rabbit hole whose end he would never quite reach. Without his effort, however, little would have ever been known about Rosanne’s tragic death.
As the evidence clearly showed, Rosanne got caught up in a scrum at the front of the tunnel entrance on the west side of the Capitol. The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) took the offensive, spraying the protesters with a chemical irritant, which left many of them breathless. The police then pushed the lot of them down the makeshift steps set up for the impending inauguration.
Rosanne found herself at the bottom of this human pile, desperate for air, until pulled out from under by the other protesters. As Roseanne lay at the tunnel entrance, either dead or dying, MPD officer Lila Morris picked up a tree branch, raised it up, and struck Rosanne over the head at least three times before the branch snapped and flew out of her hands. For her heroism, Morris was rewarded with a trip to the Super Bowl a few weeks later.
The media paid little attention to Rosanne’s death. Those few who bothered to report on the incident suggested she had been “trampled” by a riotous mob. Not one outlet investigated the tragedy. Nor did any journalist protest the official ruling from the complicit D.C. medical examiner’s office. Its pathologists waited until the very last day of the ninety-day reporting window to claim that Roseanne died of “acute amphetamine intoxication.”
The Boylands were appalled by the report. At the time, the only drug Rosanne was taking was the Adderall prescribed for her ADHD. For the authorities, the drug overdose ruling smeared Rosanne and, by extension, tainted all other protesters. The autopsy report also cleared the police of any wrongdoing. The DOJ did not bother to speak to a single eyewitness or review the beating that was captured on video. For its part, the voluminous House subcommittee report did not mention Rosanne’s name, not even in the footnotes.
Although reluctant to see the larger picture, Mohyeldin was getting a glimpse into the workings of D.C. justice. He and his team contacted the medical examiner several times, but “all our requests were denied,” he lamented in MSNBC’s five-part podcast on Rosanne. “The trampling, the riot, the video evidence, none of this was even mentioned in the official autopsy report.”
Of note, too, the relevant body cam footage in Rosanne’s death was strategically withheld. As Mohyeldin admitted, “We requested the officer in question’s body camera footage, but we were denied.” Rosanne’s father Bret Boyland applied through the Freedom of Information Act for Morris’s bodycam footage and was denied as well.
In the concluding chapter of his podcast, American Radical, Mohyeldin met with Lonna Cave for the final time. The Boylands, it was clear, no longer trusted his motives. They hoped to learn more about Rosanne’s fate. He wanted to learn more about QAnon. The podcast series ended inconclusively, with him guilt-tripping Rosanne’s sisters for not saving Rosanne from “dangerous conspiracy theories designed to entrap vulnerable people like her.”
I have to wonder how Rosin and Ober will conclude their series. They are investigating a historic injustice, the greatest mass injustice here at home since Japanese internment. My book lays out the larger story in undeniable detail. They have done enough spade work on their own to provide the necessary color. Better still, on their side of the aisle, they have no competition.
The question remains as to whether Rosin and Ober will find the courage to follow the truth where it leads. Mohyeldin did not — could not, really. At MSNBC, too much truth can kill a career. But at The Atlantic, where writers pride themselves on “essential reporting and storytelling,” there may be hope, at least a glimmer thereof. As Ashli’s mom observes, “You never know.”
Jack Cashill’s Ashli: The Untold Story of the Women of January 6, is now available for purchase.
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