Can televised hearings bring the truth about January 6 to the US public?

The first of eight congressional hearings will start on Thursday but emulating the impact of 1973's Watergate sessions will be hard in today's fractured media and political environment

On Thursday the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol will open the first of eight hearings, marking the turning point when one of the single most important congressional investigations in history", as the Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney billed it, will finally go public.

It will be the culmination of almost a year of intensive activity that, aside from a succession of leaks, has largely been conducted in private. More than 1,000 people have been called for depositions and interviews to cast light on the events of January 6, 2021, when hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in answer to Donald Trump's call to fight like hell" to prevent Congress certifying Joe Biden's presidential victory.