"No good will come of the effort."

That was the considered judgment of The Wall Street Journal in its May 16 editorial, "The House Subpoena Wars," calling into question the legality of the subpoenas issued to five House Republicans by the Jan. 6 inquisition panel.

Why, then, did the editorial reach out to smear former President Trump for his "monumental failure of character and duty in not moving to stop the [Capitol] riot"?  ABC News, no friend to Donald Trump, reported that a bipartisan Senate committee issued a report, June 2021, finding that the Capitol Police failed to act on intelligence warning about January 6 protests.  Who is responsible for the Capitol Police?  Not the head of the Executive Branch.

An article in USA Today refuted the argument that the Capitol Police are answerable to Speaker Pelosi.  This article suggested that the Capitol Police are answerable to the Capitol Police Board — and various committees of the House and Senate. 

Whoever is in charge of the Capitol Police, it is not the president.  Clearly, Congress, not the president — if the USA Today article is correct — had the responsibility to move to stop the tumult.  Why does The Wall Street Journal continue to blame Donald J. Trump for January 6?  Apparently because that is the general narrative of the media, and the Journal lacks the fortitude to stray from the media's anti-Trump line.  This line is apparent in media articles acknowledging that President Trump urged the January 6 protesters to go home in peace but adds the propaganda line that he encouraged the disturbance at the Capitol.  See for example this anti-Trump piece in The Hill.

The U.S. media, with rare exceptions, has generally followed Jim Rutenberg's radical rules for covering Mr. Trump, set down in The New York Times, in early August 2016, while Mr. Trump was still a candidate.  Basically, Rutenberg announced that Donald J. Trump was not to be covered objectively; apply invidious propaganda to his words, thoughts, and deeds.  Consequently, the country was tormented by the Russia hoax (including the phony "Steele dossier"); nearly two years of Mueller; and, finally, two attempts at impeachment coups.

Instead of putting itself at the disposal of the anti-liberty left, The Wall Street Journal should shout from its rooftop: "In reading media coverage of Donald Trump, remember Rutenberg's prescription for Pravda-type pummeling of the man."

And the Journal should have ended its criticism of the Jan. 6 inquisition panel by appropriating Nick Carraway's remark to Jay Gatsby, in chapter 8 of The Great Gatsby, telling Donald J. Trump: "They're a rotten crowd."  Adding: "You're worth the whole damn bunch put together."