Commentary
Powerline’s Scott Johnson quoted a TV Guide reporter who described the viewership of the first January 6 House Committee’s prime-time television extravaganza as “decent.”
In context, “decent” means “dismal” since, as Johnson notes,  “the networks graciously handed their prime-time slots over to the committee’s motley crew in unison, Soviet style.”
A show trial is a mock or make-believe trial in which the guilt of the party is predetermined.
The trial is just a form of theater.
Lenin called them “model trials.”
The aim was not to discover the truth—which was supposedly already known—but to stage a propaganda exhibition….