By Katie Kieffer
Monday, May 13, 2013
What happened to the bulldogs in the media? When it came
to covering the Benghazi terrorist attack, the media sounded like a pack of
Chihuahuas. The media is the last guardian of free speech in America. If the
media becomes a megaphone for politicians, then there is no point to the media
at all.
We can’t expect politicians to behave themselves if
reporters don’t hold politicians accountable. If the Benghazi coverage taught
us anything, it’s that journalists need to be more aggressive, more inquisitive
and more driven to get to the facts in stories.
A February 2013 Rasmussen poll shows that 54 percent of
Americans distrust the news media and just six percent of all Americans think
the news media is “very trustworthy.”
After the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S.
consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans including
U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, very few American journalists have been willing
to be bullish on Benghazi and get to the truth of the story. As I have pointed
out before, there is ample evidence pointing to a massive Benghazigate cover up
orchestrated by President Obama as well as potential perjury by former
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Last week, Esquire Magazine published a long piece
ridiculing one of the few journalists who has prioritized truth over politics
while covering the Benghazi story, namely CBS investigative journalist Sharyl
Attkisson. Shame on Esquire. Attkisson is one of the last-standing heroes in
media; she is driven by the truth and nothing else.
Truth is not political. Sharyl Attkisson is not
“betraying liberals” by joining FOX News in devoting extensive coverage to the
Benghazi story. She is simply speaking the truth and helping others see the
truth. She is honoring the four Americans who died in a terrorist attack that
our President irresponsibly blamed on a YouTube video.
During last Wednesday’s explosive Congressional hearing
with three Benghazi whistleblowers—and for the past several months leading up
to the hearing—Attkisson has been blowing her own whistle on Benghazi. On her
Twitter feed (@SharylAttkisson), she has continually updated the public with
facts about Benghazi.
For example, after House Republicans released an interim
report on Benghazi on April 23, Attkisson boldly tweeted the report’s findings.
She told Americans that while Clinton knew of requests for aid from Americans
in Libya prior to the attack, the report indicated that she: “ordered the
withdrawal of elements to proceed as planned.”
While other reporters were keeping mum, Attkisson was
telling Americans that the report indicates that both Obama’s White House and
State Department literally changed their talking points in order to cover for
Clinton. She tweeted that the Obama administration scrubbed their Benghazi
talking points: “…. to remove references to likely participation of Islamic
extremists in attacks, references to threat of extremists linked to al Qaeda…,”
according to the report.
Last Wednesday, Attkisson also boldly live-tweeted during
the testimony from the three whistleblowers who testified before the House
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The whistleblowers, Eric
Nordstrom, Greg Hicks and Mark Thompson, were senior government officials who
simply shared their first-hand accounts of what occurred on the ground in Libya
during the attack.
Attkisson covered the hearing in a fair manner because
she understands what should be obvious to all journalists: These men did not
put their careers on the line and testify under oath because they were
Republican cheerleaders. They testified because they witnessed and lived
through the attack and because they deeply care about the truth.
Nordstrom introduced his comments by saying: “As the
regional security officer [in Tripoli, Libya]…I served as principle security
officer…to Stevens.” Then, he audibly choked up, adding: “It matters to the
American public, and most importantly, it matters to the [family of the
victims] who were murdered on September 11, 2012.”
In the Sunday, May 5 edition of the New York Times, I
read story after story about Syria and Afghanistan but virtually nothing about
Benghazi. Everyone knew that three eyewitnesses would be testifying on
Wednesday, May 10, 2013. So, it would seem appropriate to dedicate substantial
space in the Sunday edition to Benghazi and the whistleblowers.
Other than FOX News and C-SPAN, CBS did a good job of
covering the Benghazi hearing in a fair manner in advance of the trial. CBS
News Host Bob Schieffer held a fantastic interview on Sunday, May 5 with Rep.
Darrel Issa (R-CA) and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) where Issa had a chance
to voice many of the facts surrounding the Benghazi terrorist attack and
apparent cover up by the Obama administration.
The only reason Obama is strolling through the Rose
Garden, golfing with Tiger Woods and cracking jokes about Jay-Z is because the
media is not holding him accountable. Obama and Clinton were behind a
gun-running program that backfired and likely armed the Libyan rebels who
stormed the consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi. Meanwhile, the maker of the
You Tube film “Innocence of Muslims” that Obama initially blamed for the
Benghazi attacks (even though everyone knew it was terror) is serving prison
time for a parole violation. Unless American journalists decide to hold Obama
accountable and act more like bulldogs and less like Chihuahuas, free speech
will go to hell in a hand basket.
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