Events

ABC’s Stephanopoulos Ignores Benghazi During Interview with Susan Rice
By Jeffrey Meyer | June 1, 2014 | 1:19 PM EDT

Susan Rice, former U.N. Ambassador and current National Security Advisor for President Obama, sat down with CNN’s Candy Crowley and ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, June 1 to discuss a variety of foreign policy topics, yet Stephanopoulos refused to ask his guest about the latest surrounding the Benghazi investigation. 

Rice appeared on both This Week and State of the Union to talk about the decision by the United States to release 5 prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for the Taliban releasing an American soldier held captive and only CNN's Candy Crowley brought up Benghazi to Ambassador Rice. 

Bill Kristol Leaves Tavis Smiley Speechless Over VA Scandal
By Jeffrey Meyer | June 1, 2014 | 11:17 AM EDT

Bill Kristol, editor of the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard dismantled liberal PBS host Tavis Smiley on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos. 

Appearing as a guest on Sunday, June 1, Kristol left Smiley speechless surrounding how to solve the VA scandal when he asked his fellow panelist: “If they got a generous voucher to use to purchase the health insurance they need or the health care they need how would that be failing veterans?” [See video below.] 

NPR Runs Only Two News Reports on Benghazi In Nearly 3 Months
By Jeffrey Meyer | May 22, 2014 | 2:14 PM EDT

It’s been over a month but NPR has finally decided that the Benghazi scandal is worth covering. On Wednesday, May 21 House Democrats chose five members of Congres to participate in the House Select Committee on Benghazi and NPR’s Morning Edition covered the story on Thursday, May 22. NPR didn’t bother giving full a news report to the actual formation of the Select Committee, but deemed the Democratic response worthy of full coverage. 

The latest NPR story was the first full news story to air on Benghazi since an April 3. In fact, since February 26, NPR has only aired two full news reports and one news brief on the subject.

Sharyl Attkisson Rejects White House Talking Points Over New Benghazi Revelations
By Jeffrey Meyer | May 1, 2014 | 1:20 PM EDT

Former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson spoke to WMAL’s Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor on their Mornings on the Mall radio show on Thursday, May 1 and had some strong words surrounding the latest revelations surrounding the Benghazi terrorist attack. Earlier this week, emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request showed that the Obama Administration had instructed Susan Rice to use talking points that an anti-Muslim video sparked the terrorist attack and that it was not a reflection of President Obama’s foreign policy. 

Attkisson argued that “In the end, this is all the Obama Administration. I mean to me, it matters to some degree I guess who exactly did what. But the point is we now know the Obama Administration officials in whatever agencies at the White House were responsible for creating this narrative that was incorrect for whatever reason.” [Click here to listen to the entire interview.] 

Politico's Hounshell: No One 'Credible' or 'Authoritative' Has Shown That 'WH Knowingly Pushed a False (Benghazi) Narrative'
By Tom Blumer | April 30, 2014 | 11:15 AM EDT

NewsBusters commenter "bkeyser" at my Benghazi-related post last night pointed to a tweet from Politico Magazine Deputy Editor Blake Hounshell that is at the same time breathtakingly ignorant and astonishingly insolent.

Reacting to the contents of Benghazi-related emails finally obtained and published by Judicial Watch, Hounshell asked, "Can you point me to a credible, authoritative story saying the WH knowingly pushed a false narrative?" Well Blake, on the off-chance that you're really interested in the truth instead of serving as one of your organization's lead Obama administration lapdogs, I give you the Tuesday night writeup from an investigative journalist who, per her "about" page, has won four national Emmy Awards and has been nominated for eight others.

Not News at AP, NYT or Politico: Benghazi Emails Showing WH Orchestration of 'It's the Video's Fault' Meme
By Tom Blumer | April 29, 2014 | 11:07 PM EDT

This afternoon (late morning Pacific Time), Roger Simon at PJ Media had several reactions to the latest developments in the Benghazi saga, as new evidence surfaced of a White House "effort to insulate President Barack Obama from the attacks that killed four Americans." Simon's press-related assertion: "We will now see if there is even a figment of honesty in our mainstream media ..."

Though it's still early (but just barely), it's not looking good, my friend. Matt Hadro at NewsBusters indicated as much earlier tonight in noting that the TV networks have thus far ignored the news. Later, I'll show that other key online establishment press sources are also ignoring this bombshell story.

NBC's 'Meet the Press' Makes, Breaks Promise to Inspiring Marathon Bombing Survivor
By Tom Blumer | April 12, 2014 | 12:47 AM EDT

Adrianne Haslet-Davis is a Boston Marathon bombing survivor who insists that she not be called a "victim" ("I am not defined by what happened in my life. I am a survivor, defined by how I live my life").

The Boston Herald writes that "Haslet-Davis became a symbol of Boston Strong when she made good on her vow to dance again in a front-page Herald story last year. This past month she performed a rumba on a bionic leg designed by an MIT brainiac who is himself a double amputee. The performance was at a TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference in Vancouver." On Friday, NBC News, which three weeks ago posted a story on Haslet-Davis's first post-bombing performance, deliberately and by its own admission broke a promise it had made to her as a condition for her appearance in a taped panel discussion in advance of the network's next Meet the Press program.

MSNBC’s Reid: Holding Lois Lerner In Contempt ‘Really Does Ratchet Up The…Persecution Of Her’
By Jeffrey Meyer | April 9, 2014 | 7:51 PM EDT

The folks at MSNBC seem to be doing their best to try and minimize the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups. Ever since the initial reports broke in 2013, liberals have characterized conservative outrage as nothing more than a political stunt and one of many “faux scandals and conspiracy theories.”

The most recent example came from Obama activist turned MSNBC host Joy Reid, who on Wednesday April 9 during her daily Reid Report program declared that GOP efforts to hold IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress “Really does ratchet up the level of what you might call persecution of her.” [See video below.]

Time's Jon Friedman Fails to Show That Hank Aaron Would Face Worse Social Media-Driven Racism Today Than in Pre-Net 1970s
By Tom Blumer | April 7, 2014 | 12:18 PM EDT

Over at what's left of Time Magazine's Time.com, Jon Friedman claims that Hall of Fame baseball player Hank Aaron "Would Have Faced Worse Racism Today" than he did in 1973 and 1974 as he edged ever closer to and then broke Babe Ruth's once thought unapproachable career record of 714 home runs. There is no doubt that Aaron faced significant adversity as he neared that record. In that pre-Internet, pre-social media era, he got his death threats the old fashioned way: via snail mail. The Lords of Baseball are said to have employed extra plainclothes security details behind home plate at Atlanta Braves home and away games in 1973.

If Friedman had written that anonymous death threats can be more easily deliverable these days, he might have had a point. But he didn't go there, instead writing as if it's an indisputable fact that "The home-run king is lucky he didn't have to contend with the ubiquitous bigots and haters on today's social media." If that were so obvious, you would think the the Time writer would have come up with better "proof" than the completely irrelevant examples he cited (HT Hot Air Headlines):

CNN’s Chris Cuomo Uses Fort Hood Shooting To Push Gun Control Agenda
By Jeffrey Meyer | April 3, 2014 | 11:52 AM EDT

For the second time in five years, Fort Hood was the site of a shooting by a rogue member of the military. While the shooting, which occurred during the afternoon of Wednesday April 2, had fewer victims than the one five years ago, CNN predictably used the tragedy to push for greater gun control in America.

After Piers Morgan's Twitter tirade on Wednesday night, CNN’s Chris Cuomo wondered despite the shooter having mental health issues, why he was “Still able to walk into a private store and get this semi-automatic handgun that he winds up using, not a military issued weapon, his own. Don't you think that's something that needs to be addressed in terms of who's abled to get these conceal carry permits and weapons?” [See video below.] 

Boston Papers Reveal Blatant Bias in Covering St. Patrick's Day Parade Gay-Inclusion Controversy
By Tom Blumer | March 20, 2014 | 5:14 PM EDT

It wouldn't be Saint Patrick's Day in the 21st century U.S. without a parade controversy. As has been the case in Boston for well over 20 years, even after a unanimous Supreme Court decision affirmed the parade sponsors' position in a 1995 ruling, it concerns the exclusion of what the conservative, social values-oriented group Mass Resistance charitably describes as the "gay pride parade" element.

Apparently, the "gay pride" element thought that the arrival of new Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, who replaced Tom Menino after Menino's 21 years at the helm in January, would be their opportunity to intimidate their way into the parade. It didn't work. Of particular note is how aggressive and hostile reporters at both local newspapers, the ultraliberal Globe and the supposedly center-right Herald, were towards the parade's organizers and sponsors (links are in original; some bolds are mine):

50 Years Later, We Know That the NYT Distorted the Kitty Genovese Story to Drive an Agenda
By Tom Blumer | March 15, 2014 | 10:03 AM EDT

On Friday, March 13, 1964, in Kew Gardens, Queens, Winston Moseley murdered Kitty Genovese, a twenty-eight-year-old bar manager, in Queens. In a March 10, 2014 column (HT Instapundit) in the New Yorker, Nicholas Lemann reviewed two recently published books on the murder and its aftermath, one by Catherine Pelonero and the other by Kevin Cook.

Lemann writes that the murder "became an American obsession ... (due) to the influence of one man, A. M. Rosenthal, of the New York Times." It's worth reading the whole article to see how one newspaper five decades ago was able to shape a national narrative with no resistance. Excerpts pointing to how the Times manipulated the circumstances to cast aspersions on ordinary citizens follow the jump: