For well over a year, NewsBusters has been reporting how the Obama-loving media have done everything in their power to not only avoid covering the details surrounding the September 11, 2012, attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya, but also assist the Administration in promoting its version of events.
On Thursday, Greta Van Susteren wrote at her blog, "After Benghazi on 9/11/2012, the Obama administration tried very hard to discourage Fox News Channel from reporting on it. The effort was obstruction – pure and simple."
"They tried to prevent the truth from coming out and the Administration tried just about everything to discourage Fox from investigating and reporting," she continued. "All the American people wanted, and all I ever wanted, was just the facts – why did 4 Americans die? What happened?"
"The Obama Administration put out that phony video story — but who could not have been suspicious of the Administration after hearing that?" Van Susteren asked. "Frankly, if they had been candid on day 1, the Benghazi story would have been over in short order. It would not be to the point we are now: with a Senate Bi Partisan Intelligence Committee report with the very painful conclusion that the murders at Benghazi could have been prevented."
Van Susteren gave examples of how the Administration tried to prevent Fox from telling Americans the truth:
In the early days after Benghazi, the State Department omitted only Fox News Channel from its conference call to all the media when it claimed to be answering questions about Benghazi for the media. Our friends in other media outlets were scandalized that Fox was not included and told us all about it. They were suspicious of State Department forgetting us/Fox and courageous to tip us off. The State Department claimed it was accident and not intentional.
And then shortly thereafter, there was the CIA briefing about Benghazi at the CIA for all the networks – except one: Fox News Channel. The CIA would not let Fox News Channel attend. [...]
And there were many times in the months and years since September 2012 when Obama Administration officials would make comments to suggest that Fox was just doing the Benghazi reporting for political reasons. The Administration was doing what it could to deter and demean the Fox News Channel investigation. They did not want to give us the facts — so their strategy was to attempt to belittle and demean our reporting.
After taking a swipe at the New York Times for issuing an analysis that has since been completely debunked by a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report, Van Susteren wrote of attempts by a friend of hers within the Adminstration to get her to silence Fox's Jennifer Griffin:
[M]y friend told me that my colleague Jennifer Griffin, who was aggressively reporting on Benghazi, was wrong and that, as a favor to me, my friend in the Administration was telling me so that I could tell Jennifer so that she did not ruin her career. My friend was telling me to tell Jennifer to stop her reporting. Ruin her career?
In 20 plus years, I have never received a call to try and shut down a colleague – not that I even could – this was a first.
Knowing Griffin to be one of the best investigative reporters in the business, Van Susteren demanded her friend offer proof that her colleague was wrong. None was forthcoming:
I got no proof. Zero. I smelled a rat. Favor to me? Hardly. My friend was trying to use me. I feel bad that a friend did that to me, tried to use me for a dirty reason. I knew then — and it is now confirmed by BIPARTISAN Senate Intelligence Committee — Jennifer was getting her facts right. I think it is really low for the Administration to stoop this low.
To be sure, the Administration should be ashamed of how it's behaved since September 11, 2012. But it wouldn't have been able to behave this way if other news organizations covered this story as aggressively as Fox News did.
Sadly, Obama and Company knew from the start that their accomplices in the media would parrot anything they said, and go along with their contention that this was a "phony scandal" ginned up by the President's enemies which of course include Fox News.
Since a junior senator from Illinois first threw his hat into the presidential ring in February 2007, we've watched America's media totally abdicate journalism for his benefit.
Benghazi is just another example.
With three more years left of this presidency, it likely won't be the last.
