Manipulating video to hide the truth seems to be all the rage in politics these days and so is the liberal media’s refusal cover it. “President Obama's State Department is admitting tonight that it deliberately edited out of its video records an exchange between our Chief Washington Correspondent James Rosen and the department's then spokeswoman [Jen Psaki],” reported Fox News’ Bret Baier, Wednesday evening's Special Report. And all evening news broadcasts from the big three and Spanish networks completely ignored it.
At first the State Department tried to play off the missing footage as a technical glitch. “There was no technical glitch,” explained reporter Peter Doocy, “The State Department admitted today instead they deliberately deleted an eight-minute exchange about whether or not they lied to hide Iran talks.”
According to an internal State Department investigation, a video editor received a call to remove the video from YouTube and repost it with that section of the video replaced with a white flash. “But since that editor can’t remember who called with the instructions don't expect anyone to get in trouble,” Doocy informed the viewers.
The section of video in question included this exchange, where State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki seems to admit the department lied about direct talks with Iran:
JAMES ROSEN: Is it the policy of the State Department, where the preservation of the secrecy of secret negotiations is concerned, to lie in order to achieve that goal?
JEN PSAKI: James, I think there are times where diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress. This is a good example of that.
During the panel discussion about the issue, commentator Charles Krauthammer compared the scrubbing of the video to Joseph Stalin’s scrubbing of his enemies from history.
And the White House doesn’t just scrub comments involving their own people, there is a history of this behavior. The Obama administration was caught censoring French President Francois Hollande when he mentioned “Islamist terrorism” at a recorded meeting earlier this year.
Transcript below:
Fox News
Special Report with Bret Baier
June 1, 2016
6:00:13 PM EasternBRET BAIER: This is a Fox News alert. I'm Bret Baier in Washington. President Obama's State Department is admitting tonight that it deliberately edited out of its video records an exchange between our Chief Washington Correspondent James Rosen and the department's then spokeswoman. That exchange appeared to acknowledge an earlier lie from a different spokeswoman and then to justify it. At first the edit was called a glitch. Now we know different. Correspondent Peter Doocy has specifics tonight. Good evening, Peter.
PETER DOOCY: Good evening, Bret. There was no technical glitch. The State Department admitted today instead they deliberately deleted an eight-minute exchange about whether or not they lied to hide Iran talks. That exchange, an investigation found, was removed from State’s YouTube channel and replaced with a white flash just minutes after a briefing in 2013; when an editor got a call from someone at State delivering specific orders to delete our correspondent's James Rosen's questions, and then spokeswoman Jen Psaki’s answer. But since that editor can’t remember who called with the instructions don't expect anyone to get in trouble.
JOHN KIRBY: I asked the office of legal adviser to look into this. They did. They pursued it for me, and we – we got about as far as we can go. The individual who took the call doesn't remember anything more than it was being passed on from somebody else in the public affairs bureau. I don’t—I can't be any more specific than that right now.
DOOCY: This all started in early 2013. Spokeswoman Victoria Newland denied any talks with Tehran. When Rosen went back at the end of that year and asked if that was true spokeswoman Jen Psaki gave an answer that was so unsatisfactory, to someone at State, it was scrubbed from the internet until a few weeks ago and this is the part of the response they tried to bury.
JAMES ROSEN: Is it the policy of the State Department, where the preservation of the secrecy of secret negotiations is concerned, to lie in order to achieve that goal?
JEN PSAKI: James, I think there are times where diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress. This is a good example of that.
DOOCY: Nobody would know about government employees deceptively deleting this video if our producer hadn't noticed the edit while pulling tape for a completely different story and the State Department said this afternoon, they don't know if any other clips have been edited out the same way. Bret?
BAIER: And they are not investigating further. We will talk about this with the panel. Peter, thank you.
