Sharyl Attkisson used to be an investigative journalist for CBS News, but now finds herself making headlines as the whistleblower who blew the lid off CBS's blatant bias toward the president and his administration.
From a recent book review by the New York Post’s Kyle Smith, we learn that in her new book Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama’s Washington,
Attkisson exposes outright political corruption, and the media circus surrounding the Obama Administration; the constant praise and fawning over the president, the political bent on stories, and the decision to air “softer” news versus hard-hitting investigative reports that could potentially show the Obama Administration in bad light.
Attkisson cites many examples of liberal media bias in Stonewalled. When asking follow-up questions on scandals such as Benghazi or Fast and Furious, Attkisson has been viewed by many in the White House as being an “unreasonable” reporter. White House national security spokesman Tommy Vietor replied, “I give up, Sharyl . . . I’ll work with more reasonable folks that follow up, I guess.”
When she pressed Eric Schultz, White House Deputy Press Secretary, on Fast and Furious, Schultz screamed, “Goddammit, Sharyl!...The Washington Post is reasonable, The LA Times is reasonable, The New York Times is reasonable. You’re the only one who’s not reasonable!” Fast and Furious, though still unanswered, led to the resignation of a U.S. Attorney, and led President Obama to utilize “executive privilege” (for the first time), to minimize the amount of damaging information released.
For those in the White House who didn’t care for Attkisson’s reporting, they would oftentimes send her boss, CBS News President, David Rhodes, an inflammatory email, and to Ben Rhodes, who happens to be brother to David, a top national security advisor to President Obama. Attkisson writes that she has always focused her reporting on “getting the story in its entirety," not because of political party affiliation. Her 20 years at CBS provided just as many stories attacking Republicans as she did Democrats. She describes herself as “politically agnostic.”
In her book, Attkisson describes how reporters are often turned into “casting agents.” “We need to find someone who will say . . .that a given policy is good or bad. We’re asked to create a reality that fits their New York image of what they believe.” She also gives this little tidbit of information: “One of her bosses had a rule that conservative analysts must always be labeled conservatives, but liberal analysts were simply “analysts"…And if a conservative analyst’s opinion really rubbed the supervisor the wrong way,” says Attkisson, “she might rewrite the script to label him a ‘right-wing’ analyst.”
Reporting on the total number of people who signed up for ObamaCare on the first day (six), Attkisson found it even more difficult to get her stories to air on CBS, mainly because of media bias. She writes, “Many in the media…are wrestling with their own souls: They know that ObamaCare is in serious trouble, but they’re conflicted about reporting that. Some worry that the news coverage will hurt a cause that they personally believe in. They’re all too eager to dismiss damaging documentary evidence while embracing, sometimes unquestioningly, the Obama administration’s ever-evolving and unproven explanations.”
Attkisson also discussed how CBS “suddenly” lost interest in her stories on the 2012 attacks on Benghazi. Unsurprisingly, the lack of enthusiasm from CBS on Benghazi coincided with the upcoming presidential election. Her stories went from being televised on national air – to being buried on the website. At one time, “Benghazi” meant a city in Libya, but now, “the administration, with the full cooperation of the media, has successfully turned 'Benghazi' into a word associated with nutters, like 'Roswell' or 'grassy knoll'….the truth is that most of the damaging information came from Obama administration insiders. From government documents. From sources who were outraged by their own government’s behavior and what they viewed as a coverup.”
In 2004, a senior producer came to Attkisson asking her to do a piece on so-called documents that supposedly showed President George W. Bush ducking his duties during the Vietnam War. She looked at the documents and said, “They looked like they were typed by my daughter on a computer yesterday.” No one bothered her after she refused another solicitation to do the same article, citing an ethics clause in her contract. CBS went with the story…and the rest is history. It was CNSNews.com reporter Robert Bluey who introduced us to “Rathergate” by uncovering the truth and controversy of the fake documents CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather reported on.
With her countless stories and personal experiences over the span of 20 years at CBS, Sharyl Attkisson’s book Stonewalled gives the public a glimpse on how the media operate, and their liberal biased reporting and the treatment of others. Attkisson is a modern-day whistleblower in the media world, but instead of reporting the news, she’s making it.
