Greg Gutfeld may be the winner of Fox’s Most Creative Way To Turn Chris Christie’s “Bridgegate” Scandal Into Benghazi award this week. Gutfeld “just asked” if the media wasn’t giving Hillary Clinton a “box of candy” in its coverage in order to make up for their support of “prom king” Barack Obama in 2008. Yuk, yuk.
The discussion occurred on last night’s O’Reilly Factor. Greg Gutfeld was the substitute host. Fox News’ media critic Howard Kurtz was the guest.
It was part of yet another Fox News whinefest discussion about how the media is giving too much coverage to the still-developing Christie scandal when they really should be clobbering Hillary Clinton talking more about the 16-month-old Benghazi matter. I will say that Kurtz was not too bad in this segment. However, he did throw out fave Fox talking points: cast suspicion on Clinton, complain about over-coverage of Christie (with extra points for singling out MSNBC), criticize the New York Times’ investigation into Benghazi and overlook how many of the original Fox/Republican talking points have been disproved.
Kurtz told Gutfeld:
Look, Greg, I think the Bridgegate story is a legitimate story. It’s a juicy story, it’s got all these “Joisey” characters. …But the media have now pounded this into the pavement even when there’s no new developments.
Now, on Benghazi, which made a little bit of a comeback this week… the investigation’s been going on for 16 months, it’s complicated, a lot of people think it’s been politicized, so it lacks the simple story line of, “Is Chris Christie a bully or is he just a loudmouth?”
Gutfeld, perhaps at a loss as to how to argue that Benghazi really is more compelling than Christie, instead made a smarmy “joke” about the left: “They politicize burps! They politicize everything they do in life!”
Later, Kurtz said “the problem” with the Benghazi story is that “it’s murky” and that there are “conflicting accounts” about what happened.
So maybe Gutfeld felt he had to compensate for Kurtz’ not-damning-enough-to-Clinton-and-the-media responses. Or maybe Gutfeld actually believed his own so-called theory:
My theory about the Hillary thing is that because Hillary was spurned by the Democratic party and by the media for the prom king, President Obama, that this in a way, is their Whitman Sampler. It’s like this is their box of candy – by kind of giving her a pass on this scandal. Is that a valid theory or am I nuts?
Kurtz replied:
Well, I would never venture to say that you’re clinically insane but… Look, the buck stops at the top. So whatever went wrong at Benghazi – and a lot went wrong – and the compound was left dangerously undefended, it is President Obama’s responsibility and it is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s responsibility (no mention that recommended actions to prevent a similar occurrence are already being implemented). But Hillary Clinton, by the way, on the cover of Time magazine this week… because the media are so much more interested in 2016 (and) the tie between Hillary and Christie, we’re so much more interested in speculating about whether they will run, what kind of candidates they’ll be, will the bridge thing kill Christie, will Benghazi undermine Hillary Clinton that it’s easier and more fun, frankly, to cover that than to deal with the very serious business of Benghazi or the abuse of power that Christie’s aides at least showed in deliberately creating that traffic nightmare and laughing about it.
So while Kurtz did brush aside Gutfeld’s smart-alecky “humor,” there’s no sign that Fox’s Benghazi obsession will be ending any time soon.
“[I]s the U.S. involved with any procuring of weapons, transfer of weapons, buying, selling, anyhow transferring weapons to Turkey out of Libya?”
I will never forget the look on Clinton’s face when she responded, “To Turkey?”
Of course, Rand’s theory got attention on FOX News.
This whole narrative of the NYT covering for Clinton is absolutely insane and FOX knows it! The fact that they are using this “nonsense” to go after Clinton is a pure indication that they don’t have anything else. How about investigating the CIA falling asleep at the wheel in Benghazi? Why wasn’t there adequate communication between the CIA outpost in Benghazi and the State Dept.?
It has already been noted on The Factor that no newspaper publisher/editor in their right mind would send one of their journalists out into the field for two years in order to give cover to a potential presidential candidate. This is absolute nonsense and I will say that Gutfeld is insane for bringing this up, again!
The Gutterman is full of hot air. He should blow some of it to help melt the snow.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/silly-smear-public-policy#break
Now — if there’s ever an attack on this embassy in the future, what you wanna bet those SAME idiot far-right fringers who were against moving the Vatican Embassy to the one to Italy for security reasons, will blame the President for “not being concerned about embassy security”?
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“At a distance, if we set aside the bizarre ideology that leads elected officials to believe nonsense, it’s fascinating to watch the trajectory – a fringe activist comes up with an idea, which is then picked up by a more prominent far-right outlet, which is then echoed by Fox News and Fox Business, which is then embraced by some of Congress’ sillier members who are predisposed to believe nonsense, which then leads to a congressional hearing.”
This is a must read post about how this far-right fringe has possibly put another embassy at a security risk:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/silly-smear-public-policy#break
Of course, they are not going to let Benghazi go! Coming up with nonsense is much easier than researching what really happened despite the murkiness. It doesn’t really matter to them because Ailes is their boss, and making the boss happy is creating nonsense that makes the GOP look good.
No new developments, Howie?
NJ mayor: Christie administration said Sandy funds wouldn’t arrive until project went forward
01-18-2014 12:59 PM PST |By ANGELA DELLI SANTI, Associated Press
TRENTON, N.J. (Associated Press) —
The mayor of a New Jersey city that sustained severe flooding from Hurricane Sandy claims the Christie administration withheld millions of dollars in recovery grants because she refused to sign off on a politically connected development.
Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer tells The Associated Press that Gov. Chris Christie’s lieutenant governor and a top community development official said recovery funds would flow to her city if the commercial development went forward. MSNBC first reported her comments Saturday.
Zimmer says Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno (gwah-DON-yo) pulled her aside at a May event and told her unless the project is approved “we are not going to be able to help you.”
How’s that for “no new developments”, Howie?
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