As I posted yesterday, the Fox News Nation has been “inspired” by the news that there’s a new video out, called Dishonorable Disclosures, from a group of supposedly non-partisan military and intelligence operatives accusing President Obama of taking too much credit for the killing of Osama Bin Laden and also of endangering national security with intelligence leaks. Of course, it’s just a coincidence that the video is being released now, during the height of the 2012 presidential campaign and that the group behind it shares an office space with a Republican consulting firm. But another funny coincidence is that there are some Fox News talking heads involved. So these guys are not only in bed with the right-wing but are or have been paid to speak for them, too.
For starters, I spotted Bill Cowan, who is still named as a Fox News contributor on its website. Paul Vallely is also in the video. I could not find his name in the Fox News online roster (although I have found that not to be definitive proof that someone is not on the payroll. Current contributor Tamara Holder is not there, e.g.) But Vallely is well-known at least as a past Fox News “military analyst” to any regular viewer or listener to Fox News.
But wait, there’s more. In a fascinating piece in the Los Angeles Times, writer Ken Dilanian notes that a number of the same talking heads have been known to reveal or defend others’ revealing the same kinds of national security secrets they now decry (from a Democratic administration). And, surprise, surpise! Some of their talking occurred on Fox News.
Take Fred Rustmann, another of the subjects of the video. Dilanian writes that Rustmann “who had supervised Plame during her early years at the CIA, argued on Fox that disclosing Plame’s name was not a significant breach of national security. He discussed details of her training, her career and her cover.” He said that the illegal disclosure about her “isn’t a big deal.”
Dilanian also notes that others in the film have also shared otherwise secret information with the media when it suited them:
Scott Taylor, chairman of OPSEC, is a former Navy SEAL. An unsuccessful Republican candidate for Congress in Virginia in 2010, he sat down with NBC News last summer for a documentary titled “Secrets of Seal Team Six.” The film said the military had urged former SEALs not to talk.
And OPSEC member Chad Kolton, a former spokesman for the director of National Intelligence during the George W. Bush administration, helped make the office “more accessible to reporters, including regular off-the-record briefings by senior analysts on global hot spots,” according to a newswire report that announced his departure to form a communications firm.
So when you see Fox touting these guys as non-partisan patriots, just interested in doing what’s best for their country, don’t forget that the importance of keeping secrets seems to have a lot to do with who’s in the White House.
You can watch the video on YouTube.
Spot on, Ellen.
F&F got in on the act this morning too (and in a rather dishonest way I should add) by attacking Media Matters and stating that MM’s Eric Boehlert of called the Seals “gutless”. Geraldo was a guest in the segment.
The on-screen chyrons did a very good job of accusing MM/Boehlert of attacking our “heroes” as “gutless”. They put up a screen shot of Scott Taylor, the main Seal behind the anti-Obama ad, and a quote of him saying: “It’s interesting how the left is trying to frame this as a partisan issue. I don’t care what party people are from within our group. This issue is about national security leaks. I wonder how many of this guy’s close friends he’s buried.”
And, apparently, the supposed “fair & balanced” F&F crew agree with Scott that the politics of those involved doesn’t matter as they couldn’t be bothered to mention the involvement of GOPers in this swift-boat style attack on Obama. They also didn’t want to tell us that Taylor had been a Republican candidate (VA) for political office. If the politics of those behind the ad don’t matter, then why not go ahead and let the folks know the whole truth in interest of full disclosure? What are they afraid of? That who it is behind such an attack ad might actually make a difference to some of the folks in this heated political season? Why not just be forthcoming?
Btw, nowhere in this segment did they bother to mention all the praise that Obama heaped onto the troops who took out Bin Laden. Shame on Geraldo for not being better informed and for partially taking part in F&F’s slam game against MM and Obama. He could have at least presented some actual facts but he didn’t really seem interested in doing so.
Here’s what Eric Boehlert’s tweet said:
#kindalame former Navy SEALs don’t have guts to admit they’re running a GOP, anti-Obama campaign; http://nyti.ms/N2nYYj
Btw, here’s some info that I haven’t heard reported on FOX “news”….
while checking out Boehlert’s tweets, I noticed one where he announced that a Judge has ruled that a former ACORN worker can go ahead with his lawsuit against James OâKeefe and his hooker girl, Hanna Giles, for secretly taping their meeting. This is the same ACORN worker who reported their fake child prostitution ring to the police and who was cleared of any wrong-doing in the matter (as were other ACORN workers).
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/15/judge-former-acorn-worker-can-sue-james-okeefe/