How important is the right wing Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi Hillary-Clinton-Lied-About Benghazi conspiracy to Fox News? So important that it was worked into a segment, done on the allegedly "fair & balanced" "news" show America's Newsroom, which was only tangentially related to l'affaire Benghazi. Pretty slick, eh?
Thursday, Martha MacCallum reported that Google has been ordered to remove, from You Tube, the film, "The Innocence of Muslims," which generated violent demonstrations in Islamic countries at the time of the attack on our consulate in Benghazi. She noted that the order was due to a copyright complaint and added that "this was the same film that the Obama administration initially blamed" for the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi.
She tossed to Fox's west coast propagandist William La Jeunesse who reported that the ruling doesn't have anything to do with Benghazi or President Obama's request to remove the film because of it's anti-Muslim content. He explained that the court's decision was based on a complaint, from one of the actresses in the film, that she was duped by the film's producer who hired her to act in a film unrelated to "The Innocence of Muslims." Her performance was later spliced into the controversial film which dubbed over her voice to make her appear to be saying lines which were insulting to Muslims. Ergo, copyright violation. That's where the segment should have ended - but there was more.
MacCallum set the stage for the propaganda: "Obviously, we've talked so much about this movie and whether or not it had any impact whatsoever on the attack on our consulate." La Jeunesse then went full, tilt agitprop when he provide more bogus Fox facts:
"It did not have anything to do with that; but that's not, of course, what the administration said. It claimed, at the time, UN Ambassador Susan Rice said the attack on the consulate in Benghazi was a reaction to this film. That was absolutely not true; but it made for a good story. It is true that in other parts of the Middle East, this anti-Muslim film but to have said that this led to the death of four Americans is contrary to the intelligence purports and what eyes on the ground told their superiors."
La Jeunesse claimed that unnamed "legal scholars" are aghast at the copyright decision which puts copyright claims ahead of the First Amendment.
Fact Check: A Senate Subcommittee on Intelligence report states that "Some intelligence suggests the attacks were likely put together in short order, following that day's violent protests in Cairo against an inflammatory video, suggesting that these and other terrorist groups could conduct similar attacks with little advance warning." A NY Times investigation also concluded that the inflammatory video did play a role in what happened at the consulate. Susan Rice, on Meet the Press, provided the information that was available at the time - which was actually acknowledged on Fox News.
La Jeunesse's claim that the video has nothing to do with Benghazi is wrong; but he deliberately spread false information to suit a right wing agenda clearly meant to smear the Obama administration and a possible future presidential candidate. Is there any question as to why Fox News consumers are misinformed? Fox News - "fair & balance" as always!
.
