On Friday afternoon, the Republican-controlled House Select Intelligence Committee completely debunked Fox’s all-purpose Obama controversy of the last two years. And how did the “fair and balanced” network respond? By largely ignoring it. Not including the hilarious Fox report that suggested there should be more investigations.
In a November 22 article in Mother Jones, Kevin Drum summarized the House report:
Today, with the midterm elections safely past, (the committee) issued their findings. Their exoneration of the White House was sweeping and nearly absolute.
…Late on a Friday afternoon, when it would get the least attention, a Republican-led committee finally admitted that every single Benghazi conspiracy theory was false. There are ways that the response to the attacks could have been improved, but that’s it. Nobody at the White House interfered. Nobody lied. Nobody prevented the truth from being told. (my emphases)
Whenever it was released, this report should have been big news on Fox News. The “fair and balanced” network has been so obsessed with Benghazi that the hosts thought it pertinent to discussions about Ferguson, The NFL, the White House fence jumper and a hatchet attack on New York City police officers. Plus, Fox News aired an hour-long special report on the subject.
On top of all that, host Jeanine Pirro called Benghazi, “the biggest cover up since Watergate” and claimed it “demands” Obama’s impeachment.
Yet, there was no discussion of Benghazi on Fox News Sunday today and only cursory coverage on the night the report was released.
Yesterday, on MediaBuzz, even Fox’s own Howard Kurtz thought there should have been more coverage, though he tempered his criticism by spreading it to “all news outlets.”
Meanwhile, check out how Fox News Democrat Joe Trippi gave the media a pass on MediaBuzz. First, he agreed with Kurtz, saying there should have been “a ton more coverage.” Then, he immediately covered for Fox and the rest of the media by saying, “I also think, frankly, part of this is what time the dump happened.” Nor did he challenge conservative Amy Holmes’ bogus assertion that the House learned to dump “that kind of information” on a Friday from the Obama administration.
And do check out FoxNews.com’s article that suggests the House report pointed to the need for more investigation (h/t Mother Jones).
Video of the November 23 MediaBuzz below, via Media Matters.
But Kurtz is wrong because Fox should have a particular obligation to give coverage to the fact that the bogus crap they’ve been flogging for two years has been busted big-time.
Speaking of which, I haven’t seen that either CBS or ABC has spent much time pointing out that their correspondents were pushing bogus storylines about it, either.
