April 30, 2014

Here we go again. They've pulled this same stunt so many times over at Faux "news" now that I've lost count. Bill-O continued pushing the latest Benghazi lie of the day during his Talking Points Memo this Tuesday night.

Never mind that this story had already been debunked hours before this aired: The Ben Rhodes Email: Fox's New (False) Benghazi Attack:

Fox News is distorting a memo used to prepare an Obama administration official for media appearances to falsely suggest that the administration was lying about the Benghazi attacks for political gain.

On September 16, 2012, five days after the September 11 attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, then-UN Ambassador Susan Rice appeared on the Sunday political talk shows and suggested that the terror attacks had grown out of spontaneous protests. At the time, there were riots at American facilities across the Muslim world, inspired by an anti-Islam video. Since then, conservatives led by Fox News have claimed that Rice's comments on the Sunday shows were part of a deliberate effort to deceive the American people about the cause of the attacks, to bolster President Obama's re-election campaign. This effort has often involved distorting the CIA-approved talking points that Rice used to prepare for the interviews.

On April 29, Fox renewed these claims, seizing on a newly released September 14, 2012 email from Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes to other key national security aides -- which details goals for the Sunday interviews and a series of potential questions and answers -- that was released under public records law by the conservative group Judicial Watch. Over on-screen text which claimed "New Benghazi Documents Lead Directly To The White House," Fox correspondent Catherine Herridge highlighted that according to the email, one of the goals for Rice's appearances was "To underscore that these protests are rooted in an internet video and not a broader failure of policy." She concluded that Fox had asked the White House "for comment on the Rhodes email, and what intelligence led to that conclusion that somehow an Internet video was responsible for the protests in Benghazi."

But contrary to Herridge's contention, the Rhodes email reveals nothing new. Read on...

Meanwhile, over in upside-down land, here's Bill-O's rant: O’Reilly: ‘No Longer Any Doubt’ That White House Downplayed Benghazi Terror Angle:

The latest Washington Post/ABC News poll is not good news for President Barack Obama or Democrats running for Congress.

The poll found that Obama’s disapproval rating is at 52 percent, 54 percent disapprove of the economy and 57 percent don’t like ObamaCare. Only 34 percent of respondents approve of Obama’s handling of the situation with Russia and Ukraine.

On top of low poll numbers, Judicial Watch has obtained a White House memo through the Freedom of Information Act, which confirms the worst about Benghazi, according to Bill O’Reilly.

[...]

“So there’s no longer any doubt that the White House was pushing the spontaneous uprising theory and playing down the organized terror angle,” O’Reilly said. “No longer any doubt they did it.”

Obama should have told the nation the truth about Benghazi, but he didn’t, O’Reilly said.

“The Factor” host also mentioned Ed Henry’s recent question to the president concerning his foreign policy doctrine. Obama responded, “Well, Ed, I doubt that I’m going to have time to lay out my entire foreign policy doctrine. And there are actually some complimentary pieces as well about my foreign policy, but I’m not sure you ran them.”

In light of these poll numbers and the new Benghazi revelation, O’Reilly said the president’s response makes him look foolish.

So nice to see they're still doing damage control for poor old picked on Ed Henry.

[ad]

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon