Sunday, October 25, 2015

How PBS managed this story

PBS Anchor: 'Why Does It Matter' Hillary Lied About a YouTube Video on Benghazi?

By Tim Graham | October 23, 2015 | 9:49 AM EDT


PBS NewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff came to bury the Benghazi committee on Thursday night’s program. “What difference does it make” seemed to be her Hillary-echoing mantra. Or in her case, it was “Why does it matter?” Lies? Coverups? Who cares about that?

She brought on Anne Gearan of The Washington Post, a routine defender of Hillary’s, and Yochi Dreazen, formerly with The Wall Street Journal news pages and now with Foreign Policy magazine, owned by....The Washington Post Company. Get a load of this exchange:

JUDY WOODRUFF: But, Yochi Dreazen, did we learn anything more about how she made — how those decisions were made and her role in what finally happened?

YOCHI DREAZEN: I think the most interesting moment by far was when Congressman Jim Jordan was saying to her, in some detail, that you, Secretary Clinton, told your family in one e-mail that this was an attack linked by al-Qaida, that you said in a phone call with an Egyptian leader that this was not something tied to an anti-Muslim video, and then saying, but the talking points coming out of the White House at the time were, this wasn’t al-Qaida and this was linked to this video.

I thought that was the most effective and sort of new moment in the entire line of questioning. And her answer back wasn’t terribly strong. Her answer back was, they were still sifting intelligence. We were trying to sort our way through it. But she couldn’t quite give the direct answer why she was saying in an e-mail something very different than what was being said publicly.

WOODRUFF: But, for the audience, why does it matter? Why did that — why does it matter whether she was saying one thing? Because she tried to say, well, I was trying to warn other countries. We didn’t want to see this thing happening anyplace else.

There you have it. A journalist asking “Why does it matter if she told the truth to her family and lies to the families of the victims at Andrews Air Force Base, or lied to the media about a YouTube video? Why does it matter Hillary skipped the Sunday shows so Susan Rice could be the poster child for lying about the YouTube video?" This is Woodruff rejecting Journalism 101, choosing politics over expecting the honesty of public officials. Dreazen’s answer:

DREAZEN: So, the Republican charges basically are two parts. One is, she ignored security, so, substantively, she could have done more to make the compound safer, and then much more damaging from their point of view is that the White House basically lied. They’re saying the White House knew one thing, for political reasons, they said something else, and there’s a cover-up, and she was a major part of that cover-up.

That’s basically what they have been trying to say now for three years, that she deliberately misstated what she knew to be the cause of the attack, and these e-mails were their best attempt today to try to make that point again.

Woodruff then changed the subject, asking Anne Gearan, "the Hillary Clinton campaign right now, they obviously had some worry going into this hearing. What was their strategy?”

Then she went back to how this committee would wrap it up:

WOODRUFF: So, Yochi Dreazen, what comes out of this? Where does this lead? I mean, after she has testified, the committee goes on. What do they do with this information?

DREAZEN: So, some of the numbers just on the hearings, it’s astounding. This is the 21st hearing on Benghazi. By comparison, there were 22 public hearings on 9/11. So, just to compare the two, 22 on 9/11, 21 on Benghazi. The investigations are thought to have cost about $5 million. This has been going on now 17 months. It’s not clear to me or I think to really any observer what is new that could still be found.

Dreazen said a similar thing at the segment’s very beginning: “And if you were watching the hearing today, you’re not hearing anything new. These questions have been asked again and again. The answers were given again and again. Basically, what you saw almost from the beginning were Democrats and Republicans literally yelling at each other. This wasn’t like an august hearing designed to try to get down to something we didn’t know. This was politics, pure and simple.”

“Politics, pure simple” is a good definition of how PBS managed this story.

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Tim Graham is Executive Editor of NewsBusters and is the Media Research Center’s Director of Media Analysis

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10 comments:

  1. "
    DREAZEN: So, the Republican charges basically are two parts. One is, she ignored security, so, substantively, she could have done more to make the compound safer, and then much more damaging from their point of view is that the White House basically lied. They’re saying the White House knew one thing, for political reasons, they said something else, and there’s a cover-up, and she was a major part of that cover-up."

    And the progressive left wants these liars to remain in charge. They want the Clintons, proven liars, back in the White house.

    This upcoming week Billy Clinton, that reprobate lying pergerer, will be back in the saddle. Instead of one bald face liar on the campaign trail we shall have two lying cock------ers telling us how f----ing great Hillary is. And of couse the trained seals, the toady media, State sponsored and union controlled venues, will line up on their hind legs and beg for a bone.

    HRC has been lying since the Nixon administration.

    PBS defunded and phased out over the next 18 months. Judy Woodriff sent packing along to the dog track with other media liars Rather, Williams, and a host of others.

    The whole bunch of them turn my stomach.

    Time to clean the fu----ing house.

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    1. Actually, it's not really true the entirety of progressives want Hillary. But with the other two Republicans in Webb and Chafee now out of the race, along with Biden declaring he won't run, we really dont' have a whole lot of choice left of center. Even if I was outraged about this email crap, it would hardly be the only thing I disliked about the chance of a Clinton presidency round two.


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    2. Don't kid yourself max you'll still vote for the liar next November.

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    3. I might, but it doesn't mean it's the vote I want to cast.

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    4. You don't have a pool of candidates on the left because you have allowed the Clinton cabal to dominate the news cycles. The four props that CNN stood up with HRC during the debate demostrate the shallow body of thought on the left. The depth of knowledge is miles wide and as deep as an oil slick.

      So now we have this cackling progressive socialist along with her pergerer husband to listen to for the next year. This lyiing disbarred hack who appears on SNL and laughs off the deaths of four brave Americans.

      But, she's a woman, and didn't you hear? There's war on women in this country, and even more so, there's a war on women all over the world! Slick willie, that lying rapist former commander in mischief, will harp on becoming "the first gentleman" in the White house. The spin cycle will be set on overdrive as lie after lie is rationalized by a dumbed down media and the 47%'ers.

      And max and ric will put on their blindfolds, and place a clothes pin on their noses and get on their tippy toes and vote for this bag of s---t. And who could blame them?

      She's the best they've got!

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    5. Well, you've reached the point of just trolling us with the same shit, and I'm done with answering your douche bag epithets of how much I love Hillary. Have a nice day.

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    6. The media buried the story last week. You're about five days behind the curve ass hole.

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  2. PBS and NPR 2 of the most trusted names in news William. Of course they are way to middle of the road for you and yours. William did you know that NPR only gets 6% of it's revenue from the government? The rest is by private grants and donations. With a budget of just 400 million dollars and a government input of just 6% I don't think you are going to find your tax relief there. PBS gets about 400 m from the government and the rest of it's budget (roughly 1 b a year total) comes from private grants and contributions. Not much savings here either William. Did you know that PBS and NPR are two of America's biggest sources to broadcast freedom, rights, dignity and American values to those who are oppressed in the world. Point is you post this only for the source not the content. Had this lady said the same shit on FOX you would never have brought it up

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    1. The defunding of these entities would be a travesty for America. Do you know William that many poor mothers use PBS for it's educational value through shows like sesame street , Nova and others. In fact these mothers who set their kids in front of the TV for these shows, Well that is about all the education some of them ever get in the home. So here's a novel idea: Lets defund planned parenthood so we have more babies to people who can't take care of them. Let's defund PBS so the lazy mothers who would have these children have nothing I mean nothing educational for them as little ones and end head start so they can enter kindergarten absolutely clueless. Then lets end the dept of education so there is no over site on what kids are being taught and the whole fascist brainwashing system of the right will be in place from birth until death. I think that's what the founding fathers had in mind from the get go.

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  3. http://www.theonion.com/article/benghazi-committee-instructs-hillary-clinton-limit-51708

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