CNN Answers No Questions

I wrote recently about the peek CNN's Jake Tapper took into that dark room wherein the Obama Administration and its allies in the MSM have consigned the Benghazigate Scandal, and CNN followed that up Tuesday with a one-hour special.

The re-run of that special will be a "must watch" only for someone who has not been paying attention to Benghazigate for the last 11 months.

For those of us who have been paying attention, the nicest thing that can be said about it is that it was a big, fat nothingburger.  It told us nothing that we did not already know (except, possibly about the timeline of the movement of troops the next day).

The worst that can be said of it is that it was a disgraceful, missed opportunity.

It was little more than the restating of Obama Administration Talking Points (the original 9 October briefing plus the various congressional hearings, State's ARB (Accountability Review Board) report, the Senate report, and the like).

Those of us who thought it might be a spur for further reporting by the MSM will recognize that it was nothing of the kind and that it will likely be forgotten by the MSM in a day or so---if it is even picked up on by the MSM.

Erin Burnett whipped thru the timeline of events like that local news anchor who read the fake names of the Korean Air pilots off a teleprompter, and she was just as inaccurate. For example, she implied that the entry was made following a blast, when we know that the intruders walked thru an open gate.

When the transcript comes out, readers can see just how wrong she was about the timing, particularly of the evening's early events.

She also glossed over the various bloodless confrontations within the Compound and did not discuss the kinetic events accompanying the rescuers and rescueds' flight from the Compound to the Annex.

Tapper's report breathlessly stated that "dozens" of CIA agents or operatives were on the ground and that seven people were injured.

If Ms. Burnett covered that it must have been when I was refilling my snifter.

She and John King then bumbled thru interviews with several people about pre-event failures to heed warnings and about security inadequacies.

There was more of that bumbling in reports about White House and Defense actions and non-actions.

However, their primary focus was on the Republicans' attacks.

Yes, that's right: The big post-event events revolved around how the GOPers were using the event to attack the various members of the Obama Administration.  And how these attacks will backfire on and hurt Republicans.

About the President's whereabouts and actions that evening -- crickets.

Ditto for who were the attackers/intruders and the reasons for the intrusion and what they did or did not do after entering.

Very little was said about the goings-on by CIA and State personnel prior to that evening, and there was no meaningful discussion about anything that could be considered "Fast and Furious in the Maghreb."

Nothing was said about the ongoing, if sporadic firing on the Annex prior to the final, fierce mortaring and RPG firing on the Annex.

John King said that the "Greatest Crime" surrounding the event was the failure to plan for one in the days, weeks, months before the attack.

Give. Me. A. Break.

For those of us who remember the treatment the sainted Cindy Sheehan got during the Bush Administration will note that Sean Smith's mother, Pat, was not held up as the "Absolute Moral Authority" about this fiasco---she was given a few seconds to speak, and none of those seconds were wasted on her attacks on the lies she was told and the abhorrent attention she has been given by Obama, Hillary, Biden, and the rest of that sorry lot.

I'll not waste your time with more on this other than to say that the absolute worst moments of the sordid report was the Ms. Burnett's summing-up and her equating of the cover-up for Obama's political benefit with the Republicans' political "revenge" investigations.

Don't you waste your time playing your DVD or watching the re-run -- Benghazigate is still in that dark room.

Update: The Conservative Treehouse sees CNN actively aiding the Obama administration. "[W]hat was broadcast was not journalism, it was/is better described as prime-time propaganda in the extreme."


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