Does Truth Matter to Media Matters About Fast and Furious?
Last week left wing media watchdog Media Matters for America offered the latest surreal take on Fast and Furious in a post titled, “Right-Wing Media Target CBS News in New Fast and Furious Conspiracy.”
The post offers this take:
“This is starting to feel like a house of mirrors, as conservatives begin to hatch conspiracies within conspiracies about the Fast and Furious story.
“As Media Matters has chronicled for the last year, the far-right press, led by Fox News, has been incessantly pushing the ATF’s failed Fast and Furious gun operation, convinced the White House and the Department of Justice are covering up high crimes. Now as a subplot, conservatives have hatched a mini-conspiracy. The claim: CBS News is ‘silencing’ its Fast and Furious reporter. And doing it on behalf of the White House!
“The reporter in question, Sharyl Attkisson, was celebrated by the right-wing this week when she appeared on conservative talker Laura Ingraham’s radio show to push her Fast and Furious work and promptly announced she had been yelled at by administration officials, critical of her reporting. (Right-wing bloggers thought the revelation was hugely important and damning, proving once again few of them have ever worked in a big-time newsroom where animated push back is not uncommon.)”
Our response first asks where is the outrage that this story happened at all? If it were not for the right-wing media few would know about an operation that cost the life of an American border control agent. And why doesn’t Media Matters note that the story has gotten virtually no coverage on ABC or NBC? The nightly news can devote nearly half the news cast to the death of Steve Jobs this week, take endless looks at the royal wedding last spring and cover protests around the globe, but fails to note that the Attorney General may have lied to Congress!
Media Matters suggests that Fox News is convinced the White House and DOG are covering up high crimes, but the truth is that the media is doing a good job itself by not covering this story.
And finally, why doesn’t it matter that Attkisson was “yelled at” by the White House? Wouldn’t there be outrage if this had happened when President Bush was still in office?
Mediaite: Is CBS Silencing Reporter?
While we have noticed a silence from ABC and NBC over Fast and Furious, CBS News has been the lone network to offer in-depth coverage of the ATF debacle. But could that be ending?
Mediaite has followed the media coverage, as has The Weekly Standard. According to Mediaite:
“The dust-up between CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson, and spokespeople from the White House and the Justice Department over her reporting on Fast and Furious, has become a cause celebre for the right, and a meta-story all its own. Jay Carney responded obliquely to the incident at yesterday’s briefing by pointing out that “tough conversations” are all in a day’s work. Mark Hemingway, of Bill Kristol‘s Weekly Standard, adds another layer to the onion by conspiratorially asking if CBS News is “Silencing Fast and Furious Reporter” Sharyl Attkisson.”
The Weekly Standard offered its own more detailed take, noting that Attkisson told radio talk show host Laura Ingraham:
“[The White House and Justice Department] will tell you that I’m the only reporter–as they told me–that is not reasonable. They say the Washington Post is reasonable, the LA Times is reasonable, the New York Times is reasonable, I’m the only one who thinks this is a story, and they think I’m unfair and biased by pursuing it.”
The Weekly Standard added:
“That’s significant, because CBS News, and Attkisson in particular, has done more reporting to advance the Fast and Furious scandal than arguably any other media outlet.”
This is true, and if CBS falls silent, will the truth on Fast and Furious actually get out? It is almost as if the mainstream media doesn’t want Eric Holder, or his boss President Obama to look bad.
Are Eric Holder Days Numbered?
Could Eric Holder soon be stepping down? He seems to have defected a lot of fire over Fast and Furious, but if reports are true, his days are surely numbered.
Newsmax Wires noted this week: CBS Reporter: More Revelations to Come on Holder
The story noted:
“CBS investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson, the journalist who has been uncovering many secrets in the burgeoning Fast and Furious scandal, told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly Thursday night that there may be many more shoes to drop in the unfolding drama.
“It’s an incredibly major story that we have a lot more to learn about,” Attkisson said.
If we were at the DOJ we’d be getting ready for the good bye party and trying to find out what kind of cake Holder might enjoy on his last day.
Is the Mainstream Media Silent on Fast and Furious?
Yesterday we noted that numerous outlets, including even The Washington Post, have reported on Fast and Furious. The problem might not be with newspapers, but readership is down. Many Americans still turn to the evening news as their primary source of information, including national and world events.
Our friends at Newsbusters noted, “CBS Highlights ‘Fast & Furious”; ABC, NBC Place Heads in the Sand.” This is disturbing, but is worse when Newsbusters explains in detail:
“‘CBS Evening News’ distinguished itself among the Big Three networks on Monday by devoting an entire segment to the ongoing controversy over the ‘Fast and Furious’ program, where the federal government smuggled guns to Mexican drug cartels. NBC hasn’t mentioned the story on its news programs since April 17, while the last time ABC covered it was a news brief on June 15.”
It is important to note that CBS News essentially helped break this story, which could explain why ABC and NBC are silent, but consider that the two networks take time to note that Amanda Knox was acquitted, and last week devoted a segment to Michelle Obama shopping at Target! Those may be news stories too, but the fact that the Attorney General Eric Holder may have lied to Congress probably deserves some airtime!
Mexico Looks to Sue American Gun Makers
Say it long enough and people will believe that “90 percent of guns in Mexico are from the United State” and if you say it even longer you probably can convince someone you have a lawsuit against U.S. gun makers. That’s exactly what CBS News is reporting this week:
“CBS News has learned that the Mexican Government has retained an American law firm to explore filing civil charges against U.S. gun manufacturers and distributors over the flood of guns crossing the border into Mexico.”
Of course we know that the number – that 90 percent number – has been widely debunked. But still, that’s not enough for Mexico. In fact, the story has gotten a bit surreal:
“On November 5, 2010 President Felipe Calderon expressed his frustration to CBS News correspondent Peter Greenberg: ‘We seized more than 90,000 weapons…I am talking like 50,000 assault weapons, AR-15 machine guns, more than 8,000 grenades and almost 10 million bullets.”
Where exactly are these AR-15 machine guns coming from? If they are true full automatic versions – which aren’t technically machine guns, but rather assault rifles – they are probably from the Mexican Army! Same with the 8,000 grenades. Despite what anti-gun groups would have you believe, hand grenades (at least the live and working versions) can’t be bought at gun shops and gun shows. The only ones you can buy are paper weights. We don’t think the cartels are using these as paper weights for all that drug money.
So maybe Mexico should think about this case again.
More on CBS News ATF Story
Our friends at Ammoland.com are closely following the breaking news reported last night on the CBS Evening News, complete with video.
Ammoland: CBS News Uncovers Gunrunning Scandal Within The ATF
Agency Secretly Endorsed Practice of Letting Guns “Walk”; ATF Agent to CBS News: “God Only Knows How Many Guns Were Used to Kill People
CBS News Chicago Says Gun Turn-in Programs Do Little Good
Well, this time we’re going to praise the mainstream media for a change, or at least one of the three news departments in the Windy City. This weekend Chicago is holding a turn-in program – a.k.a. one of those guns for cash programs. While the local ABC news Web site merely announced the event, and the NBC station claimed that the event has taken “18,000 guns from the streets since 2005,” CBS 2 in Chicago has taken the bold step of asking if these programs do any good?
CBS 2 even has a very strong quote from a reliable source:
“Illinois Gun Works Owner Don Mastrianni claims that Chicago’s program to clear its street of guns by offering to buy them and melt them down has probably not prevented even one killing.
“‘Criminals aren’t going to bring in their guns,’ Mastrianni said.”
But the sound bites keep getting better. Police officer David Montgomery was quoted in the article, saying:
“You can always get the guns. There’s the underground market out there. What can you do about it?”
Maybe the rest of the mainstream media will get the message as well.
