Readying my things on the morning of September 11, 2012, I was on the island of Kauai when the attack on the consulate in Benghazi occurred,
learning about it as a headline from the Wall Street Journal app on my iPad. As
we were preparing for a sailing trip that morning, the things I wanted to take
on the boat were being neatly laid out on the bed. "There's my camera.
Here's my iPad. Hmm, what's this story?" It was the anniversary of 9/11.
"How could they not have prepared for this?" I thought.
I looked at my travel companion (who bares an uncanny twin-like resemblance to Sharyl
Attkisson). “Jesus Christ - the U.S. consulate in Benghazi has been attacked,” I
blurted. She was aware that I had spent some time in Libya just a couple of
years before. “Four Americans are dead, including the
ambassador. I met that guy,” I added after reading some more.
“Why were they attacked? Who
did it?” she asked, handing me my morning cup of Kona's finest.
Scrolling on, I also searched other news stories. I saw pictures of the burned out compound, which looked
identical to the one I had stayed in when I was in Benghazi, and just like the one we had in
Tripoli as well. I was certain that I would know a number of key players in
this event. “It says here that they were attacked by demonstrators because of
an anti-Muhammad video on YouTube. At least that’s what administration
officials and the State Department are saying.” I cynically repeated, “YouTube
video,” giving the quotation marks with my fingers, and tossed the phone on the
bed in disgust. I knew that by the time it was all said and done, this was
going to be a very painful story, with at a minimum plenty of “stonewalling” and
obfuscation, and from there it would only get worse. But I was also certain that it was one scandal that would never see the full truth exposed. It was far
too dangerous. Benghazi is at the heart of
“You were there weren’t you?”
my friend later asked me on the boat that day. "In Libya. Benghazi."
“A few times,” I said.
“What was it like?” she asked,
her hand rubbing my back, coming to rest on my shoulder.
“Like the bar in Star Wars, only without the booze.”
Besides being a newswoman that the camera likes, she's very articulate, and on the surface at least, very calm. Yet if there is
one adjective that can be used to describe Sharyl Attkisson, it’s “poised.” And
she has remained remarkably poised in spite of the unfair attacks coming from
former colleagues and other members of the far left media as she has trained the
klieg lights on rampant media bias of a new order. The light she shines is not
new, but it does further illuminate what many have always known about
Washington and network news - corporate and political manipulation of news content is alive
and well, and that "Big Brother" is very active. Such are the primary themes her new book STONEWALLED.
Stoic and detailed in her story
telling, Sheryl Attkisson is a very seasoned broadcast news journalist with
tenacious investigative drive, and after nearly three decades in the business,
she’s a reporter that certainly knows her way around a network newsroom, able
to painstakingly cajole a scoop from an allusive and truly reliable source. Now she finds herself at the center of a firestorm, fueled by her detailed allegations
of newsroom and White House deceit, corruption of character, and management
indifference, as CBS News and the Obama administration skipped hand in hand in collusion to deceive the American people time and time again about
scandal after scandal.
There may be some ire and bad
blood over her memoirs floating around, but taking it all in a very professional stride, one that
should be greatly admired by the way, (and pardon the following cliché), Sharyl Attkisson
rises like a Phoenix out of the ashes that is CBS News today, tackling with
alacrity and gusto the very questions that cause many to have their heads
explode regarding the network news media and their cozy relationship with the
Obama administration; highlighted by the book’s tagline, “My Fight for Truth
Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's
Washington.” Finally we get the reports from Sharyl Attkisson on Benghazi
and Fast and Furious, as well as a number of other stories that the
producers and management at CBS had either suppressed or completely nixed altogether
("death by a thousand paper cuts"), and we get the valuable back
stories to boot. Having grown up in McLean, Virginia, my father a "Company
Man," I love the juicy gossip about Washington D.C., especially when I can
get it from a reporter. In this case I don't even have to buy drinks at Off
the Record in the Hay Adams Hotel. She gives us the names to Google search
and affix faces permanently to those enablers that were either corrupt or
inept. It’s in print form in her book, but thoroughly discussed on video found
on YouTube as she now makes the book promotion tour.
The memoir could have been aptly
titled “Blown Off – Case Studies of How and Why CBS News and the Obama
Administration are Rife with an Ingrained Culture of Corruption so Pervasive,
that Lying to the Press Corps and American People is the Normal, Expected, and
Accepted Behavior.” Many left-wing talking heads on MSNBC, Chris Hayes, and
other cable news neophytes that couldn’t hold a candle to Ms. Attiksson’s
credentials and experience, have taken a few cheap shots at her credibility,
attempting to label her effort as a bad case of sour grapes, or an effort on
her part to land a job at Fox News, or both, making her a perpetual pin
cushion. Quite possibly there is a little cynicism bordering on disgust on
her part, but who could blame her for wanting a job at Fox News over a "go
nowhere with the rest of my career" working for last place CBS News, if
that’s in fact where she ends up? In the meantime she’s a paid guest at Fox,
with apparently a seat next to Howard Kurtz on Sunday mornings, and finally
getting the long overdue widespread exposure that she rightly deserves. I’m
sure the pay, not to mention the freedom and self-actualization are more than
enough justification.
For many, as if that weren’t
enough of a reason to give CBS News management the single finger salute,
imagine after twenty years of devoted, accomplished, and award winning news
journalism she’s quite suddenly faced with the realization, an epiphany if you
will, that her bosses at CBS News were either mostly biased a**holes, or
spineless amoebas cow towing to the Chicago style mafia of the Obama
administration. Perhaps as she suddenly found herself with less and less time
in front of the camera, she also began to watch her own news station a
little more closely, coming to the realization of just how far the once
dominant CBS News had fallen, seemingly held precariously together by a few
choice Obama connections. Those connections between the Obama White House and
CBS News, which few other than those at Fox seem interested in pointing out,
come in the form of Ben Rhodes, the current deputy national security adviser
for strategic communication (not a bad job for someone with zero previous
experience in National Security and an MFA in Creative Writing) and Mr. Rhodes
brother David Rhodes, President of CBS News. Questions? There should be plenty.
If the previous facts aren’t material enough, how about having her computer
hacked and tracked for quite some time? And evidently that didn't seem really
bother anyone at CBS News, other than to confirm that there had in fact been
“unauthorized intrusions” into her mac. Wasn't anyone at CBS the least bit
curious? And apparently the hacking began while Sharyl was deep into her
investigation of Benghazi. It would later be learned that Ben Rhodes
figure prominently as a key figure in the White House's early handling of
the Benghazi Talking Points.
To her credit, Ms. Attkisson is
not cut from the usual cloth of those news journalists that have spent twenty
years at CBS News, even her first and last names are unusual, and rather than
dance delicately around Obama scandals such as the Benghazi, or Fast
and Furious, and the CBS News management’s handling of the administration’s
messaging as if they were a paid Public Relations firm. She hits the salient
points spot on, pulling few punches. Also to her credit, in the spirit of
simply seeking the blind truth regardless of political affiliation, she pulled
few punches while at CBS, no doubt pissing off many bosses up the chain,
certainly David Rhodes. Ruffling those feathers is perhaps the very reason that
as an effective broadcast news journalist, she had nonetheless in short order
been muffled at CBS, and in a manner of speaking, handed her hat, and shown the
door. She’s obviously getting the last laugh, and deservingly so.
I must admit that before 2013, I
don’t recall having ever heard of Sharyl Attkisson. And many die-hard Fox News
viewers probably hadn’t either, having long since tuned out the network news
shows once Roger Ailes began offering up “fair and balanced” programming as an
alternative to the three networks ABC, NBC, and CBS, and the cable news giant
CNN. My first recollection of hearing her name was via the reporting of Howard
Kurtz, who had recently moved from CNN to Fox News. Kurtz, a very respected
journalist who had been with both the Washington Post and CNN for many years,
hosting Reliable Sources at CNN, a show that I often watched, was
reporting on a story about a CBS investigative news journalist that had been
reporting on the Benghazi scandal, and that had coincidentally also had
her computer hacked.
My immediate thought was, “Stop
the presses – you must be joking. You’re telling me that there’s a TV news
reporter at CBS tracking Benghazi as a scandal? No way.” Such a notion seemed
ridiculous. Upon further investigation I confirmed that Sharyl Attkisson had in
fact been reporting on Benghazi, but unfortunately her broadcast reports were
never being aired, having been sanitized and placed in the never to be widely
seen world of online news. At that point Sharyl Attkisson was now permanently
on my radar screen. The report that her computer had been hacked was also very
intriguing, not to mention somewhat surreal. During that same timeframe two of
my computers had been hacked as well, and I don’t think it had anything to do
with the fact that we both attended the University of Florida at the same time.
Wisely, she wasn't saying who she thought that the guilty party, or parties
were. Equally well advised, she wasn't telling anyone who had performed the
cyber footprint forensics that confirmed intrusion. On the heels of the Justice
Department's investigation of Fox's James Rosen and the Edward Snowden
revelations about NSA, I would be paying very close attention to this
particular chilling part of Sheryl Attkisson's story.
It’s not Ms. Attkisson’s fault
for my missing out on her during a career that has spanned nearly three
decades. I wished that I hadn’t, for it was my loss – that is until she was
intentionally shelved at CBS, where only the truly news ravenous, seeking
specific stories on the Internet could find her. After graduating from in 1982
from the School of Journalism at Florida (and I’m surprised she escaped my
radar back then, as I did loiter around the School of Journalism now and then
between my Accounting and Finance courses) she first cut her chops locally on
PBS in Gainesville, Florida and then as a bureau reporter in the Fort Pierce
and West Palm Beach markets. Those early career grinds were followed by a stint
in Ohio and Tampa, before hitting it big with the burgeoning CNN as an anchor
in 1990.
The pre Gulf War timing for her
arrival at CNN was fortuitous and provided Ms. Attkisson with considerable
exposure and a loyal following once the Gulf War coverage began and CNN’s
ratings exploded. Cable news was here to stay, and CNN was king of the
hill. At the time Sharyl Attkisson had been playing her cards perfectly.
Unfortunately, I was not ones of
those loyal viewers. After having been a Navy fighter pilot in the Gulf War, a
place where I didn’t have much of an opportunity to watch cable news, and newly
divorced, I chose the expatriate lifestyle of Hemingway, living in Spain until
1994. Something about Marbella and tuning in to watch 24-hour cable news
beamed by satellite from the U.S. just didn't seem to jibe. By the time I
returned to the States, Ms. Attkisson had moved on to CBS News. Unfortunately
that was a network news program that I hadn’t loyally watched since the
departure of Walter Cronkite in 1981, when Dan Rather took over the anchor
chair.
 |
| CBS Evening News was number 1. "That's the way it was." |
The story of STONEWALLED is also
the tale, rather the “tailspin” of CBS News and the “Tiffany Network.” Why
would an entire generation of Walter Cronkite devotees abandon the network in
droves once the most “trusted man in America” was gone? Walter Cronkite was the
news guru every evening Monday thru Friday, telling his viewing audience, “And
that’s the way it is.” The audience wholeheartedly believed him, and at the
time CBS News was number one.
And every Sunday evening, at
least in the Ball household while I was there (I maintained the tradition at
boarding school, college, and for a time after getting married) was spent
eating steaks while watching 60 Minutes. All food was timed to be ready,
TV Trays on the table in the family room, mouths watering for the simultaneous
taste of the filet and hearing “tic, tic, tic.” It was a staple, and our
only religious experience of the week.
Never mind that CBS News was
left leaning back in the day, in spite of their Republican favoring founder
William Paley, who had built Columbia Broadcasting Company into a behemoth
focusing on two things; news and entertainment. The late Don Hewitt, the
creator of 60 Minutes, referred to the strategy as Bill Paley’s “two
towers of power.” With the secret formula for network success “therein lies the
rub,” and the reason that news loses to entertainment. Entertainment costs more
to produce, but also pulls in much more money, considerably more. 24/7 cable
news doesn’t face the same dilemma. Competing against each other, news will
invariably come out on the short end of the stick.
 |
| Edward R. Murrow circa 1955 |
In spite of Paley’s political
leanings, or CBS’s corporate sponsors’ concerns over a number of negative news
stories broadcast over the years, most notable those aired on the 1950s
news magazine and documentary series See It Now, hosted by Paley’s good
friend, the legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow, who was also the show’s
creator. The precursor to 60 Minutes, Murrow took on a number of
serious, controversial news stories that ruffled the feathers of powerful
“corporate partners.” The most egregious offenses came against Alcoa, which
pulled its sponsorship in 1955, thus ending its weekly version. Within two
years Murrow and the show’s co-creator Fred Friendly were gone as well, the
show ending in 1958, with Paley saying that he was, “Tired of the weekly
stomach aches.”
During this period, news
programming at CBS had remained balanced for the most part. But winds shift,
and by the time of Sharyl Attkisson’s arrival at CBS in 1993, Paley was three
years dead and the balance slipping away, the scales tipping distinctly to the
left. Firmly at the helm for the last 13 years was Dan Rather, whose time
at the top anchor job had not been without controversies of his own. When Dan Rather
left the anchor job in 2005, a spot he’d held for 24 years, longer than anyone
in network news, CBS News was trailing badly in the ratings to both NBC News in
first place, and ABC in a solid second. CBS brought in veteran Bob Schieffer as
temporary news anchor filler, until settling on Katie Couric in
2006.
The arrival of Couric brought
with it many changes to news production as well. The set, the theme song and
the graphics of the show ware also changed to suit the “entertainment focus” of
the Couric style of news, which had been honed over 25 years as co-anchor of Today
on NBC. The new look and format of the CBS Evening News was besieged with a
maelstrom of severe critics right off the bat. Nothing seemed to work and the
ratings further fell. Couric’s multi-dimensional brand of storytelling and soft
news didn’t work for the thirty minutes of evening news, effectively ending her
anchor stewardship after five years in 2011. Enter Scott Pelley.
Originally from Texas, as was
Dan Rather, Scott Pelley began his career at CBS in 1989, and went on to report
on major stories such as the Branch Dividian Siege, the Oklahoma City Bombing,
and the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Pelley then became Chief White
House Correspondent in 1997, remaining there for two years when hen moved first
to 60 Minutes II, and then to 60 Minutes. Pelley, Sharyl Attkisson
thought for a time at least, who came from a hard news background, was
perceived as the saving grace, as someone that would morally support her, and
have her back as she and her producer went after the controversial scandals. It
was not to be.
Stylistically the book works and
reads quite well. In fact, it's a rather easy and fun read. Essentially, her
effort can be broken down into three major themes: media bias, corruption, and
the government’s abuse of power. The subthemes include gross incompetence,
stupidity, juvenile arrogance, criminality, and megalomania.
If I could be critical of Sharyl
for anything, it would be for her initial naiveté and cavalier shrugging off of
the first evidentiary instances of hacking. Alarm bells should have been
sounding so loudly in her head that she would have jumped to immediate
countermeasures. Instead she carried on like a typical pretty teenage-girl
character in a scary “house on the lake” movie, opting to open the door to left
after finding a closet full of dead bodies in the closet to the right (she’s the
girl that lives though). Ms. Attkisson then takes the reader on an anecdotal
journey of journalistic colloquialisms (news-speak), refreshing the reader’s
recollection, or informing the reader for the first time (the extent of the
green energy FUBAR) of the numerous scandals that have been spawned by this
White House unlike no other. The scandals she reported on, and tried valiantly
to get aired are the most nefarious, wrought with lies, ineptitude, and
cover-ups to make pettifoggers of the Grant administration, 150 years dead,
blush embarrassingly from their graves. The analysis should be turned into a
course on ethics in journalism and politics, as her experience is quite
representative of case studies on how to become one of the worst presidents,
not just in the United States, but anywhere.
The relationship between the
Obama White House and the media has devolved into the worst kind of
dysfunctional marriage in which the husband is rich and powerful, constantly
cheating and lying about it to his wife, yet they make public appearances
together, attend parties, and carry on as if everything is simply simpatico. To
those that remember Bill Paley, that probably sounds like his second marriage
to Babe. Or quite possibly you may see the Clintons, or JFK in that comparison.
It’s not. It is instead how the media and the White House, and in the world of
Sharyl Attkisson specifically, CBS, functions. Ms. Attkisson takes the reader
on a correspondent’s journey through the digging up of information on the
several important scandals that have plagued, and defined the White House of
Barak Obama, yet miraculously left little impression on the majority of non Fox
media, and therefore apathy with at least half of the voters (the same voters
that Dr. Gruber referred to in his video no doubt, and perhaps the very
same 47% that Governor Romney was talking about in the video taken of him surreptitiously
at a Palm Beach "Romney for President" fund raiser); Fast and
Furious, $90 billion of Green Energy waste (think many Solyndras – which
sounds scarily similar to “Soylent Green”), Benghazi, HealthCare.gov.
Sharyl Attkisson tried her damndest to get the stories aired without the
sanitization edits of her bureau chief, but to no avail (under duress or
direction from the White House, or C., both A. and B. – you pick the right
answer).
To read Sharyl Attkisson’s book
is akin to following her investigative journey as she uncovers new leads and
new whistleblowers, all willing to commit to telling their stories on air,
perhaps jeopardizing their career, perhaps even their safety or that of their
families, as was the case in Fast and Furious. You don’t have to
believe everything portrayed on Netflix’s House of Cards to see
that Washington D.C. can be a beautiful place filled with awful characters,
particularly those appointed staffers, full of entitlement they presume to be
theirs, all funded with the taxpayers’ dollars. Cynicism abounds in that
town.
Sometimes the reader may want to
scream, sometimes laugh, and many times cry at all of the buffoons discussed in
her book. It’s more of the same all the way through: stalling tactics +
administration lies + stalling + lies + obfuscation – anything remotely true +
CBS laziness/incompetence/corruption = STONEWALLED (death by a thousand paper
cuts). We could have taken that formula, massaged it into an algorithm, plugged
it into her laptop, and saved her added grief of being hacked.
She begins by taking the reader
through the first days of suspicious computer behavior coming from her laptop
and the discovery of “extra” splicing running from her house to Verizon’s
equipment, only Verizon hasn’t any record or justifiable reason to give her for
the redundant fiber optic. At this point the reader is now imagining poor
Sharyl as the new “Enemy of the State,” being tracked by some dweebish
Jack Black lookalike at NSA. After the Snowden revelations, such a vision is
not far fetched in the least. Her Gene Hackman savior she calls Number One
(they meet at McDonalds), and wisely kept his identity a secret, even to this
day.
There is quite a bit of insight
and useful information to be gained by Sharyl’s insider exposé as she teaches
us numerous tags unique to her trade, such as “AstroTurf,” which is the
creation of a falsehood as being a widespread fact, or as she put it, “the
whole point of AstroTurf," she writes, "is to give the impression
that there’s widespread support for an agenda when there’s not.” Obamacare is
the first thing that comes to mind, a campaign that succeeded only because the
network news media were equal players in in the manufacturing of falsehoods
(lies), in order to shove Obama’s signature achievement down the throats of
Americans. The recent Gruber YouTube videos have confirmed those facts. And if
it wasn’t the White House manipulating CBS News, it was corporate partners of
the network, their bread and butter advertisers.
The author goes on to tell us a
story of a bureau chief that got in the middle of one story that Sharyl was
running with. The bureau chief wanted the reporter’s notes and expressed
concern to Sharyl regarding the story. The bosses up the ladder weren’t too
keen on the story as well. It turned out the negative impact the story had on
some corporation, also a "sponsor," was potentially going to have an
adverse effect on CBS stock, which was rumored to be splitting in the near
future. The company getting the bad press was real definition of a “corporate
partner” of CBS. No doubt that's a conundrum that's difficult to solve for CBS
executives.
Now, if it’s a Republican
president in the White House trying to get a story held up because of an
impending terrorist attack being thwarted, those West Wing “stonewallers” can
go straight to hell, but CBS bosses will be damned if they’ll let some little
news bitch that doesn't play ball, fuck up their precious stock split with an investigative piece
exposing corporate deception and unethical practices.
Sharyl Attkisson worked tirelessly
to get herself in the middle of a number of landmark scandals that only Fox
News would really ever cover, without covering them up. And when Scott Pelley became anchor and Managing Editor, that's exactly what he and his team at CBS Evening News, and 60 Minutes seemed to be very good at - covering the scandal in order to cover it up.
A possible conversation can be very easily imagined, with David Rhodes asking Pelley, "What's Sharyl Attkisson's problem anyway?"
"She's a real pit bull," Pelley replies.
"Pit bull? Yeah, well she's causing me a lot of headaches. My little brother is calling about her constantly," Rhodes complains.
"Sorry about that. Like I said - she's a real pit bull," Pelley says.
"What's she working on now?"
"I hear she's writing up a story about Benghazi and..."
Rhodes cuts him off. "God damn it. You better put her desk in your office right next to yours."
 |
| Scott Pelley listening to David Rhodes in 2011 |
Ms. Attkisson reminds the reader
of the consequences of the crazy “gun walking” scheme, and aftermath of the
scandal, which CBS allowed her to report on up to a point, and then ceased
their support, looking the other way. Two federal agents were dead, a number of
resignations within the Justice Department and ATF, Eric Holder the Attorney
General was held in contempt by congress, and lastly, Obama invoked executive
privilege, which probably saved Holder from obstruction of justice charges.
Nobody went to jail and they should have. Many people should have gone to jail.
(As I write this, the Justice Department has just dumped 42,000 pages of
documents as a result of a lawsuit by Judicial Watch and the Justice Department
and as part of a FOIA request by the Plaintiff).
However, if there is a “Mount
Everest” of scandals that Sharyl was on the scent of like a bloodhound, it was
the Benghazi story. She was on the story from the get-go as it was breaking.
The story of Benghazi actually has three parts: one - the
incompetence of the State Department and Hillary Clinton before the attack; two
- the attack and lack of leadership during the attack; and three – the cover up
of one and two. The Benghazi scandal and the enabling of the mainstream
media and cable news stations friendly to the White House, to perpetuate lie
after lie, spin after spin, resulting in a reelection of Obama, has got to be
the Obama scandal most Shakespearean. Four Americans died, many were wounded,
and a number of careers completely wrecked. And it’s not over - far from it.
On Benghazi, as she had so often
done with other important stories, Sharyl Attkisson moved quickly to ask the
right questions about the right people, but was stonewalled every bit of the
way by the Obama administration, her chief obstructionist being Tommy Vietor,
an appallingly immature former National Security Council spokesman. Not only
was Attkisson continually road blocked in her investigation by Vietor, she was
also treated with indignant behavior, similar to Vietor’s demeanor in a May 1,
2014 exchange with Bret Baier on Fox News Special Report when Vietor
sophomorically replied to a question, “Dude, that was like two years ago.”
Sharyl Attkisson’s experience was very similar, only worse.
From Vietor she learned that the
White House was prepared to go to any lengths possible, including ignoring the
law, in order to change the narrative, and would use Vietor not only to give
their message to CBS News, but also in an attempt to rein in Sharyl Attkisson
and get her to toe the line. She also learned that she knew infinitely more
about National Security than the National Security Council’s own spokesman.
Vietor had very limited
knowledge on numerous National Security response priorities, and no knowledge
whatsoever about the Foreign Emergency Support Team (FAST), used for rapid
response for terrorist incidents. He didn’t even know of its existence. The
idea seemed to be, as it had been with Susan Rice going on the Sunday talk
shows to spin the spin on the video, “How dare you blame our messenger for
saying something incorrect – after all, they don’t know anything in the first
place.”
At that point Attkisson writes,
wondering then, “Does the president simply think that if he says it, people who
don’t know better will be convinced. Or is he disconnected – misled by his
staff into thinking all the questions have been answered?”
The same runaround would be
Attkisson’s experience with the State Department as well. But where she did
have success was with those on the ground that personally knew Ambassador Chris
Stevens, and had firsthand knowledge of the security problems, increased
al-Qaeda activity, and the State Department’s indifference to the growing
problems. The whistleblowers were beginning to come forward.
She also quite by accident uncovers
the real truth regarding Obama's use of the word "terrorists," and
"terrorist attacks," as they related to his defining what happened at
Benghazi. Everyone had said that it was a terror attack on the day of and the
day following the attacks, except the president. It didn't fit
his narrative in the 2012 election, which was that Osama Bin Laden
was dead and that al-Qaeda was on the run. From that point on the mincing of
words game begins, and the story of who said what when becomes more confused
and disjointed as to send that part of the story into a Black Hole. Attkisson
doggedly pursued the truth in the stories she knew to be important, until she
was just shut completely down. The computer hacking was the proverbial straw,
and quite possibly could have been coordinated with the Justice Department by
cooperation elements within her own organization at CBS.
Fortunately there is always
another side to go to in the world of journalism, and for Sharyl Attkisson it’s a
very friendly welcome. At Fox News she has a number of close colleagues that
have walked in her shoes so to speak. Fitting right in as a commentator, she’s
able to finally do what she does best, and that’s report quality stories dug up
by determination, and written by a talented journalist. Howard Kurtz is there
at Fox, and we’ll be seeing her often as a guest on his Sunday show. James
Rosen, who certainly knows what it’s like to be spied on by the Justice
Department, is there at Fox as well. And at Fox News there is also a pervasive
attitude that one must at the end of the day just laugh at all this stuff that
happens in Washington, because if you don’t, your head will surely explode.
Hands down, Sharyl
Attkisson’s STONWALLED is an excellent book written by a top flight
correspondent, a read that really drills down into the seedy collusion that
takes place between the media and the Obama administration, and one reporter’s
mission to see that story finally aired. Read it.
