Re-Post: The Administration Claimed A Video, Not Preplanned Terrorism, Was Responsible for the Benghazi Attack for 12 Days

If you haven't seen this -- or emailed it to others -- then watch it, and then email it to others.

Especially noteworthy is Ayaman Al-Zawahiri, the current "Spiritual Leader" of Al Qaeda, calling for vengeance in Libya for the death of one of its operatives there, just days before the vengeance occurred.

And the administration didn't evacuate the embassy, or send Marines, or even give it security more effective than door locks.

Krauthammer calls out his liberal colleagues, including Nina Totenberg and Mark Sheids, to their faces, and Nina Totenberg literally chuckles it off.

Let me explain why this is different than previous bias.

Previously, the press has been both biased in a partisan way and an in an ideological way, but usually the partisanship was driven by ideology. As you may have noticed, the press are great fans of gay marriage and abortion, and they shape their coverage to put the best possible face on these positions, and the worst possible face on opponents. (To the extent they feature contrary voices at all.)

That's bias, of course. We've gotten used to that.

But in the Benghazi debacle, there is no possible ideological grounding to explain their bias. There is, I trust, no ideological movement that advocates for intelligence failures and the deaths of good-guy diplomats. There is no ideological movement in favor of reckless incompetence bordering on malice in providing security for consulates abroad (which, as a legal matter, are considered US territory).

There is no ideological movement -- or at least there was not before -- championing the government's right to lie to the public about its failures in order to avoid accountability.

There is no room here where one can say, "Ah well, they can't help but be pulled a bit to the left by their own beliefs." Because no one champions the right of government to let people be murdered and then lie about it.

This isn't ideological bias, then. This is pure advocacy for a political party. Obama's embarrassment is not an ideological issue -- or should not be. I hope we can all agree that a president should attend security briefings -- especially as 9/11 approaches -- and provide adequate warning and security for US government personnel. I hope we can all agree that the government does not suddenly gain a Right To Shamelessly Lie about its failures, simply because it finds it politically advantageous to do so.

But, as Nina Totenberg's chuckle indicates, the press now in fact believes exactly these things -- so long as the president we're talking about is Democrat, and Obama in particular.

WaPo: Security Was Lax. Welcome to two weeks ago, WaPo. But kudos for finally starting to do your job.

Pat Caddell: The Media Has Become The Enemy Of the Public. @johnekdahl posted this last night; it's worth a repost too.

This is absolutely true. Obama is empowered to lie -- and worse -- because he knows the media will spin for him.

This is dangerous. This is how democracies die.

posted by Ace at 04:16 PM

| Access Comments