Fox News and Bret Baier’s faux-integrity: The face of terrible Benghazi journalism

[DonViejo]

How a straight-laced newsman who anchors Fox News' most august news show is really a lying fake-scandal-monger

SIMON MALOY

Benghazi, to quote a few major news outlets, “is back.” We’re now 20 months removed from the September 2012 terrorist attack, but in the last week there’s been a new “smoking gun” email (the latest in a succession of smoking guns) and an even newer House select committee. There’s a fresh burst of energy behind the quest to uncover the White House coverup that was so obvious and perfidious that Americans reelected Barack Obama by a comfortable margin.

The most entertaining and edifying piece of Benghazi news that happened last week was this May 1 interview between former White House spokesman Tommy Vietor and Fox News’ Bret Baier. Vietor was on to discuss his role in the editing of a sheet of Benghazi-related talking points drafted shortly after the attacks. Baier wanted to know exactly what changes Vietor made to this document, to the point of asking him if he changed single words: “Did you also change ‘attacks’ to ‘demonstrations’ in the talking points?” Vietor said he couldn’t recall changing that single word in the document. Baier was incredulous and pressed Vietor, leading to this amusing exchange:

VIETOR: Dude, this was two years ago. We’re still talking about the most mundane thing.

BAIER: Dude, it’s what everybody is talking about!

Derpy conservatives seized on Vietor’s use of “dude” to accuse him of being flippant about the deadly attack. To me, the more interesting part of this exchange is Baier’s defense of his own questioning: “it’s what everybody is talking about.”

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http://www.salon.com/2014/05/05/brett_baiers_faux_integrity_the_face_of_fox_news_terrible_benghazi_journalism/