So is Anderson Cooper auditioning for a gig on Fox News or what?

[ClusterFreak]

I dunno...to be honest I haven't been watching him much, but it seems that whenever I do he is pushing this meme that the State Dep't (and by implication Obama) is covering up what happened at the embassy in Benghazi. Fran Townsend has been on there talking about her 'sources' telling her this and that...along with former CIA guy Robert Baer talking about how terrible this whole thing has been handled. Townsend I had been prepared to describe previously as a fairly non-partisan former Bush admin Homeland Security official...Baer I had seen a lot (though not recently it seems) on MSNBC for his expert opinion on security matters. I'd assume because he was at least a centrist politically and could offer great insight as a former CIA officer.

Having said that...is there something to see here regarding the Benghazi attacks...or is this just CNN and Cooper looking to grab ratings while MSNBC and Fox go wall to wall with political flackery shows at night?

I ask in all sincerity. If there is some nefarious cover up or whatever it should be exposed... but I also gotta be honest. And realistic. Obama HAS to be reelected. Romney must NOT be allowed anywhere within spitting distance from the White House. Period. For all the same reasons you think he shouldn't become president. Ever.

So, Anderson, unless you can prove some massive government plot to obfuscate the truth surrounding the Benghazi attacks...what's your game here??

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. He's a journalist? It's his job to ask questions?

I wasn't aware that there was an obligation on journalists to unquestioningly accept what the government happens to be saying. And it should be pretty fucking obvious that the State Department would LIKE to cover up the security failures that led to the death of a US Ambassador from their reaction to CNN publishing extracts from said ambassador's diary that revealed his concerns over security or the lack thereof (which basically amounted to "how dare you&quot .

[ClusterFreak]

3. Yes. A journalist.

Anderson Cooper is a journalist.

This is the same Anderson Cooper who once dressed up in a bunny rabbit outfit and paraded outside an orangutan cage for a segment on his show. Maybe it was a gorilla, I forget.

Anderson might also be auditioning for a gig as the audience warm up guy for some network sitcom, when he giggles his way through his Ridiculist bits at the end of his show each night.

Yeah he also does hard news...no shit.

I just hope there is some 'there' there on this particular story when the smoke clears. That's all I'm sayin'.

[M_M]

13. He could Dropkick a Bunny in Public

He'd still be better than anyone on FUX.

[grantcart]

7. Yes like his ground breaking expose on the 44,000 who die because they don't have health insurance

and where he exposed significant overcharging by many of his own advertisers.

Oh no he didn't do that.

Anderson is a very selective questioner. In this case CNN made a tabloid move by taking the Ambassador's personal journal and is trying to make it look noble by making it into a mountain. Its not.

[pinboy3niner]

9. "Security failures" is something the RW is pushing hard

The RW spin is that the consulate had inadequate security and that the Ambassador feared for his life, with the implication being that the Obama Administration rejected Stevens' demands for more security (an implication for which there has been no evidence in support).

I saw a CNN news segment a day or two ago (possibly on Blitzer's 'Situation Room') that pointed out, again, the temporary location of the consulate, in a place that wasn't amenable to normal security levels, and the Ambassador's role in determining security arrangements for in-country U.S. facilities "in consultation" with Washington.

The wingnuts make much of Stevens being "worried" about security and "fearing" for his life, despite the fact that he often walked openly in the streets of Tripoli and Benghazi. His job involved providing security assessments, and he probably was more knowledgeable than almost anyone about extremist groups in Libya. Yet he decided to make that fateful trip to Benghazi, despite supposedly fearing for his life.

The RW BS doesn't pass the smell test. Especially their characterization of Stevens as someone who was in a panic over security. He understood the security challenges very well, and he conducted his official duties accordingly. His decision to make that trip clearly indicates that he did not fear going to Benghazi, even with the lower security at the consulate's temporary quarters.

[JaneyVee]

2. What kind of cover-up?

I mean, it comes down to security. Is Anderson daring to suggest the embassy asked the WH for more security & they refused? That would be complete BS.

[EC]

4. There were complaints about funding for

security of the embassies and lack of. That would be the House of Representatives fault.

[factsarenotfair]

5. Wasn't the company formerly known as Blackwater in charge of security at the Benghazi consulate? n/t

.

[pinboy3niner]

6. CNN got busted by Admin officials on their handling of Chris Stevens' personal diary

In response, they've apparently chosen to take the low road.

[progressivebydesign]

10. the diary thing is a classic Rupert Murdoch operation. n/t

[pinboy3niner]

12. I don't believe that CNN normally operates like that

This looks like a case of their making statements to State and to the family, and then doing things differently. Plus covering up and playing coy, using the diary without any acknowledgement or attribution. They're just pissed that they got busted.

Their sudden passion for slamming the Administration on this event seems related more to their chagrin at being caught than to the facts.

Long ago I had a journalism teacher who'd quit being a working journalist over ethics. While covering a death and interviewing a grieving family that did not want to surrender a photo of their loved one to the press, he said, he was expected to palm a photo while the family was out of the room.

Gene Friedman is long gone now, but I was once privileged to have him as my journalism teacher.

R.I.P., Gene.

[hrmjustin]

8. He is doing his job by asking questions.

If the FBI has not gotten to the crime scene by this point I think that is news, I do not think that there is a cover-up, but there is evidence that they did not get the security that they needed for the ambassador. They should have had more security around him., especially after they got threats when they killed the head terrorist guy (sorry don't know his name) from Libya. Fox is trying to cause problems for our president, yet in the end there are many questions about this whole affair that need to be answered.

[grasswire]

11. no one should forget that Townsend is a Bush INSIDER

CNN is doing its damndest to grab viewers over this, and if they have to team up with Obama haters to do it, they will.

Freepers are all over this, and have been for a couple of days. They are ga-ga about it and think it will bring Obama down.

I don't like the way this is heading. Eventually other media outlets will have to report it, and then Obama will be on defense.

[winstars]

14. FORGET this guy. He has NEVER wavered from doing the False Equivalency thing EACH AND EVERY..

fucking night since like forever. He might sometimes, maybe once in a while, sorta do something, almost considered "journalistic"... but thats real rare!!!

Fucking David Gergen, The Red State guy, fucking Ari Fleischer for God sakes, the 'new" sort of right wing aforementioned Bob Baer and many many others. (Jeeze, Bay Buchanan too!) They are currently trying, ala Faux Nooze, to bang heavy on a particular view of an event forcing the other networks to go with it. (CNN's version of what went on, whats going on, and not just in Benghazi but in the State Department too) Just like Faux tries all the time. CNN is now trying this and lets see what happens.

Remember all of their "news" on this subject right now is tainted and is definite a defensive response to their "acquiring" Chris Stevens journal.

Don't forget that the State Department falling down on the job or worse yet a coverup of something is simply just a preemptive attack on Hillary pre 2016. Thinking that this will not be used against Hillary is incorrect. This is their (right wing) only reason to give a shit about what happened to our people. Like "Fast and Furious" they could give a shit about that border agent the t MAYBE got killed by a "walked Gun". Its all about ratfucking Eric Holder, that all. "tell Michael it was only business" say Tessio in "The Godfather I"...

It only business for these pugs to be counted on to be scum... No big deal really...

[mmonk]

15. Inconsistencies in what administration officials

have said make it look as if there is.

[outsideworld]

16. Fuck him

He has no integrity whatsoever .But yet again does anybody on CNN ?