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Ben Rhodes’s brother, the day after Benghazi: (VIDEO) Title Truncated
Hot Air ^ | May 5 2014 | Allahpundit

Posted on 05/05/2014 3:21:03 PM PDT by PoloSec

FULL TITLE: Ben Rhodes’s brother, the day after Benghazi: The government thinks this could be a coordinated attack, not a video protest

Ben Rhodes’s brother is of course David Rhodes, the president of CBS News — although, if you’re a CBS viewer, maybe I shouldn’t assume that you know that. Anyway, a nifty catch here by John Sexton of Breitbart. The key bit comes 50 seconds in. Quote:

“Our government thinks that, you know, there’s a really good chance this was not just a spontaneous mob reaction to what some thought was an offensive film but actually a coordinated effort timed to the 9/11 anniversary.”

Two days later, Sexton reminds us, Ben Rhodes sent out an e-mail ahead of Susan Rice’s Sunday show appearances urging her “to underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy.” What changed between the time his brother said this on September 12th and the time he sent that e-mail on September 14th? Sharyl Attkisson asked a similar question last week, noting that an e-mail chain at the State Department shows that the feds’ earliest suspicions after the attack had focused on Ansar al-Sharia, the jihadi group that had claimed responsibility for it online, rather than a mob driven to fury by the Mohammed video. Somehow the conventional wisdom shifted from the “planned attack” to the “spontaneous protest” theory in 48 hours. And since, it seems fair to assume, David Rhodes’s knowledge of what “our government” thinks was relayed to him at least in part by his brother Ben, it’s more accurate to say that Ben Rhodes’s thinking in particular shifted during those 48 hours. Why?

Depending upon how closely you want to parse David Rhodes’s language here (specifically the word “just” in the quote above, and hedging with “there’s a really good chance”), you can argue that he’s not ruling out the protest theory, just stressing that there may have been more than one group outside the consulate that night. I don’t read it that way; the “just” sounds like a synonym for “merely,” as if he was dismissing the protest theory and offering the attack theory as a substitute. Maybe Trey Gowdy should ask him. Would CBS cover that or would it be blackout time again?

You know what the real irony of Ben Rhodes’s e-mail is? It sets up an either/or between “the protests were caused by a YouTube video” and “the protests were caused by a broader failure of policy” when in reality there was no need to make that move. The fact that Islamists were screaming outside the embassy in Cairo on the anniversary of 9/11 shouldn’t, rationally, be thought of as a “failure of policy.” Screaming outside a U.S. embassy, especially on the day of AQ’s big victory, is what Islamists do. It’s especially goofy to imagine the White House fretting about policy failures when their policy in Egypt to that point had been to support the Islamists’ “democratic” aspirations to power. The Cairo embassy protest took place two months after a member of the Muslim Brotherhood had become president, with U.S. backing; the people protesting were thus hardcore fanatics (among them Ayman al-Zawahiri’s brother) whom no policy would placate. But Obama got elected promising he’d rebuild America’s reputation in the Middle East, so naturally a raucous, ultimately dangerous protest in Cairo — where he’d given his famous speech a few years before — looked bad for him, proof positive that America was still the Great Satan to some people there despite the Lightbringer’s best efforts. If he hadn’t overpromised so much as a candidate, Ben Rhodes might not have been so panicked in shunting blame off onto a video instead of the fact that jihadis hate America no matter who’s president. But he did overpromise, so here we are.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ansaralsharia; benghazi; benghazicoverup; benghazitimeline; benghazivideo; benrhodes; benroades; blindsheik; cairoprotests; cbs; cbsnews; davidrhodes

1 posted on 05/05/2014 3:21:04 PM PDT by PoloSec
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To: PoloSec

Drip drip... Boom!


2 posted on 05/05/2014 3:22:56 PM PDT by nhwingut (This tagline is for lease)
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To: PoloSec

ooh! good catch!


3 posted on 05/05/2014 3:25:10 PM PDT by latina4dubya (when i have money i buy books... if i have anything left, i buy 6-inch heels and a bottle of wine...)
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To: PoloSec

But Obama promised to find the people who murdered our Ambassador and the others. The Democrats are saying now it is a “witch hunt.”


4 posted on 05/05/2014 3:26:23 PM PDT by FreedBird
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To: latina4dubya

Someone doesn’t want the truth to come out.


5 posted on 05/05/2014 3:27:53 PM PDT by FreedBird
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To: PoloSec

that is why they put out the video meme even before the Cairo protests began.
remember the confusion when this happened and Romney’s response


6 posted on 05/05/2014 3:36:25 PM PDT by dontreadthis
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To: PoloSec
The protests and attack in Cairo (or anywhere in the world) weren't about that stupid 'video' either.

Brian Lilley: The MSM is lying about the muslim riots
Interviews on the streets of Cairo. 'Video' had nothing to do with protests and attack.

"Blame it on the Video" was a Fraud for the Cairo Rioting, Too


7 posted on 05/05/2014 4:30:13 PM PDT by TigersEye ("No man left behind" is more than an Army Ranger credo it's the character of America.)
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To: PoloSec; hoosiermama; WildHighlander57; LucyT; crosslink; Nachum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qd0BcNDzbc

David Rhodes, President of CBS in San Antonio, Sept. 12, 2012

Published on Sep 17, 2012

David Rhodes, President of CBS News spoke to The Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce during the annual MacroSA: Economic Outlook Conference on September 17, 2012. He discussed how the news industry covers the economy as well as how media has had to adjust to changes in how information is received.


8 posted on 05/05/2014 4:46:01 PM PDT by maggief
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To: PoloSec

Thank you Al Gore. Richard Nixon did not have Millions of investigative reporters with access to all sound bites and written and scanned documents. But BHO does have all of America doing the heavy lifting for the press. Ever since the OMG media group take over in 2008. The FREEDOM AMERICAN REPORTERS have stepped in to find out the truth.


9 posted on 05/05/2014 4:51:37 PM PDT by ncfool (Taking back America 2016.)
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To: maggief

Posted Thursday, September 13th 2012 @ 6am by Jim Forsyth

The President of CBS News told the Greater Chamber’s annual Economic Outlook Conference that claims by conservatives that his network, and the rest of what has derisively been labeled as the ‘mainstream media’ are simply ‘labels’ and David Rhodes said those labels ‘don’t stick.’

“We still have millions of people coming to these broadcasts, and a great day for me is when we take incoming from both sides about how we handled a story,” Rhodes told 1200 WOAI’s Michael Board.

In fact, Rhodes said CBS is a beacon of unbiased news.

“I think, frankly, one of the great things about working with Scott (Pelley, the new main anchor of the CBS Evening News) since we elevated him, is that nobody really knows where he is, and that is so rare in this environment.”

Rhodes said he and his management team are ‘constantly diligent’ to make sure labels of bias, “and they are labels, don’t stick.”

Rhodes acknowledged that there is a concern about bias in the mainstream media that has resulted in the creation of competing news networks.

“Fox was built into a great franchise because many people in this country don’t trust, or just plain don’t like, the other options,” he said.

(snip)

“In a lot of these things it is how the question is framed,” he said. “If you ask people, they probably have a visceral reaction to one type of media, and that’s what is being pulled out. But if you ask them whether they ‘feel informed,’ or ‘consider themselves informed,’ I think they would say that they are.”

(snip)

“We don’t micro target, we don’t say, we need to do certain things to reach this type of viewer, 35 year olds living in these counties, you can’t do that,” he said. “If it is a really good story, well told, you’ll get people.”

He said CBS is trying to remain a ‘mass media,’ at a time when narrowcasting over platforms from The Comedy Show to Facebook is becoming popular.

“If people have that worry, I think that is misplaced,” he said. “There is actually more news coverage today, more sources, more source material, information moves faster than ever before. I don’t think there should be some longing for ‘the good days’ of information. There is more of it now, and more of it is generally better.”

Read more: http://www.woai.com/articles/woai-local-news-sponsored-by-five-119078/cbs-news-boss-were-not-biased-10413935/#ixzz30t8mm5n0


10 posted on 05/05/2014 4:52:23 PM PDT by maggief
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To: maggief

CBS News President: Seriously, We’re Not Biased
By Matthew Sheffield | September 13, 2012

(snip)

Despite his proclamations of his network’s fairness, Rhodes seemed aware that many do not believe in the objectivity of the self-styled mainstream press:

“Fox was built into a great franchise because many people in this country don’t trust, or just plain don’t like, the other options,” he said.

That remark is interesting because Rhodes actually used to work at Fox News. According to Crain’s New York Business, he oversaw FNC’s coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign, despite the fact that his brother, Ben, was working for the Obama campaign. That’s a point that the Fox haters are likely never to acknowledge as a contrasting point to the fact that George W. Bush’s cousin John Prescott Ellis worked for the channel as a consultant during the 2000 presidential campaign. Could it be that Fox News actually isn’t the pure Republican propaganda platform of liberal imagination? Perish the thought!

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-sheffield/2012/09/13/cbs-news-president-appears-not-understand-what-bias#ixzz30tAaxqkp


11 posted on 05/05/2014 4:59:16 PM PDT by maggief
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To: maggief

12 posted on 05/05/2014 5:15:21 PM PDT by maggief
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To: maggief

Related:

http://www.mediaite.com/online/the-top-2s-in-the-news-media-business-you-should-know/#6

here are plenty of influential execs beneath Fox News chief Roger Ailes — John Moody, for example — but recently-promoted EVP of news Michael Clemente may be the biggest up-and-comer.

Back in 2009, after the White House repeatedly excluded the network from interviewing administration officials and openly called Fox “not a news network,” Clemente was the man tasked with responding on behalf of the cable channel.

When that war was in dire need of a “truce,” he was sent down to personally meet with White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/programming/michael-clemente-joins-fox-news-channel-abc-news/34201

Michael Clemente, who spent 27 years at ABC, comes to Fox News Channel as senior vice president of news. He essentially replaces David Rhodes, who decamped for Bloomberg TV last November. Clemente will report to John Moody, executive vice president of news editorial.
The announcement was made Tuesday by Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO, Fox News Channel.
“Michael is one of the most seasoned television executives in the business and he’s an excellent news man,” said Ailes in a statement. “His proven record of journalism at ABC News will be an asset to the entire Fox News operation.”


13 posted on 05/05/2014 5:25:18 PM PDT by maggief
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To: maggief

Bfl


14 posted on 05/05/2014 5:47:14 PM PDT by hoosiermama (Obama: "Born in Kenya" Lying now or then or now)
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To: hoosiermama

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/david-rhodes-leaves-fox-news-for-bloomberg_b21839

Exclusive: TVNewser has learned Fox News Vice President of news David Rhodes is leaving FNC to join Bloomberg TV. Rhodes will be head of U.S. television operations for Bloomberg.

34-year-old Rhodes has been at Fox News since the channel’s inception. He began as a production assistant before the network went on the air in 1996. He moved up through the ranks to assignment manager and, in September 2006, was promoted to VP of news, responsible for all newsgathering for FNC.

This is the first major hire from a cable news competitor for Bloomberg since Andy Lack was named CEO of the network’s multimedia group, which includes TV, radio and Web.

Related:

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/andy-lack-joins-bloomberg_b21332

http://observer.com/2009/03/bloombergs-newbie-newsies/

Bloomberg’s Newbie Newsies

Flashback:

http://nypost.com/2011/02/09/cable-outsider-hired-to-lift-sagging-cbs-news/

Moonves is shifting Sean McManus, his news and sports chief for the past five years, over to sports as chairman. On the news side, he’s creating a new two-person structure with “60 Minutes” boss Jeff Fager as chairman and cable news hotshot David Rhodes as president.
While Fager is a known quantity inside CBS’s Black Rock headquarters, Rhodes is something of an unknown in the broadcast news business. He began serious talks with Moonves last Thanksgiving and quit yesterday as head of Bloomberg TV’s US operations.
Moonves initially offered Fager the sole role of running the news operation but he declined in favor of taking on the chairman role and continuing to run “60 Minutes.”
Rhodes will manage day-to-day news at CBS when he begins in two weeks. Rhodes, who also spent 12 years at Fox News, told The Post, “What I do is the hard news, the personnel, moving people around, making snap decisions.”
Indeed, the new executive structure is likely to speed up talks about the status of Katie Couric, whose contract to front the “CBS Evening News” is set to expire in May.
Fager told The Post that talking to Couric is “one of the first priorities” in his new role.
There may be more change in store for CBS’s news division. Several execs suggested the future of McManus’ No. 2, CBS News Executive Vice President Paul Friedman, is shaky. Friedman’s son, David, is executive producer of “The Early Show.”


15 posted on 05/05/2014 6:19:02 PM PDT by maggief
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To: maggief

“presstitutes”


16 posted on 05/05/2014 7:00:31 PM PDT by TurboZamboni (Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.-JFK)
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To: TigersEye

ANother placemark


17 posted on 05/05/2014 9:32:18 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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