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No Cindy Sheehan-Style Media Attention for Benghazi Victim's Father
Townhall.com ^ | January 8, 2016 | Jonah Goldberg

Posted on 01/08/2016 8:14:36 AM PST by Kaslin

For partisan Democrats, when the word "Benghazi" comes up, the sophisticated thing to do is roll your eyes. If the name Charles Woods comes up, the normal thing to do is say, "Who?"

So let's talk about Cindy Sheehan for a moment instead. Remember her?

For a while, she was the Joan of Arc of the antiwar left. The mother of a U.S. Army specialist killed in Iraq, Sheehan held a vigil outside President George W. Bush's ranch, demanding to meet with him so she could denounce the war to his face.

The mainstream media swooned.

Sheehan's "moral authority," New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd genuflected, was "absolute."

NBC reporter Carl Quintanilla interviewed historians he agreed with, and then reported: "Sheehan, say some historians, may be evolving as an icon in the war's turning point. ... For three weeks, she's dominated headlines, mobilized protesters" and made "it safe, her supporters say, to voice doubts about the war, just as Walter Cronkite did on the evening news in 1968."

Then-NBC News anchor Brian Williams introduced a profile of Sheehan by saying, "As the 1960s protest song said, 'there's something happening here.'"

Sheehan's use-by date was January 20, 2009, President Obama's inauguration day. She was -- and is -- a vocal critic of Obama too. But there was no room in the script for that. When she was a thorn in Bush's side, she was just a normal American mom speaking truth to power. When she started criticizing Obama, the same media dismissed her as a crackpot.

This isn't particularly unusual in American politics. Activists often pretend to be "normal" people plucked out of obscurity by events. And sometimes, normal people plucked out of obscurity by events become activists as a result.

But how the press treats, say, Joe the Plumber or Sandra Fluke or Valerie Plame often seems to hinge on their political utility, or lack thereof.

Which brings us back to Charles Woods.

Woods is the father of Tyrone Woods, one of the heroes killed in the Benghazi attack.

I have never found Benghazi to be as mysterious as some people think. It was a terror attack on 9/11. The White House was caught off guard amidst a hotly contested presidential campaign. During that campaign, Obama had made his "success" in decimating al-Qaida one of his key talking points.

As with pretty much every other terror attack before and after, the Obama administration's first response was to downplay the terrorism issue.

And, as with pretty much every other terror attack before and after, the Obama administration worked diligently to change the subject to something more politically convenient. We are currently debating Obama's gun control agenda, for instance, rather than a wave of Islamic State and Islamic State-inspired attacks because this White House would rather have that debate than discuss Obama's claim that ISIS is "contained."

Hillary Clinton, whose own voracious hunger for the presidency was at stake as well, fueled the conversation. She vowed to bring the filmmaker to justice (which, as Reason magazine's Matt Welch notes, is not a secretary of state's job). And that's what she told Charles Woods at a memorial service for his dead son.

Woods, a retired lawyer and administrative judge, wrote in his journal at the time: "I gave Hillary a hug and shook her hand. And she said we are going to have the film maker arrested who was responsible for the death of my son."

In two interviews -- one with ABC's George Stephanopoulos and another with Daily Sun columnist Tom McLaughlin -- Clinton has said Woods (and Patricia Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, also killed in the Benghazi attack) is lying.

Woods has gotten some attention, mostly from Fox News and talk radio. More recently, the Washington Post's Fact Checker, Glenn Kessler, took up the issue and essentially washed his hands of the whole affair, saying he couldn't determine who was telling the truth.

Woods' moral authority isn't absolute, because no one's is. But it soars above the moral authority of so many journalists who dismiss him.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; US: Arkansas; US: New York
KEYWORDS: 2016election; arkansas; benghazi; cindysheehan; election2016; hillary; hillaryclinton; hitlery; newyork; wipewater
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1 posted on 01/08/2016 8:14:36 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
Obama eliminated al Qaeda by renaming is ISIL
2 posted on 01/08/2016 8:17:55 AM PST by rdcbn ("If what has happened here is not treason, it is its first cousin." Zell Miller)
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To: Kaslin
More recently, the Washington Post's Fact Checker, Glenn Kessler, took up the issue and essentially washed his hands of the whole affair, saying he couldn't determine who was telling the truth.

Mr Woods should consider this as good as validation of his charge. Because the WaPo is incapable of telling the truth where the truth will damage their progressive cause.

3 posted on 01/08/2016 8:18:53 AM PST by skeeter
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To: Kaslin

Because the media are whores.


4 posted on 01/08/2016 8:23:51 AM PST by Fido969 ("The hardest thing in the world to understand is income taxes" - Albert Einstein)
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To: Kaslin

Of course not. Do you expect the media to eat their own?


5 posted on 01/08/2016 8:27:04 AM PST by mfish13 (Elections have Consequences.)
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To: Kaslin

Jonah barely knows what he’s talking about. Sheehan jumped the shark when she started blogging that Katrina deaths were pushing her out of the headlines. From thereon, she was on her way out as a force for liberal “good.”

And there’s a hell of a lot more to Benghazi than ignoring it because of Obama’s election. I’m not even sure if it wasn’t a murder of our ambassador by the administration. Certainly it was a murder through indifference and incompetence.


6 posted on 01/08/2016 8:31:15 AM PST by miss marmelstein (Richard then Third: I like to destroy the Turks (Moslims))
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To: skeeter
Woods, a retired lawyer and administrative judge, wrote in his journal at the time: "I gave Hillary a hug and shook her hand. And she said we are going to have the film maker arrested who was responsible for the death of my son."

I'm thankful Jonah Goldberg is staying on this... he's not going to let the MSM get away with this one.

7 posted on 01/08/2016 8:32:44 AM PST by GOPJ (Hillary's a broccoli politician - Donald Trump's an all-you-can-eat donut truck. Glenn Thrush)
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To: Kaslin
In two interviews — one with ABC's George Stephanopoulos and another with Daily Sun columnist Tom McLaughlin — Clinton has said Woods (and Patricia Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, also killed in the Benghazi attack) is lying. <<

How come this hasn't gone viral..or better yet...used in a Trump or Cruz political ad.....kill 2 birds with 1 stone....Hillary AND the MSM...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSooz2wXpes

8 posted on 01/08/2016 8:50:03 AM PST by M-cubed
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To: Kaslin

The key to getting that kind of media attention is being a publicity whore. Sheehan got it because she wanted it, Woods apparently does not.


9 posted on 01/08/2016 8:53:17 AM PST by discostu (Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right B, A, Start)
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To: Kaslin

The media knows very well that its primary job it to protect obama.


10 posted on 01/08/2016 9:26:11 AM PST by I want the USA back (The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. Orwell.)
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To: Kaslin
 photo O.jpg

 photo sheehan-sharpton-shits-2.jpg

11 posted on 01/08/2016 9:59:09 AM PST by digger48
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To: Kaslin

Hillary lied to me and the American people. She and the man occupying our Oval Office watched my son die.

WATCH .... 13 Hours The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (coming to movie theatres January 15)

12 posted on 01/08/2016 10:35:26 AM PST by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: Servant of the Cross

BTTT


13 posted on 01/08/2016 11:36:00 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: rdcbn
No he did not eliminate al Qaeda and renamed it ISIS, al Qaeda still exist.

However he is the


14 posted on 01/08/2016 11:47:42 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: mfish13

Not in a thousand years. Especially the Washington Compost


15 posted on 01/08/2016 11:51:46 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Kaslin
Fine point

Obama created ISIS by renaming the defeated al Qaeda Jihadi our military had just run out of Iraq as “moderate anti Assad rebels” so they would qualify for training in unconventional warfare and overthrowing governments and be given weapons by Special Forces advisors and contractors so they could become ISIS .

Al Qaeda still exists but it's recruits have moved over to the ISIS side of the Jihadi Big Tent to do the serious heavy lifting of the Jihad

16 posted on 01/08/2016 11:55:35 AM PST by rdcbn ("If what has happened here is not treason, it is its first cousin." Zell Miller)
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To: Kaslin
Washington Post's Fact Checker, Glenn Kessler, took up the issue and essentially washed his hands of the whole affair, saying he couldn't determine who was telling the truth.

How hard is that?! One is a proven bold face liar and the other is the father of a Navy Seal who has no reason to lie?!

And we can settle it for good if Hillary has the guts....

"Charles Woods Challenges Hillary To Lie Detector Test ..."

17 posted on 01/08/2016 12:03:00 PM PST by kcvl
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To: M-cubed
Good video. Sad video. Necessary. Thank You.
18 posted on 01/08/2016 2:18:27 PM PST by YankeeinOkieville (Obamanation [oh-bom-uh-nay-shuhn] n. -- ignorance and arrogance in the highest offices)
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To: Kaslin
Woods has gotten some attention, mostly from Fox News and talk radio. More recently, the Washington Post's Fact Checker, Glenn Kessler, took up the issue and essentially washed his hands of the whole affair, saying he couldn't determine who was telling the truth.

Really? Is Woods' son dead or not? Was the order given to stand down?

19 posted on 01/08/2016 3:22:21 PM PST by hattend (Firearms and ammunition...the only growing industries under the Obama regime.)
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To: annieokie; penelopesire; maggief; Protect the Bill of Rights; thouworm; SE Mom; Nachum; onyx; ...

Benghazi ping.

Let Republicanprofessor know if you want on or off this ping list.


20 posted on 01/09/2016 7:59:44 AM PST by Republicanprofessor
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