Bozell & Graham Column: CBS Allows A Real Journalist to Resign

Newsbusters.org ^ | 3-12-2014 | Brent Bozell and Tim Graham

[servo1969]

After months of pressing the CBS News brass to get out of her contract, reporter Sharyl Attkisson was finally granted her request. While that is good for her, it ought to underline how CBS has abandoned hard-hitting reporting in the Obama era.

Politico’s Attkisson headline was “The right loses its hero at CBS,” and liberal blogs tried to guess how long it would take for her to sign up with Fox News Channel. That might happen. Roger Ailes loves scooping up talent from other networks. That’s meant as an insult, of course. Only those dreadful right-wing propagandists challenge Team Obama.

But it’s insulting on a different level altogether. I do not know Ms. Attkisson, but I suspect she’d be insulted to be viewed as any partisan group’s “hero.” She would not have been employed for CBS for more than 20 years if she was a Democrat-wrecking right-winger. She’s merely a “polarizing figure” for failing to do what Dan Rather called “kiss ass, move with the mass.”

Remember this the next time a pompous liberal anchorman like Brian Williams laments that “politics is broken.” Journalism is broken. There is no such thing as journalistic independence. When a veteran reporter stands out like a sore thumb by merely trying to get answers for the American people on how a fiasco like Benghazi happened, she is not the issue. Her network purporting to be in the news business is.

Attkisson had every reason to want out of her contract. According to the Tyndall Report, in 2007,she was the 18th most used reporter in major network nightly news, with 160 minutes on the evening newscast. In 2008, she held steady at 18th, with 145 minutes, and in 2009, she was 19th, with 152 minutes. She hasn’t landed in the top 20 since...Obama scandals bubbled up, and she started covering them.

In 2013, Tyndall found Attkisson was granted only 54 minutes on the “CBS Evening News,” a third of her previous average, and 78th among network news reporters. “She was obviously being sidelined,” says Tyndall.

She is planning a new book for Harper Collins (a Rupert Murdoch company) with the depressing title "Stonewalled: One Reporter's Fight for Truth in Obama's Washington.” The record speaks for itself. This was a woman trying to report news – big, big news – but because it might reflect badly on Mr. Obama, first the journalism was stifled and then the journalist was smeared.

Attkisson’s reports on Benghazi were routinely left for the CBS News website. We found she wasn’t allowed to air a Benghazi report for a five month-plus period between November 23, 2012 and May 8, 2013. After one May story, her next report on the issue didn't come until September 16, 2013 – almost four months later. CBS also ignored Attkisson's scoop at that time on Secretary of State John Kerry's refusal to let the Benghazi survivors testify before Congress.

But the CBS elites needed to address the growing outrage over this news censorship, so they began the whisper campaign against her. When Dylan Byers of Politico reported struggles inside CBS last May over stories on Benghazi, he wrote "CBS News executives see Attkisson wading dangerously close to advocacy on the issue."

It's somehow never "dangerously close to advocacy" when Steve Kroft of that supposed CBS hardball show "60 Minutes" has offered a dozen tongue-bath interviews to the president. It's not a sign of advocacy when CBS hires Oprah Winfrey's best friend Gayle King to host their morning show despite (because of?) her close relationship with the Obamas. King attended a 2009 private inauguration party for their "closest friends and allies." Mrs. Obama just extended her Hawaii vacation into January 2014 in a "girls getaway" with Oprah and her best buddy the CBS "News" employee.

Gayle King coming and Sharyl Attkisson going tell you everything you need to know about the direction of CBS.

[servo1969]

Gayle King - Vacations with Michelle Obama in Hawaii - CBS: Good reporter

Sharyl Attkisson - Spends years trying to get info on Operation Fast and Furious - Has work computer hacked by US Government - 20 year employee of CBS - CBS: get lost

[ConorMacNessa]

"CBS also ignored Attkisson's scoop at that time on Secretary of State John Kerry's refusal to let the Benghazi survivors testify before Congress."

Good on her! That treasonous bastard has betrayed this Nation for over 40 years!

SeeBS has done nothing more than ratify its role as part of the Obama Regime's Propaganda Ministry.

America demands Justice for the Fallen of Benghazi!

EAGLES UP! Once more unto the breach, my friends, once more!

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[ThePatriotsFlag]

Hope she winds up at Fox. Time for Shep Smith to go anyway.

[FreedomPoster]

Bfl

[7thson]

There is no such thing as journalistic independence.

There never was such a beast.

[yldstrk]

CBS has no use for reporters, just readers

[FatherFig1o155]

"There is no such thing as journalistic independence."

Truth is, there never was.

I studied journalism and graduated college with a journalism degree.

From the beginning of what we now call modern journalism, writers, editors, and owners showed and promoted bias. Some to the right, most to the left.

IMO, the false impression of independent, objective journalism gained prominence during the Watergate era, where, surprise, the predominently left-leaning press tried to bring down a right wing administration.

Ever since then, the public (at least those who care) has clamored for the press to offer equal scrutiny against the opposite party.

Won't happen, never will.

Our only saving grace is talk radio, and the one or two other media outlets (Fox, Washington Examiner, Breitbart, etc.) that bring us center to right of center views.

Of course, the right wing journalists' rise is the thing that has the MSM pooing its pants, as conservative America finally has an outlet that carries its point of view.

[skinkinthegrass]

!

[ken5050]

What they should do if give her an investigate slot...let her do her stories..and give her featured segments on Kelly’s show..