The White House national security adviser that deceptively edited the Obama administration’s Benghazi talking points became the only Washington-based political professional to make the 2014 Fortune magazine “40 Under 40” list, released Thursday.
Ben Rhodes, younger brother of CBS News president David Rhodes and former creative writer with a Master’s degree in fiction from NYU, ranked #13 on the list. Rhodes’ honorary blurb reveals that he wrote an unfinished novel called “Oasis of Love” before he began working for then-Sen. Obama as a speechwriter. Rhodes said in the blurb that he wants to be a nonfiction writer after he leaves the White House.
Rhodes, 36, edited the administration’s Benghazi talking points after the deadly 2012 al-Qaida terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya to focus Obama officials’ public statements on a YouTube video called “Innocence of Muslims,” which the administration claimed was responsible for provoking spontaneous violence against the consulate. (RELATED: The Ben Rhodes Story).
CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson endured censorship and an acrimonious split from the network after trying to find the official that edited the talking points — a trail that led reporters to the brother of Attkisson’s boss.