On Friday night’s broadcast of “On the Record” on the Fox News Channel, host Greta Van Susteren and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin complained about what they said is the media’s kid-glove treatment of the White House.
Van Susteren said Fox News and CBS are the only networks that have appropriately taken the administration to task for its handling of the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya.
Palin then turned the conversation to White House spokesman Jay Carney. (RELATED: Carney evades questions about Libya attack)
“Jay Carney [is] just so obstinate and arrogant in his replies and his exchanges with the media,” Palin said. “If I were a member of the media sitting there being talked to and kind of scolded, as Jay Carney does to them, I would be quite offended, and would it make me want to be an even better reporter and be a better investigator of what the facts truly are with this Libya tragedy.”
Van Susteren pointed out that many reporters are fearful of attacking the White House, because they might lose their insider access to the administration.
“So what if you lose access to Obama?” Palin replied. “You know why people don’t want to lose — I mean, the American people don’t care if a reporter isn’t going to have access to the Obama administration, because what is coming back as a result of having that privilege … is this lack of transparency, is more confusion, is more uncertainty, and it’s lies. So, why in the world would a reporter be concerned about whether they are going to get more of that fed to them, those lies, the uncertainty, the murky answers to questions being asked? I wouldn’t care about having that access when you know what the result is.”
Van Susteren agreed, pointing to instances in the last two months in which the White House has shut out Fox News.
“I’m with you. Look what has happened with this Benghazi investigation — State Department did a conference call, and conveniently left Fox News off when they wanted to brief them the day before the people went to Capitol Hill,” Van Susteren said. “The CIA had a briefing, and guess what news organization was left out: Fox News Channel. Then a memo was released, I think it was by the intelligence DNI, and who didn’t get the memo? Fox News. And what they don’t realize is all these other news organizations will eventually give it [to] us, too.”
“I mean, that’s the irony of it,” she continued. “They are trying to punish Fox because we dare to ask them questions. And all we are asking questions [about] are what are the facts on four murders ,and the more you try to hide it when 71 days drags to 72 days drags to 73 days, and we’re still not getting the answer, it is reasonable to be suspicious [that] you are trying to hide something. So, tell us and that will end it.”
