Former CBS News investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson, who said Sunday that the network did not want to deal with the “headache” of covering Obama controversies, seems happy to be free from the network.
And why not? CBS News is run by the brother of the Obama official Attkisson was pursuing for one of the very stories that earned her “troublemaker” status in the CBS newsroom.
Attkisson also recently said that she was routinely discouraged from pursuing Obama administration scandals like Fast and Furious and Benghazi.
“Benghazi I was assigned to look into about three weeks after the attacks happened by management, and pursued that aggressively, and as I felt we were beginning to scratch beneath the surface on that scandal as well which I think had many legitimate questions yet to be asked and answered. Interest was largely lost in that story as well on the part of the people that are responsible for deciding what goes on the news,” Attkisson told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly last week.
“So did they tell you, look, we don’t want you to spend any more time on this? Was it that direct?” O’Reilly asked.
“No. It’s more as though there is no time in the broadcast,” Attkisson replied.
“They really, really liked the story but you start to hear from, you know, other routes that ‘why don’t you just leave it alone,’ ‘you know, you are kind of a troublemaker because you are still pursuing it.’ It kind of goes from hot to cold in one day, sometimes. Where they are asking you to pursue something heavily and then it’s almost as if a light switch goes off and look at you all of the sudden, ‘Why are you bringing this story?'”
The Daily Caller reported in 2013 on Atkisson’s struggle to reveal the Obama administration official that edited the Benghazi talking points. The editor of the talking points turned out to be Obama’s deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, brother of CBS News president David Rhodes.