Thursday, May 16, 2013
In an exclusive interview with The Brody File, CBS Investigative Reporter Sharyl Attkisson says that when it comes to reporting on the Benghazi controversy, she believes that “some in the media were not as curious as I think naturally journalists ought to be.” She goes on to say that, ““The media’s not always consistent in the vigor that they use to pursue a given topic.”
Attkisson has been lauded by conservative groups because she has been one of the few mainstream media reporters to continually investigate the controversy surrounding Benghazi since the beginning.
Attkisson dropped by The Brody File on Tuesday to record the interview. More of her interview can be seen on next week’s Brody File show. Parts of her interview appeared today on The 700 Club.
The video and transcription of her remarks are below.
Mandatory Video, Audio and Print Courtesy: CBN News/The Brody File
CBS Reporter Sharyl Attkisson: (On the media’s role in their coverage of Benghazi:) “The media’s not always consistent in the vigor that they use to pursue a given topic and I never quite understand why the difference because I think that if something is important when one administration in office then an equal thing should be treated equally when another administration is in office and I don’t see that as always the case. I do think the media did not use the opportunity in the weeks and months after Benghazi to be as persistent and as pointed as they should have considering the importance of the issue in my view after independently looking at the facts I just think you can’t walk away and conclude anything other than it is an extremely important story with many unanswered questions and contradictions and I think some in the media were not as curious as I think naturally journalists ought to be.”
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
In an exclusive interview with The Brody File, CBS Investigative Reporter Sharyl Attkisson says that while top executives at CBS have been very supportive of her Benghazi coverage, it’s been hard to get her offerings on television saying, “There hasn’t been an appetite for the stories that I’ve offered on Benghazi.”
Attkisson has been lauded by conservative groups because she has been one of the few mainstream media reporters to continually investigate the controversy surrounding Benghazi since the beginning.
Attkisson dropped by The Brody File yesterday to record the interview. More of her interview can be seen on next week’s Brody File show. Parts of her interview will also appear tomorrow (Thursday) morning nationally on The 700 Club.
The video and transcription of her remarks are below.
Mandatory Video, Audio and Print Courtesy: CBN News/The Brody File
CBS Reporter Sharyl Attkisson: “I’ve received a lot of encouragement from the top executives who I consider Jeff Fager, who is our CEO and David Rhodes who is our president who have certainly never said anything to try and interfere with the coverage. They’ve complimented a lot of my work and strongly supported it. On the other hand, every story that you present as a reporter has to be bought by a broadcast meaning, not purchased for money but you have to get them interested in it so maybe the evening news wants one story, morning news wants a story and there hasn’t been an appetite for the stories that I’ve offered on Benghazi so I’ve published a lot online because there’s unlimited content space and I’ve done a lot of my reporting there. Until recently there hasn’t been as you said much of a market for on the air and that’s for a variety of reasons I can’t speak to. I don’t know all of the decision-making that’s involved except that on a given day there’s a finite amount of time to put stories on and there are plenty of stories happening every day that obviously someone’s judging to be more important or more urgent."
(Later she adds)
“This is not the first or the last story that I’ll be doing that I differ with some of my colleagues as to its importance.”
Monday, May 13, 2013
So let me see if The Brody File understands this correctly: The Senate’s Gang of Eight immigration reform bill is called the, “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act.” Nice title. Now, we noticed that the words “Border Security” come first in the title, thus making us think how actual border security would be the priority. How naïve of us.
During the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week, plenty of Republicans offered amendments to the bill so that border security would be strictly enforced and/or enhanced. The result? Nearly every amendment was voted down. And not surprisingly, Republican gang members Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Jeff Flake voted with the Democrats to kill the additional border security provisions.
The Brody File doesn’t doubt that Flake and Graham believe that border security must be enhanced despite voting against the amendments. But let’s be real. They voted against the amendments because they’re trying to keep their original Gang of Eight immigration bill intact as much as possible. The more changes, the less likely it is to pass, especially with strong bi-partisan numbers.
So this is really about politics. This is about getting a bill passed rather than making the bill stronger.
With the IRS now admitting they targeted conservative groups, maybe President Obama's 2009 remarks joking about getting the IRS to target Arizona State University doesn't seem as funny today.
Back then, ASU wouldn't grant him an honorary degree because of his lack of experience. Obama addressed the controversy by saying, "I really thought this was much ado about nothing, but I do think we all learned an important lesson. I learned never again to pick another team over the (Arizona State) Sun Devils in my NCAA brackets. . . . President [Michael] Crowe and the Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS."
Hillarious (no exclamation point).
Watch below.
Where’s the outrage from The White House and top Democrats on this whole IRS cover-up story? Are they not saying anything because the IRS decided not to target groups with “progressive” in their word portfolio? I guess targeting Tea Party groups doesn’t garner the same outrage.
President Obama says he represents ALL Americans. He is fond of saying that he doesn’t want to pit Red America against Blue America and instead wants to be President of the United States of America. Well, what about now? What happened at the IRS should shake every American (conservative or liberal) to the core. This is NOT what America is about. It’s time for President Obama to put away the teleprompter and speak from his core on this. Some conservatives will say that under these circumstances that is impossible.
Friday, May 10, 2013
Reverend Sammy Rodriguez, one of the key leading conservative evangelical leaders pushing for immigration reform says there very well could be “possible bias” by one of the authors of a Heritage Foundation report that places the cost of immigration reform at a whopping 6.3 trillion dollars.
Here is what Rodriguez told The Brody File when asked why evangelicals would embrace an immigration bill that may end up having a huge price tag like the Heritage Foundation points out.
"As Christians and as Americans, we stand committed to an immigration solution that does not exacerbate the current debt crisis. Quite the contrary. Our objective is to unleash both the productive capacity and additional revenue stream embedded in a community that already contributes to both the spiritual and economic health of our nation. Accordingly and with great due deference to the Heritage Foundation, we believe the methodology engaged in this study can best be deemed as flawed.
In addition, the recent revelations stemming from the dissertation of one of the study authors places in question the guiding optics and possible bias directed towards the immigrant community. Heritage does fine work on many areas. On this matter however, the foundation's conclusion contradicts the findings from an overwhelming amount of studies substantiating the value added benefits of comprehensive immigration reform. Immigrants are some of the hardest working people in America who stand poised to enrich our economy in a significant manner. "
Rodriguez is referring to Jason Richwine, a “senior policy analyst” at Heritage who authored part of the report. When he earned his Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University in 2009, his dissertation was titled, “IQ and Immigration Policy” and concluded that, “The average IQ of immigrants in the United States is substantially lower than that of the white native population, and the difference is likely to persist over several generations.” More
here. Of course the Heritage Foundation says the report isn't bias at all and Richwine's Harvard dissertation has nothing to do with the Heritage report.
Putting aside for the moment of a “possible bias” angle, this whole immigration debate is an interesting one for evangelicals to consider. You have the biblical command for compassion on the one hand and the immorality of huge debt on the other. Evangelicals are going to need to be engaged thoroughly on this issue and work through it as they explore all the facts.
This week on The Brody File we are joined by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who discussed the importance of evangelicals in the immigration debate on Capitol Hill.
Also, CBN News Producer Caitlin Burke reports on the upcoming decision that the Boy Scouts will have to make about whether or not they should allow gay scoutmasters.
Plus, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank joins us in studio with some frank, tough analysis on President Obama.
This is a fact: Evangelicals will be key to whether or not immigration reform passes up on Capitol Hill. There are still plenty of potholes ahead but make no mistake: If evangelical leaders aren't happy with the final bill (read: gay rights amendment), they'll walk away. That's a poison pill.
In the next few months, Americans should have a better idea of whether millions of illegal immigrants will get an eventual pathway to citizenship. But first, there's an 844-page bill to go through.
More below from my report that aired nationally this morning on The 700 Club.
Thursday, May 09, 2013
The Kountze Texas High School Cheerleaders are victorious. Now that a judge ruled in their favor, they can continue to display Bible verses on the football team's run-through banners. Watch our exclusive Skype interview with some of them very early this morning. The Brody File traveled to Kountze, TX back in January to cover their story.
Some of the Texas Cheerleaders comments:
"I knew that God was going to work it out."
"If you believe in something then you should stand firmly and don't back down just because someone says you can't do it."
Wednesday, May 08, 2013
President Obama’s own words:
“This is the most transparent administration in history.”
Surely he’s not referring to the following:
Benghazi?
Healthcare hearings on C-SPAN?
Czars?
Drone Strikes Policy
Freedom of Information Act Requests?
Lack of detailed and public White House visitor log
Fast and Furious
To quote Newt Gingrich:
“This is an administration where you better look at what they do not at what they say because there’s no relationship between the two…I’m just saying the gap between what he says and what he does is about as big as I’ve seen in my lifetime with an American politician.”