In the TheBlaze TV documentary "Beltway Nation," the producers of For the Record exposed the deep and troubling ties between the White House and the national media.
For example, two of the three evening network newscasts are overseen by news division presidents who have siblings working as high-ranking officials in the Obama administration.
Now, early glimpses of a new book by former CBS News investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson say the White House was willing to use those connections to fight against stories they want to keep quiet.
From the New York Post's writeup of Attkisson's book, "Stonewalled":
When the White House didn’t like her reporting, it would make clear where the real power lay. A flack would send a blistering e-mail to her boss, David Rhodes, CBS News’ president — and Rhodes’s brother Ben, a top national security advisor to President Obama.The administration, with the full cooperation of the media, has successfully turned “Benghazi” into a word associated with nutters, like “Roswell” or “grassy knoll,” but Attkisson notes that “the truth is that most of the damaging information came from Obama administration insiders. From government documents. From sources who were outraged by their own government’s behavior and what they viewed as a coverup.”
CBS News executives, including David Rhodes, all declined to comment on the allegations to the Post on Monday.
"Beltway Nation" examined other instances of the media seemingly working to hide news that could have been harmful to the Obama administration.
For example, the evening network newscasts dedicated 124 stories to President George W. Bush's falling approval ratings and unpopular policies from January to August 2006. During the same period in 2014, with President Barack Obama's approval ratings and policies receiving similarly dismal numbers, the networks aired just nine stories.
Read more about what we uncovered in "Beltway Nation" and watch it on demand.
