ABC's Jake Tapper's Thursday report on World News stands alone as the only Big Three coverage so far of what The Daily Beast's Eli Lake reported on Wednesday [1] -- that U.S. intelligence officials had "strong indications"
within a day that Islamist terrorists were behind the September 11,
2012 attack on the American consulate in Benghazi -- not a mob enraged at
a controversial Internet video.
By contrast, former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw tried to point the finger [2] at Mitt Romney on Friday's Today
show for the media's apparent lack of curiosity at the inconsistencies
in the Obama administration's narrative about the terrorist attack.
Otherwise, NBC only aired two reports on the story since Wednesday --
twice running the same Ann Curry interview of Libyan President Mohammed
Magarief.
Tapper pointed out during his report that "the
White House first suggested that the Benghazi attack was spontaneous,
the result of that anti-Muslim video inciting mobs throughout the region."
He emphasized the administration's talking point by playing a clip from
September 14, 2012 press briefing, where White House Press Secretary
Jay Carney underlined that "these protests were in reaction to a video that had spread to the region." When the ABC correspondent himself raised Benghazi, Carney continued by claiming that "we have no information to suggest that it was a pre-planned attack."
The correspondent later added that "sources tell ABC News that
intelligence officials on the ground immediately suspected the attack
was not tied to the movie at all....Some administration sources
tell ABC News they were concerned after the White House began pushing
the line that they attack was spontaneous and not the work of
terrorists."
During Curry's interview of Magarief, the Libyan president asserted that the ambush was a "pre-planned act of terrorism." But the former Today show anchor couldn't be bothered to bring up the Obama administration's claim that it was a "a spontaneous - not a pre-meditated - response" to the anti-Islam video, as U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice put it on September 16 - more than five days after the attack.
Meanwhile, CBS has aired two stories about the latest developments in the attack in Benghazi since The Daily Beast broke their story on Wednesday. On Thursday's CBS This Morning,
correspondent Margaret Brennan spotlighted how Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton "gave a speech about Mali, one of Libya's neighbors,
yesterday - two references to al Qaeda in the Maghreb -
and because of that, the New York Times wrote this story, saying she is
linking the two. Senior aides to [the] secretary of state say she absolutely does not have the evidence to assert that link right now."
The following day, anchor Charlie Rose brought on CBS senior
correspondent John Miller, who is also a former deputy director of
national intelligence. Regarding the issue of the Obama administration's
initial claim about the attacks, Miller asserted that "other thing
that's going on, of course, in Washington, is everybody in the political
battle of an election year is saying, you said this on Monday; you said
this on Tuesday; but then, you changed it to this on Wednesday. Why
are you not telling us the truth? And the simple fact is, if you ever
worked with classified intelligence in ongoing, fast-moving events,
that's the way the information evolves." The morning newscast didn't mention what Eli Lake scooped during either segment.
It should be pointed out that during the week following Ambassador
Rice's September 16, 2012 appearances on the Big Three's Sunday morning
talk shows, these networks devoted almost an hour and a half [3]
to the much-ballyhooed "47 percent" hidden camera video footage of Mitt
Romney released by the far-left magazine Mother Jones. Jake Tapper's
report from Thursday's World News is just under two and a half minutes long. The media certainly has its priorities straight.
The full trancript of Jake Tapper's report from ABC's World News on Thursday:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Now, to an explosive headline about the 9/11
attack in Libya that killed four Americans, including America's
ambassador, Chris Stevens. The White House originally described it as a
mob riot. But today, high-ranking officials called it something more
sinister: the work of terrorists - pre-planned, sophisticated,
highly-engineered, and deadly.
ABC's Jake Tapper has the details. Good evening, Jake.
JAKE TAPPER: Good evening, George. That's right, and this 180 comes on
the heels of criticism - much of it from Republicans - that the White
House downplayed this terrorist attack less than two months before the
election.
TAPPER (voice-over): Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta today
acknowledged that the attack that killed four Americans in Benghazi,
Libya on the anniversary of 9/11 was not only carried out by terrorists -
it was premeditated.
LEON PANETTA, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE (from press conference): As we
determined the details of what took place there and how that – that
attack took place – that it became clear that there were terrorists who
had planned that attack.
TAPPER: The White House first suggested that the Benghazi attack was
spontaneous, the result of that anti-Muslim video inciting mobs
throughout the region.
JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY (from September 14, 2012 press
conference): Jake, let's be clear. This – these protests were in
reaction to a video that had spread to the region.
TAPPER: What happened at Benghazi was-
CARNEY: We certainly don't know. We don't know otherwise. You know, we
have no information to suggest that it was a pre-planned attack.
TAPPER: But sources tell ABC News that intelligence officials on the
ground immediately suspected the attack was not tied to the movie at
all. Arousing their suspicion: the fact that the attackers knew where to
get Ambassador Stevens after he'd fled to a so-called safe house half a
mile away. The building was hit with insurgent mortars - suggesting the
terrorists knew what they were doing. Some administration sources tell
ABC News they were concerned after the White House began pushing the
line that they attack was spontaneous and not the work of terrorists.
The White House says assessments have changed over time as intelligence
has been confirmed. President Obama has repeatedly said the
investigation is on to find the killers and bring them to justice.
TAPPER (on-camera): And George, ABC News has confirmed that the FBI,
which has been dispatched to Libya to lead the investigation, has not
even reached Benghazi yet - 16 days after the attack - largely due to
safety concerns. Now, officials worry, by the time the officials from
the FBI get to the site, it will have been picked clean, George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Such a dangerous situation right now. Okay. Jake, thanks very much.