Thread: NBC swallows pride and a lot of crow to report on Fast and Furious scandal

NBC swallows pride and a lot of crow to report on Fast and Furious scandal

By Dan Gainor
Published June 13, 2012
FoxNews.com

Big Gulps might be on the way out in New York, but not at 30 Rock, the home of NBC News. There, the big gulp happened last night as network newsies were forced to swallow their pride and report on the deadly “Fast and Furious” scandal as Attorney General Eric Holder testified on Capitol Hill.

This was the first time the network had covered “Fast and Furious” though the scandal dates back more than a year. For a whole year, stubborn, Obama-supporting network news execs probably thought the whole embarrassing episode would disappear. When it finally didn’t, NBC covered it as you might expect – poorly and with spin.

Anchor Brian Williams set up the piece and the GOP at the same time. “In Washington today, Attorney General Eric Holder took heavy fire from Republican critics in a Senate hearing and calls for his resignation are growing louder, but Democrats contend it’s all about politics in an election season.” Viewers could easily note what seemed to be disdain in his voice when Williams mentioned the idea of “resignation,” but then again, he was probably just upset and resigned to doing the story.

Correspondent Kelly O’Donnell then took over, repeating the Williams theme that this was all about a Republican ax to grind. -- And certainly never about an American border agent being killed by guns that Holder did everything but Fed-Ex to Mexican drug lords. -- Williams and O’Donnell mentioned Republicans seven times and Democrats just twice because this was a “long simmering conflict between Republicans and Attorney General Eric Holder.”

Just in case you missed it, it’s just politics to NBC: “Republicans leveled a series of accusations – the latest over national security leaks – that Republicans allege could involve senior Obama administration officials.” “Holder refused Republican demands for an outside special counsel.” “Another controvery? Republicans claim Holder has misled and refused to cooperate with Congress’s investigation of a failed operation that sent US guns into Mexico codenamed ‘Fast and Furious.’”

Bitter much? Maybe NBC is tired of being stomped by competitor CBS News worse than watching a skateboarding competition between Tony Hawk and Williams. Even then, no matter how bad Williams would do, at least he’d have to show up. And that’s something NBC was incapable of managing for more than a year.

Ironically, NBC did have a few mentions of term “fast and furious” during the past year, just none of them actually referred to the scandal. In one, “Today” co-host Ann Curry told viewers that reaction to a Dugar family baby announcement was “fast and furious.”

Perhaps network execs will learn there is fallout from such disdain for an important story by their audience. In the future, when they ignore stories because of their agenda, maybe that reaction will be “fast and furious,” too.

NBC swallows pride and a lot of crow to report on Fast and Furious scandal | Fox News

Holder tells Cornyn in faceoff on gunrunning he won’t quit

It is amazing how the main stream media like NBC has suppressed this story for so long! It is as if a major communications network in America has been compromised by traitors that are on the side of the illegal alien invaders that the Obama administration used our tax money to buy assault rifles for by the thousands!

Treason, invasion, death, destruction, and the propaganda lies that kill on NBC.

W

Anchor Brian Williams set up the piece and the GOP at the same time. “In Washington today, Attorney General Eric Holder took heavy fire from Republican critics in a Senate hearing and calls for his resignation are growing louder, but Democrats contend it’s all about politics in an election season.” Viewers could easily note what seemed to be disdain in his voice when Williams mentioned the idea of “resignation,” but then again, he was probably just upset and resigned to doing the story.

Sounds to me like they are trying to do damage control for the White House and instead of reporting the events, they accuse the Republicans of political persecution. Where of talk about all of the people that died because of the guns and grenades that were walked? In my opinion, NBC has morphed from a news agency to a press club for the White House and this coverage is intended to muddy the waters and create controversy in support of Holder.

I rest my case.


Against Attorney General Eric Holder, GOP Is Fast and Furious

By MATT NEGRIN
June 14, 2012

Eric Holder's testy testimony to Congress this week has underscored just how precarious it is to be the U.S. attorney general.

It's also shown that the White House may stand to be embarrassed simply by the GOP's victimization of President Obama's top law enforcer.

Attorneys general in the modern era have become punching bags. Alberto Gonzales tainted George W. Bush's administration over the firing of U.S. attorneys; before him, John Ashcroft invited a fiery debate over privacy in a time of caution over terrorism; and in the Clinton White House, Janet Reno angered critics with her handling of the Ruby Ridge shooting, the Waco siege and investigating campaign finance violations.

Holder has drawn flack over a variety of issues, most heatedly the controversial "Fast & Furious" program that sent weapons into Mexico and are believed to be connected to crime, including the murder of an American border patrol agent.

At a hearing on Tuesday, John Cornyn, a top Republican in the Senate, told Holder to resign, citing the bungled gun operation and leaks of national security information. Cornyn said Americans need an attorney general "who will uphold the basic standards of political independence and accountability."

"You have proven time and time again, sadly, that you're unwilling to do so," he said. Holder said he wouldn't be resigning, and the White House says Obama is confident in him.

Cornyn is also the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the GOP's political arm in the Senate that works to elect Republicans to the upper chamber. There's little question that Republicans want to use the demonization of Holder as a political issue — the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, said last year that Fast & Furious would be a campaign theme.

Calling for Holder's resignation is something of a rallying cry in the GOP. The candidates seeking the party's nomination in the primary said Holder had to go; the RNC has tried to raise money off of Fast & Furious and later told visitors to its website, "Fire Eric Holder today!"

Darrell Issa, a Republican congressman who has headed efforts to investigate the Obama administration, has accused Holder of covering up information about Fast & Furious and has threatened to slap a contempt of Congress ruling against the AG because the Justice Department hasn't released documents about the operation that were congressionally subpoenaed.

Issa, however, hasn't always favored the release of documents. In 2007, when Gonzales was under scrutiny over the firing of U.S. attorneys, Issa told a local news outlet that the administration shouldn't have released documents related to the case. Issa argued that the attorneys were "at will" employees whose firing didn't need explaining to the public.

Asked to explain the discrepancy, Issa's press secretary, Becca Watkins, said that the Bush administration used executive privilege in Gonzales's case, while Obama hasn't done so. She didn't respond to further requests for an explanation.

"To me this seems much more political and much less substantive than anything that was involved in the concerns over the previous administration," said Bowman, a Democrat.

Nonetheless, Holder has become a more recognizable face not because of his laurels but instead because of Republicans' accusations. To resign because lawmakers from the opposing party ask for it would be remarkable. The other goal that the GOP achieves in its vilifying of Holder is that it gins up supporters in an election season.

"It is deeply undesirable to be having senior senators in one party calling for contempt citations and the like against a department head," Bowman said, "when it's perfectly clear to anybody who's not really partisan that all you have here is mismanagement of a law enforcement operation multiple levels below the attorney general's operational control."
Demonizing Attorney General Eric Holder, GOP Is Fast and Furious - ABC News

The propaganda machine is ginning up.