Last I checked, none of the three hosts of Fox & Friends have any personal experience in either foreign service, the military or intelligence. But that didn’t stop them from declaring that they know better than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the reliability of a Facebook post by an Islamic militant group claiming responsibility for attacks on the consulate at Benghazi, Libya last month.
In case you haven’t turned on Fox News any time recently, the entire network has been foaming at the mouth accusing the Obama administration of some kind of nefarious cover up in its response to the attacks on September 11, 2012. Their latest hyperactivity is over a batch of recently unearthed emails showing that the administration knew that a militant group had claimed responsibility in a Facebook post. What’s not mentioned so much is that the same group later denied responsibility.
But who needs to wait for a real investigation when you’ve got former sportscaster Brian Kilmeade on the case? And, of course, an election coming up in less than two weeks.
This morning, Steve Doocy, feigning balance, said in a scornful tone, “Yesterday, Hillary Clinton went out and …said, ‘Posting something on Facebook is not in and of itself evidence.”
Kilmeade interrupted to say, “In this day and age it is!”
"Yeah, absolutely!" Doocy agreed.
Kilmeade added, "And they did it on Twitter, though."
Oh, THAT makes a difference.
Doocy went on to quote another email that said the consulate was under attack by mortar fire. “Mortar fire means terrorists,” Doocy said. He was suggesting that only an organized terrorist attack would include such weaponry. But Special Agent Doocy left out a few facts: As the New York Times reported on September 21, 2012:
The organization and firepower used in the assault has also raised alarm in Washington about the possibility of links to Al Qaeda. But to Libyans, the assault underscored instability in a country where militias keep weapons at the ready.
The Los Angeles Times noted yesterday:
Militias rather than the central government are responsible for security across the country.
In other words, it's not just terrorists who would have weapons.
Even more importantly, Doocy cropped Clinton’s quote to leave out her overall assessment of the situation:
"Posting something on Facebook is not in and of itself evidence. I think it just underscores how fluid the reporting was at the time and continued for some time to be…
The independent accountability review board is already hard at work looking at everything, not cherry picking one story here or one document there, but looking at everything - which I highly recommend as the appropriate approach for something as complex as an attack like this.”
But on Fox News they don’t need no stinkin’ investigation because supposition is as good as facts.
