The Media Research Center’s campaign of propping up Sharyl Attkisson continues in a Nov. 21 NewsBusters post by Tim Graham, in which he highlights how “former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson told Glenn Beck about the latest document release forced by Judicial Watch, which demonstrates Obama’s Department of Justice was working to squash Attkisson’s reporting on the Obama administration.”
Graham omits the reason why the Obama administration would complain about Attkisson’s reporting: it’s inaccurate. Media Matters notes that the Attkisson report the Obama administration singled out is, in fact, wrong. Nevertheless, Attkisson repeats the false claim in her new book.
Graham also grumbles that the Obama administration allegedly worked with a reporter to criticize Republican Rep. Darrell Issa’s investigation into Fast and Furious: “This is how journalism works. Reporters accept large chunks of information from friendly sources, in this case in writing an article against Issa.” Graham didn’t mention that Attkisson, the object of his adoration, does the same thing — only in this case, her “friendly source” is Issa. Indeed, much of Attkisson’s anti-Obama reporting depends on leaks from Issa’s committee, and she repeatedly praises him in her book.
Graham also notes Attkisson talking about “the attempt to manipulate her work computer” — omitting, of course, that the only solid evidence she has presented so far of this indicates her computer was suffering from a stuck backspace key.
If we were the MRC, we might say that Graham is censoring the facts from his readers.