Keywords or Terms: FOXNEWS
Special Report; Bret Baier; Credibility; Hatchet Job; Yellow Journalism;
Incoherent pictures and events time line; Americans Heroes; FCC Rule
The Conspiracy theory around the United States Embassy
Attack in Benghazi, Libya, has not been immortalized
yet on FOXNEWS-TV; but Bret Baier’s Special Report on Friday night jeopardizes
any empirical evidence that we may all rely on as the gospel truth regarding
the event(s) of that night. The program, FOXNEWS-TV Special Report fails to
empower any of its viewers to think or access any other position as credible as
to the fact in this case. Worse more, Mr. Baier’s report fell far short of objective
journalism; some would even term the report as yellow journalism. Why are we
taking exceptions to the report?
Without going into the details of FOXNEWS-TV presentations, the
poor quality of Mr. Baier’s story line on the Benghazi, Libya Embassy’s misfortune
and the less than crystal assessment and jumbled together pictures of
destruction regarding what might have happened the night of September 11, 2012,
lead one to believe that Mr. Baier’s Special Report on the event(s) of that
night, is nothing but, a hatchet job designed to insult the intelligence of the
viewers or undermine any credibility that empirical evidence will have after an
exhaustive and complete report on the investigation regarding what led to the
deaths of an American Ambassador and three other heroes of this nation. The
Producer and host of the FOXNEWS-TV Special Report, carried overblown schisms
and trend of events that make the viewer wonder, if FOXNEWS-TV is not in the
business of misinforming the public; which will now or must now be considered,
contravening FCC license on Network Television broadcasts?
.
I imagine that the producer and host of the Baier’s Special
Report were attempting to answer the following questions, among others: Is
there a gap in the Obama’s Administration story line? If there is, where or
what are the gaps? And to the extent that the gap may jeopardize Americans in
the Foreign Service in some other tumultuous areas of the world, what can US
Government do to prevent this type of event from occurring? On the other hand,
if the intention of the broadcast was to dwell on politics or undermine the
current White House Administration; one is left with no other conclusion, that
the FOXNEWS-TV Special Report is not special, but a myopic view of the right
wing ideologues of what they imagine, this current White House is all about.
And for this reason, one must default to completely agree with Barack Obama’s
position in the Second 2012 National Presidential Election Debate, that for
anyone to intone that the current White House was holding something back or
presenting incomplete information regarding the unfortunate event(s) in Benghazi, is complete
nonsense.
Any viewer of Mr. Baier’s Special Report will find the story
line very disturbing; and, the claim that current White House administration
are covering up any gaps in security management of our embassies, rather distasteful
and questionable. First, the conspiracy theory stands only on one leg: that
there is an active effort by the White House to cover up. Is this another
Watergate? Contra-gate? Or what have you-Gate! FOXNEWS-TV’s Conspiracy theorists
remind me so much of Mitt Romney’s Campaign line in the last presidential debate
before he was smacked down or admonished by Barack Obama: White House are you
saying you are washing your hands off any defunding of the foreign embassies
that could have led to the deaths of these four Americans? We all saw what
happened that night; that’s the same thing that viewers give to Mr. Baier’s
Conspiracy right wing propaganda on his “Special” Report; or Special Nonsense!
Second, FOXNEWS-TV’s story line was not only distasteful and
questionable, because it fails to appreciate how painful the nature of those
pictures from their story are for members of the four dead American heroes; but,
also caricatured a very unfortunate event in the history or annals of the US
State Department. The relationship between what the White House knew or what
Susan Rice, the US
Ambassador to the United Nations said three days after the fact on Meet the
Press and other Sunday Network News Show, are purely speculative. What actually
transpired on the ground in Benghazi,
Libya, are
still unfolding as the security agencies attempt to piece together information
and get the real facts of the situation. Except one was an active participant
in this unfortunate event, no one can truly tell you the whole story. Except
you are one of the murderers, who participated on the embassy’s assault and fire,
no one can give a complete story of what led to the attack on the embassy. At
best, what will be crystallized by the security agencies, are estimates of the
actual events and time.
To now broadcast jumbled and incoherent pictures of
dastardly events over half a million miles away from Benghazi, Libya or Washington
DC, after tampering and actual destruction of the crime scene, as the real
truth of the events in the case, is pure yellow journalism; and, irresponsibility
on the part of FOXNEWS-TV. America
and its people deserve better and seek harmony in addressing unfortunate event
like this. Further, to broadcast pictures and statements that clearly are
incoherent; and, un-shrewdly analyze time line events that raise more questions
than answers, or cast aspersions on any of the steps taken by our government to get to the bottom
of this unfortunate disaster, to say the least, is tragic. For
FOXNEWS-TV to insinuate that the current White House knew more than it is
telling the public, is a thesis that inspires hatred for our government; and,
places the government in an unfortunate situation of explaining what it
probably has no complete information. In addition, how about decency and
sensitivity for the feeling of the family members of these heroes regarding deaths
that had barely occurred a month ago? Handling the grief and pain of loosing
one’s loved ones are not as easy as many who have lost loved ones know; raising
doubts in the minds of the family members, that our government could have done
more but out of negligence allowed these patriots to die, is very
unconscionable. Are Mr. Baier’s “Special” Report and FOXNEWS-TV producer(s) of
the program attempting to fledged this story into an overblown crisis? Do they really appreciate the pain their unconscionable
program may have wrought on surviving family members?
Third, the United Sates Congress fund American Embassies
across the globe. If the State Department receives a request for extra funding,
it can only allocate money from what congress has approved as the State
Department’s Budget. If there is a short-fall in money allocated to the State
Department, assuredly, it will impact money disbursed for security at any foreign
embassy. This unfortunate incident is what happens when right wingers force unusual
cuts in agency’s budget. We have the right wing congressional Republicans, who
are all for a small government, who will like to cut government budgets to the
bone and give tax brakes to the rich at the expense of the welfare of the whole
nation. This is what happens when right-wing congressional members attempt to
score political points, championing loosing arguments on waste in government
and how to streamline cuts to the federal budget.
United States Congressional Republicans have a lot to answer
for on this unfortunate event; if we can trace that their excessive budget cut
to the State Department impacted funding of security at the Benghazi, Libya
embassy that resulted in the death of our heroes, they are equally liable. When congress in its infinite
power decides to cut funding to the State Department Budget, especially in the arena
of embassy security, shouldn’t the blame for the possible gaps in funding of
the embassy be a shared one: executive and legislative branch? The shoddy job from
FOXNEWS-TV has potentially dire consequence on our perception of the nation’s
preparedness to counter terrorist attack, aboard and at home. Part of the
confusion from FOXNEWS-TV “Special” report stems from misconception of events
surrounding this disaster, and who to clearly blame for the miss-step, if there
was one that led to the deaths of these foreign affairs officers. Subversive and startling
allegations from FOXNEWS-TV must be scorned, as it is very obvious that Mr. Baier’s
reportage is to pick malice, to create smoke where there is no fire, to
pooh-pooh honest statements made by administration officials because there are
not enough information on the actual events.
Fourth, unless FOXNEWS-TV and their management have other
points to score; or are discountenancing how still fresh and sensitive the disaster
of September 11, 2001, fanning misinformation to increasingly alienate the
people from their government, when another similar event occurs in the life of
our nation, in a land far away from our shores, is subversive and tantamount to
journalistic recklessness. The reductionist approach in Mr. Baier’s “Special”
report, assumes that there is a specific cause for the insurrection that led to
the deaths of four American foreign affairs officers and there can only be one reason
for this: negligence on the path of the current White House. There are others
like me who will like to take an ecological approach and reasoning to why this unfortunate
event might have taken place; a poor taste in filming that derogated a specific
religion, a provoked and prolonged instability in current leadership arrangement
in Libya and a dastardly terrorist attack from our enemies who have scores to
settle with America, and who have chosen a date that always reminds us of the
worse in people, are among the reasons for this unfortunate event. The complex
environment of foreign policy formation and administration is not as easy as
narrowing events to just one particular association; there are always more than
one thing or events that may cascade into other unfortunate events or
calamities that reveal some form of weaknesses in the handling of security at
our embassies. What we must now do is to look inwards and correct our possible failures
in this horrible experience.
Interestingly, Mr. Baier’s Special Report on Friday’s
FOXNEWS-TV stopped too soon for anyone to appreciate how balanced the reportage is;
or how very mischievous the intent to broadcast this hatchet job on a Friday.
In fact, the program was a collection of rehashed second hand information of
what probably occurred or never occurred on the night of September 11, 2012 at
the embassy. If FOXNEWS-TV enjoyed the freedom of miss-informing or insulting
the intelligence of the public, viewers of their program must be wise enough to
call a spade a spade: that special report from Mr. Bret Baier, is a special
trash from a disastrous news outlet bent to create doubts in the minds of the
audience; and, suspicion of their government by Americans. Good Night!
No comments:
Post a Comment