Thursday, June 27, 2013

Will any Republican Senator or Fox News admit they are wrong on Benghazi?

According to The Associated Press, Gibson told a Republican-led congressional committee on June 26 that he was never ordered to "stand down."

You would think that sometime Fox News is going to actually go on the air and admit they are wrong but so far crickets are chirping on the "stand down" narrative.  Does Roger Ailes even have one honest bone in his body?  This Benghazi "Stand Down" narrative would have been the perfect time to say they were wrong but because if affects their narrative against the President, no way will they admit on the air they made a mistake.

One by one the narratives against President Obama are falling apart but Fox News and their lapdog Republicans continue to push narratives not facts as we have seen on Benghazi.  It is like they are hoping if they keep slinging mud it will stick and facts be damned.  It is beyond my comprehension that  a group of US Republican Senators will use Fox News as their source when time and time again Fox News has been proven wrong.  Shows that Republicans are following a narrative themselves today versus facts.

Hard for me to believe all these months later Benghazi is still a topic and the Republicans like Senator Lindsey Graham still wants a special investigator to look into the matter.  What a waste of tax dollars by the GOP as they try to pin another phony scandal with no basis in fact on the President.  You would think they would have learned but no the hard right keeps trying hoping something negative will stick to this President.

Wonder if the hard right will believe the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs that there was no 'stand down' order issued.  Probably not.  Media Matters has the facts on their blog today:
No Benghazi "Stand Down" Order Was Given: Another Fox Narrative Falls Apart  
Narrative Was Pushed In 85 Fox Primetime Segments 
Blog ››› 7 hours and 17 minutes ago ››› ZACHARY PLEAT
A claim pushed dozens of times by Fox News that security forces were ordered to "stand down" during the September 11, 2012 Benghazi attacks on a U.S. diplomatic facility collapsed after the commander of those security forces testified that he received no such order. 
More than a month after the attacks in Benghazi killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, Fox began airing accusations that security forces present in Libya at the time were ordered to "stand down" by the Obama administration. Fox's confused coverage over the months claimed that both a reaction force that was dispatched to Benghazi and suffered two casualties while trying to defend the facility, and a group of four special forces troops in Tripoli received "stand down" orders. This accusation was given new fuel after former Deputy Chief of Mission Gregory Hicks May 8 remarks made before a congressional committee appeared to confirm claims that Lt. Col. Gibson, who commanded a small team of special forces troops in Tripoli, was ordered to "stand down." Fox baselessly speculated that either President Obama or then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta gave the alleged order. 
A search of the Nexis database shows that the accusation that these security forces were ordered to "stand down" was made in 85 segments on the network's primetime shows by Fox hosts, contributors, guests, and in video accompanying news reports and commentary.
But now even Republicans are admitting that a "stand down" order was never given. According to The Associated Press, Gibson told a Republican-led congressional committee on June 26 that he was never ordered to "stand down."
The former commander of a four-member Army Special Forces unit in Tripoli, Libya, denied Wednesday that he was told to stand down during last year's deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi. 
In a closed-door session with the House Armed Services Committee, Lt. Col. S.E. Gibson said his commanders told him to remain in the capital of Tripoli to defend Americans in the event of additional attacks and to help survivors being evacuated from Benghazi. 
"Contrary to news reports, Gibson was not ordered to 'stand down' by higher command authorities in response to his understandable desire to lead a group of three other special forces soldiers to Benghazi," the Republican-led committee said in a summary of its classified briefing with military officials, including Gibson.
This is not the first time the Fox "stand down" narrative has been discredited. The day before Hicks' May 8 testimony, a Pentagon spokesman stated that there "was never any kind of stand down order to anybody." After Hicks' testimony, a Pentagon spokesman further explained that the security forces in Tripoli "were told to stay" in Tripoli to help with the security there. On June 12, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reaffirmed this point, telling Congress:
GEN. DEMPSEY: They weren't told to stand down. A stand down means don't do anything. They were told to -- that the mission they were asked to perform was not in Benghazi but was at Tripoli Airport.
(Click Here to see video from June 26, Fox's Special Report with Bret Baier reporting on Lt. Col. Gibson's testimony debunking the "stand down" order myth, but never mentioned that the claim was made repeatedly by the network.) 
Other Fox narratives criticizing the Obama administration over Benghazi have collapsed. 
Fox repeatedly engaged in ridiculous transcript trutherism to deny the fact that the president called the Benghazi attacks "an act of terror" the day after they occurred. The network also repeatedly accused former U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice of lying to the public when she said, based on unclassified talking points drafted and edited by the intelligence community, that the attack had in part been inspired by a Cairo protest over an anti-Islam video. But a release of nearly 100 emails between government agencies about the talking points showed that the intelligence community from the start thought that the video played a part in the attacks.
Read more at Media Matters about Fox News pushing the "stand down" theory.  The comments to this story are priceless.  More American people are waking up to the fact that Fox News cannot be trusted to tell the truth as they push any narrative they think will hurt President Obama.  Fair and Balanced?  That went out the window years ago if they ever were fair and balanced.

The fact that President Obama named Ambassador Susan Rice to be his National Security Advisor which requires no confirmation hearing from the Senate still makes me smile.  It was like in your face to GOP Senators who had been using baseless attacks Rice and her credibility.

Will never forget the President's remarks to Romney on Benghazi at the debate -- "Proceed Governor, proceed" which was my favorite part of all the debates.  Romney took the bait and Obama reeled him in resulting in pretty much of a landslide victory for the President.

The attacks on Rice by a group of Senators led by McCain, Graham and Inhofe showed a lack of judgement on their part as they like so many other Republican officials seem to be relying on Fox News for their information.  Inhofe also relies on World Net Daily which would be one of the last places I would go to get my news.

Will any Republican Senator or Fox News admit they are wrong on Benghazi?  My bet is on "NO!"



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