The Koch Brothers' Foray into Media Has Already Been a Success
Despite warning a producer beforehand, Foreign Policy blogger Tom Ricks went on Fox News and called out network for its coverage of the September 11 attacks in Benghazi. The controversy was "hyped — by this network especially," Ricks said, before being booted off the air. And that was him being nice. The Fox anchor, who suggested there might be a "White House coverup" of some sort, asked Ricks whether the deaths of four Americans was really hype. Ricks responded with a little quiz.
Ricks: How many security contractors died in Iraq do you know?
Anchor: I don't.
Ricks: No, nobody does, because nobody cared.
We know that several hundred died but there was never an official count done. SO when i see this focus on what was aessentially a small firefight -- one, I've covered firefights a lot of firefights -- it's impossible to figure out what happened in them sometimes.
And second, I think that the empahsis on Benghazi has been extremely political, partly because Fox was operating as a wing of the Republican Party.
And at that, the anchor promptly ended the interview — despite what Politico's Mackenzie Weinger reports as fair warning by Ricks to a Fox producer before going on-air.
Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments
or send an email to the author at
ereeve at theatlantic dot com.
You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Elspeth Reeve
| More by Elspeth Reeve | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Have a story we missed? A link we have to click? A sharp opinion about the news? Instead of waiting for us to post it, tell us on the Open Wire.
Submit your news and ideas | See all reader posts
User Comments
Please type your comment and click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be prompted to log in or register