Category Archives: cable tv
Sharyl Attkisson Resigns
Sharyl Attkisson has resigned from CBS. She had been negotiating with CBS News President David Rhodes since last April for release from her contract.
Sharyl Attkisson Background
Attkisson’s tenacious reporting on the Fast and Furious Scandal won an Edward R. Murrow award in 2012. The Justice Department tried to intimidate her for her efforts. She was also losing airtime for her reporting at the network. It could be her reporting just wasn’t up to CBS standards.
Sharyl Attkisson is now working on a book called “Stonewalled: One Reporter’s Fight for Truth in Obama’s Washington”.
David Rhodes got his start with Fox News. His brother, Ben Rhodes, is a deputy national security advisor in the Obama administration. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Issa and Cummings Committee Chaos
The big story on Fox New Sunday was that IRS kingpin Lois Lerner would waive her 5th amendment rights and testify before Daryl Issa’s House Oversight committee. At least that’s what Issa told Chris Wallace on Sunday. On Wednesday Lerner pled the fifth again.
Issa Cummings Committee Chaos
Angered by Lerner’s continued silence, Issa ruled the the hearing adjourned. He then silenced the leading committee Democrat, Ellijah Cummings, by cutting off his mic. The room erupted in chaos with Cummings shouting “I’m a U.S. Congressman” and fellow Dems chanting “shame”. Let’s go rinkside to Dana Milbank:
Issa told Wallace on Sunday that Lerner’s “attorney indicates now that she will testify” after refusing to do so at a hearing last year. The lawyer denied this, and Lerner did not testify Wednesday — and that would have been the news, if not for Issa’s sound-system antics.
Indeed. Issa keeps stepping on his own punchline. The news might have been about why Lerner doesn’t want to talk about these emails:
“Tea Party Matter very dangerous… Counsel and Judy Kindell need to be in on this one… Cincy should probably NOT have these cases,” Lerner said in a February 2011 email.
“Cincinnati wasn’t publicly ‘thrown under the bus’ (but) instead was hit by a convoy of Mack trucks,” wrote Cindy Thomas, former director of the IRS exempt organizations office in Cincinnati, in a May 10, 2013 email to Lerner.
It looks like the IRS intimidated conservative groups and the Tea Party was relatively quiet in the 2012 election. Was there corruption? So far Republicans haven’t come up with a smidgen of proof.
FCC Plan to Pressure Newsrooms
Last week the Wall Street Journal published a story about an FCC plan to pressure newsrooms to provide the kind of coverage the government wants. That led to the kind of coverage the government didn’t want and the FCC backed off its scheme.
Sochi Spy Swap
There will be no Sochi Spy Swap for Edward Snowden.
Senator Mark Warner wants to deport Justin Bieber to Canada. He could go to jail. Pussy Riot has already been there.
Pussy Rioters served Russian prison time for protesting President Putin’s human rights record. That and desecrating a church. In Bieber’s case it would be for assaulting his limo driver. Or for assaulting his jet pilot with second hand pot smoke.
No Sochi Spy Swap but Snowden Welcome
Putin says Edward Snowden is welcome to attend the Sochi Olympics. Pussy Riot, not so much.
I meant to include a shirtless Putin but ran out of room.
Smidgen of Corruption
Usually when a politician is asked about a particular scandal he stonewalls and says he’d love to set the record straight but he just can’t because an investigation is ongoing. In a refreshing change of pace President Obama told Bill O’Reilly there’s “not a smidgen of corruption” at the IRS.
George Will has said the IRS scandal should be treated like Watergate.
Lois Lerner was the head of the IRS division that grants tax exemptions to non profit groups. During a speech to the American Bar Association she arranged for a planted question so that she could account for increased scrutiny the IRS was giving to conservative groups, compared to liberal groups, seeking tax exempt status.
When asked about this by Congress Lerner pleaded the fifth.
Well, Maybe a Smidgen of Corruption
Cleta Mitchell, a respected attorney representing grass roots conservative groups, says the IRS contuse to target them to this day.
