On Thursday, CNN’s Jake Tapper published an explosive story about several dozen CIA agents that were “on the ground” in Benghazi, Libya during the attacks that killed Ambassador Stevens in September 2011. But at the first White House press briefing since the story broke, not one reporter pressed White House Press Secretary Jay Carney to respond to the revelations.
On August 1, Tapper not only revealed that upwards of 35 CIA operatives were present during the attacks, but that as many as seven of them were seriously injured by the same jihadi attackers that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and several other Americans.
But only a few days after CNN’s blockbuster report, during the first press briefing held at the White House since the report aired, not one reporter pressed Press Secretary Jay Carney for more details on the story.
A transcript of the August 5 briefing reveals only one question on Benghazi, and that question only raised it obliquely.
Even Fox News’ Ed Henry did not bring it up. Henry engaged in a Twitter conversation with blogger Ace of Spades appearing as if he did not even know what CNN story was under discussion.
But HotAir posits that maybe no reporter asked about CNN’s amazing scoop because reporters fear having their White House access cut off by pushing the theme.
A recent story by Noah Rothman leads one to believe this claim. Rothman quotes an unnamed source inside the media that said, “I would suggest it’s not an accident that those who have been given a lot of access to the president have generally been AWOL when it comes to stories that might reflect poorly on him.”