In a battle between Media Matters for America and the mainstream news networks, conservatives might be inclined to laugh and pass the popcorn. That’s what most of us did during the dustup over CBS News’ recent story on Benghazi on 60 Minutes, which Media Matters’ chairman David Brock attacked last week. Today, CBS apologized for relying on a source who turned out to have told contradictory stories elsewhere.
The 60 Minutes story really did not break much new ground. Here at Breitbart, we covered it by noting that CBS may have been trying to undo the fact that it covered up the Benghazi scandal when it mattered most, during the 2012 election. We also noted that the 60 Minutes story failed to mention President Barack Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton–effectively, allowing them to continue to evade accountability.
Moreover, Media Matters has become something of a joke. On October 1, it posted a story entitled: “Right-Wing Media Frantically Spin Obamacare Exchange Success Into Failure.” (Many of the exchanges are still failing, five weeks later.) Journalists took the group’s missives seriously in 2008, but once it became clear that Media Matters was actively trying to silence, not just correct, conservative media, some lost interest.
Still, Media Matters has scored a win with its attack on CBS News–and rightly so. That has not changed the basic facts of the Benghazi story: Obama and Clinton failed to protect U.S. diplomats, then lied to the public about a YouTube video. But it will make journalists more wary of covering the story, and especially of covering Clinton. They will realize no there is no room for error.
Brock doesn’t need to be right all the time. Once will do.