Who Is Giving White House Orders to CBS News on Benghazi?

Who Is Giving White House Orders to CBS News on Benghazi?

With reports suggesting that CBS News brass is unhappy with reporter Sheryl Attkisson for her focus on the White House’s actions surrounding the Benghazi attacks of September 11, 2012, new questions are being raised about the relationship between CBS News and the Obama administration. According to the Washington Post:

[Attkisson] says she has received “a tremendous amount of pushback” from the White House as a result of her reporting on Benghazi and Fast and Furious. Among other things, she says, White House officials have called and written her bosses at CBS to complain about her work. She says she doesn’t find that unusual or even disturbing.

Who from the White House is talking to the higher-ups at CBS? There are many candidates, but sources tell Breitbart News that one obvious candidate is Ben Rhodes, deputy national security advisor for communication for Barack Obama. Rhodes has worked for Obama since 2007, and works under National Security Advisor Tom Donilon.

Rhodes’ brother, David Rhodes, is the president of CBS News. He “directs network newsgathering for all CBS News platforms,” according to the CBS News website.

Ben Rhodes has been named as a central player in the revision of the Benghazi talking points that ended with Ambassador Susan Rice going on network television and lying about the nature of the Benghazi attacks by labeling them results of a spontaneous protest about a YouTube video. Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard writes:

CIA officials cut all references to Ansar al Sharia and made minor tweaks. But in a follow-up email at 9:24 p.m., Nuland wrote that the problem remained and that her superiors–she did not say which ones–were unhappy. The changes, she wrote, did not “resolve all my issues or those of my building leadership,” and State Department leadership was contacting National Security Council officials directly. Moments later, according to the House report, “White House officials responded by stating that the State Department’s concerns would have to be taken into account.” One official–Ben Rhodes, The Weekly Standard is told, a top adviser to President Obama on national security and foreign policy–further advised the group that the issues would be resolved in a meeting of top administration officials the following morning at the White House.

The relationship between Ben and David became fodder for comment from Israeli Prime Minister in March 2013, when Netanyahu cracked, “It sounds like a very incestuous relationship.” Obama cracked back, “Not if you watch CBS News.”

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