NYT: New Media Drove Obama to Action In Iraq

The New York Times doesn’t come right out and say it was New Media that finally drove Obama to admit he withdrew from Iraq prematurely by ordering airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq. But when the New York Times admits that the specter of Benghazi is what drove Obama to action, that is exactly what the Times is saying:

Looming over that discussion, and the decision to return the United States to a war Mr. Obama had built his political career disparaging, was the specter of an earlier tragedy: the September 2012 attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, and has become a potent symbol of weakness for critics of the president.

If that’s the case, the sole reason Libya is a “potent symbol” of Obama’s weakness is New Media. If it weren’t for New Media pushing and digging into Libya, the mainstream media would have turned Libya into a forgotten asterisk about Mitt Romney’s campaign gaffes.

Because the terror attack in Benghazi, Libya occurred in the heat of Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, rather than focus on the State Department’s massive security failures that allowed Benghazi to happen, or the massive lies Obama told to pretend his administration wasn’t responsible, the media focused for a full 9 days on Obama’s Republican opponent, Mitt Romney.

Romney had the temerity to criticize the State Department over a side issue involving another Islamic attack that same day. But with NBC’s Chuck Todd, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, and BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith leading the charge, it was Romney who was roasted and butchered by the media for more than a week over nothing. This was the media coordinating with the Obama campaign to distract from a bungling, lying American president the media desperately wanted re-elected.

Then, to protect their own cover up as much as Obama’s, even after the election the media refused to look into Benghazi. Instead the media played goalie for the White House — doing everything in its power to tamp the scandal down as “Republican overreach.”

It didn’t work, though. Thanks to New Media’s digging, reporting, and refusing to give up, poll after poll shows Benghazi will forever remain a black mark on Obama and Hillary Clinton’s legacy — as it should.

So if it was Libya that motivated Obama to act in Iraq, it was New Media that motivated Obama to act. Because if the mainstream media had had its way, Benghazi would not have been allowed to get near Obama.

John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC