Former '60 Minutes' Producer: Discredited Benghazi Story Was Done To Appeal To Conservatives

[applegrove]

Former '60 Minutes' Producer: Discredited Benghazi Story Was Done To Appeal To Conservatives

by Igor Bobic at TPM

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/former-60-minutes-producer-discredited-benghazi-story-was-done-to-appeal-to-conservatives

"SNIP...............................



A former "60 Minutes" producer who was fired over a 2004 story about then-President George W. Bush's service in the Air National Guard said Friday that CBS' now retracted story detailing the attack in Benghazi, Libya was done to appeal to conservatives.

"My concern is that the story was done very pointedly to appeal to a more conservative audience's beliefs about what happened at Benghazi," Mary Mapes told Media Matters. "They appear to have done that story to appeal specifically to a politically conservative audience that is obsessed with Benghazi and believes that Benghazi was much more than a tragedy."

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather, who is also widely believed to have left the network as a result of the 2004 flap, declined to comment on the discredited Benghazi story when reached by TPM through a spokesperson on Friday.

The chairman of CBS News and executive producer of "60 Minutes" on Friday apologized for airing the story, telling Variety that the network would now "own it."



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[Berlum]

1. Corporate Media Borg, Inc (R) disgracing itself again

The Corporate Media Borg, Inc. (R) is at war with the truth, and Americans, in order to maintain the Borg at maximum profit.

[surrealAmerican]

2. I don't doubt that it was, but ...

... she's guessing about this. An educated guess is not exactly insider information.

[applegrove]

4. You are right. I considered not posting this when I saw that. But

we are naïve if we think the GOP bully machine doesn't have its tentacles everywhere.

[dlwickham]

26. +1

[City Lights]

3. Dear CBS: You DISGUST me!

Shame, shame, shame, on you.

What credibility you had as a news organization is GONE!

Making up stories to fit your viewers perception is grotesque. Leave that shit to FUX NOOZE!

Ugh!

[TheBlackAdder]

5. No, they're trying to tap into that FOX News cash business model.

It's funny, FOX is going around trying to say you can't trust anyone else but them.
FOX viewers are saying that all of the other networks are in the tank for Obama...

So these other networks go out of their way and try to cater to the FOXbots.

===

I'm sure that some of their audience will be taken away from FOX, as this comes home
to roost. More and more viewers will start shifting away from FOX, hitting at their
bottom line.

===

Meanwhile, these other networks who are catering to the FOXbots lose their credibility
because FOX is not a News netrwork, but an Entertainment Network... that's how they
get away without publishing the truth.

[Phlem]

6. This pisses me off to no end!

Last edited Sat Nov 9, 2013, 04:10 PM - Edit history (1)

If it's false it shouldn't be called news or presented as such.

No wonder we're the country of stupid.



-p

[Ratty]

7. CBS OWNS the book's publisher

Just found that out in another thread.

[Berlum]

27. Bingo ! CBS, Inc. (R) is just trying to maximize profits

and are selling the truth (and the American people) down the river in their perverse attempts to do so.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

8. Why can't they do a report on THAT?

You know, that Conservatives live in a fictional world that has nothing to do with reality.

They are so deluded that they should be studied like a any other test subject and then show how they got that way.

But NO.

There is a myth that "Conservative" is where the money's at as evident in this two time Bush voter who then voted for Palin and then Romney...

[adirondacker]

15. Where's the bidet?

Don't tell me. The garden hose is two steps down.
LMAO!
BTW, Excellent points!

[Blue Owl]

9. Pa. The. Tic.

[Turbineguy]

10. Give it up guys,

face facts. Nobody can lie better while keeping a straight face than the hacks on Fox News.

[applegrove]

11. And 60 minutes is investigative journalism. So in seeking the truth

most of its stories would have a liberal bent. Because the information in their ideal investigations are 1) New 2) true. Both of which denote liberalism. So I can see pressure being put on them to do a conservative story or two that would necessarily be 1) Old 2) Untrue. Which they did with this Benghazi story.

[Jerry442]

30. Clearly you didn't get the memo.

Serving that demographic that wants news stories that are "1) New 2) True" is no longer the business model.

[eppur_se_muova]

12. Well, DUH. nt

[tsuki]

13. Fire Logan. Be consistant. You fired Dan Rather. nt

[navarth]

14. +1. nt

[Dawson Leery]

16. "60 Minutes" belongs on Fox.

[mindwalker_i]

17. Yeah, we don't get good news in this country

Because the reporters have their heads up one political party's ass.

[indepat]

18. Thank you, Mary Mapes, for saying what needed to be said

[sakabatou]

19. *facepalm*

[NRaleighLiberal]

20. This is just horrific - another nail in the coffin - death of the main stream media. NEVER to be

trusted again. Never. About anything.

[NewJeffCT]

21. Why bend over backwards to appeal to conservatives?

They're never going to believe you're not part of the Liberal Media Conspiracy. CNN made the same mistake and now nobody watches them.

Why don't they just try to do good, solid, accurate, fact-based reporting? Or, are facts too liberally biased?

[dreamnightwind]

22. Probably makes it easier to sell ads

I would imagine the RW monitors them and organizes campaigns to pressure advertisers to divest from shows that aren't sufficently conservative. We do the same on our side, unfortunately the RW always has money behind it, which helps for organizing efforts, also RW ideology is a closer fit to the interests of most companies who would consider advertising. Then there's CBS's own corporate interests, and the pre-filtered world view of their management and producers.

How's CNN doing, re their bottom line? I know their news product, never very good, is now terrible, but I bet their advertisers are happy with the network, seems to me CNN has been re-tooled for exactly that purpose.

[Ikonoklast]

25. If your new plan is to cater to a declining demographic, you are soon to fail.

If your audience is Aging Angry White Racist Boomers that are dying off in rather large numbers that are accelerating, where's the upside?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

34. CNN 20 years ago covering the election of Nelson Mandella....

Back then there were hair on fire assholes on the Right but the media didn't give them air time.

[snot]

23. The lack of self-awareness among the media in the US has been stunning.

[Initech]

24. There is no liberal media. There is no liberal media. There is no liberal media.

[adavid]

28. "Benghazi Story Was Done To Appeal To Conservatives"

That statement proves that this CBS "story" is not news. Real news should not "appeal" to anyone.

[wyldwolf]

29. "appease" more than "appeal."

[dionysus]

35. how ya been old timer?

[wyldwolf]

36. working myself to death and raising my girl. You?

[dionysus]

39. working from home. company got bought and they shut down the office...

so my "office" is 500 miles away.

[Kablooie]

31. When you cater to the right you always deal in lies.

The right's talking points are nearly all lies and distortions.
Their viewpoints don't seem to have any substantial basis in reality so they have to make up invented horrors to make their points.

It's weird how they can't make coherent reasonable arguments that they can defend and debate.

They can't even rely on convincing enough voters to support them.
They have to cheat and steal elections in order to win.

Something is clearly wrong with their philosophy when they can't argue it with any kind of reasonable logic.

[mdbl]

42. It's the money

Until we stop paying for this crap it will continue. Every time we fill our cars up with a tank of gas, every time we purchase something sold by these multi-national coroporations, we feed that tank of lies.

[Dopers_Greed]

32. Imagine if a major news channel was caught lying to appeal to liberals

The shitstorm would be huge. The entire staff would probably be fired, and Boner would hold a press conference calling for criminal charges.

[ffr]

44. Yep! Aired days before an election, Damning Democrats. RWNJ red meat.

F U, CBS!

[liam_laddie]

33. Lindsey! Lindsey Graham...where are you?

Oh, there he is...on the floor...sprawled on that darling Persian just pulled out from under him. Serves the pansy right, IMO.

[cntrygrl]

37. Treason???

It's time for those involved in this type of act be punished.

[HoosierCowboy]

38. SeeBS really no different than Faux

Just two corporations making money. In this case by standing behind the First Amendment for protection from their often repeated lies while defacing it from behind.

Before BenGhazi, there was ACORN. Another Reichstag Fire blown way out of proportion for political purposes. No follow up in the news, but with legal ramifications for the dumba$$ that believed we would swallow the story whole.

and before ACORN the MSM mislead us on issues like the Gulf of Tonkin, Iraq and WMDs.

Why would you believe them now?

This is how the Republican Noise Machine generates its material, manufactured out of thin air.

Progressives need to quit getting upset about whats said on MSM because if you are over the age of 30, you should know that the MSM is a complete waste of time. It is in its inevitable death throes which are long overdue.

[blkmusclmachine]

40. They lie.

[davidpdx]

41. The Chairman of CBS Les Mooves is the world's biggest shumck

He's fucked over so many good CBS programs he should be flogged.

[sinkingfeeling]

43. CBS has proven they're no longer in the 'news' business, just entertainment.

[ffr]

45. Was Logan's apology written by Southpark?

Logan's...
http://embed.crooksandliars.com/embed/MjgzMjNdLQ

Southpark's...