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ABC Admits That They Never Read Benghazi Emails That They Smeared Obama With
After Jake Tapper exposed ABC’s Benghazi email scoop as edited to make Obama look bad, ABC News admitted that they lied to America. They never actually read the original emails.
In their May 10th exclusive, ABC News claimed that they had obtained the Benghazi emails, “ABC News has obtained 12 different versions of the talking points that show they were extensively edited as they evolved from the drafts first written entirely by the CIA to the final version distributed to Congress and to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice before she appeared on five talk shows the Sunday after that attack.”
Later in the same story, ABC’s Jonathan Karl wrote, “White House emails reviewed by ABC News suggest the edits were made with extensive input from the State Department.”
After CNN’s Jake Tapper exposed ABC’s report was based on information that was edited in order to make the Obama administration look bad, ABC tried to explain away their lies by claiming that their inaccurate story, and the actual emails are the same thing, “Assuming the email cited by Jake Tapper is accurate, it is consistent with the summary quoted by Jon Karl.”
In the process of trying to defend himself, Karl exposed his own lies, “This is how I reported the contents of that e-mail, quoting verbatim a source who reviewed the original documents and shared detailed notes.” (In his original story, Karl claimed that ABC News had obtained the emails. This obviously wasn’t true.)
Karl also explained that he and ABC News never reviewed the emails, “The source was not permitted to make copies of the original e-mails. The White House has refused multiple requests – from journalists, including myself, and from Republican leaders in Congress – to release the full e-mail exchanges.”
Jon Karl wrote that nobody could get copies the emails. If this was true, how did Jake Tapper get them?
The truth is that Karl’s source was likely someone within the Republican House, because these emails were made available to the Republicans investigating Benghazi months ago. (Before Karl came to ABC he was a congressional correspondent at CNN, so connect the dots. Plus, it wasn’t a coincidence that this story broke days before House Republicans held another Benghazi hearing.)
However, none of this explains why Karl and ABC News would claim to have obtained and reviewed emails that they never saw or had.
ABC News and Karl lied in their original story. They made claims that were not true in order to hype their exclusive. It was not only misleading of ABC News to present the story in this way, but it was also irresponsible and wrong.
What really happened here was that the so-called liberal media at ABC News lied, and furthered the conspiracy laced agenda of House Republicans.
Tapper’s reporting is a bit of vindication for CNN after John King’s dark skinned Boston bomber has been arrested debacle, but the overall portrait of the mainstream media is discouraging.
The corporate media has proven time and again that they can’t be trusted. For profit news is about getting the story first, not getting it right. They have also shown aren’t beneath lying and smearing a president with a bogus conspiracy if it will make their corporate owners even richer.
Is it any wonder why people are turning them off?
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jess
May. 14th, 2013 at 11:12 pm
Clueless media scumbags before, clueless moronic idiots now.
Jonathan Karl is incapable of shame.
I hope he goes unemployed.
Eykis
May. 18th, 2013 at 8:38 am
I have worked for lawyers for 35 years – there is NOT a single day or a single document that each and every single one of them CHANGE THINGS and EDIT their work before it goes out of the office – I am CERTAIN that happens in any business office where CONSEQUENCES MATTER~
ibwilliamsi
May. 14th, 2013 at 11:36 pm
Remember when Dan Rather was forced to resign for telling an inconvenient truth?
Faux Repubs
May. 15th, 2013 at 2:38 am
Mr. Rather was guesting tonight on Rachel Maddow’s show.
Missed it. Must have been a good one.
djchefron(Moderator)
May. 15th, 2013 at 7:01 am
I saw it and it was not good on Maddows part for inviting Rather on to comment on the IRS “scandal” when he didnt even read the IG report.Rather was saying things like the President needs to be careful and “if”he did that and other things that were not based on the reality of the report.
Maddow dropped the ball and until our so called liberal media keep letting the right set the narrative instead of fighting back with facts then,well you fill in the blank…..
Dodie Ellington
May. 15th, 2013 at 8:35 am
Dan Rather is a disappointment. He seems to have forgotten how the right kicked his butt out of a job. He’s been bashing this President for the longest; fallen down on the wrong side of every issue ever since he began his “statesman” commentary. He’s shameless and his commentary is shameful.
fredaruthproject
May. 15th, 2013 at 10:00 am
There was a time when I watched Rachel’s show in its entirety – not anymore. She gives passes to TOO MANY morally corrupt people. I will continue to watch her show, but on a very selective basis.
slimsman
May. 19th, 2013 at 6:28 pm
I agree.Dan Rather is washed up. He needs to go back to his fishing camp and just keep swimming,because I am sure he is kicking himself now and telling himself “WOW I SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE CAREFUL”
Cha
May. 15th, 2013 at 12:06 am
thanks Jason for clearing that up.
Karl use to work at cnn and Tapper use to work at abc. Ironic that Tapper who’s known to carry gop water was the one to break the “real” emails and show up his buddy Karl.
Kelly Speaks
May. 15th, 2013 at 8:18 am
Actually Tapper is more liberal and a better reporter, which is why he left ABC…
Shiva
May. 15th, 2013 at 12:08 am
They have to find out who in the house did the editing. This could be the biggest scandal since the people paid for dick cheneys beatless heart
Charlie F
May. 15th, 2013 at 1:27 am
I believe all this has to do with ratings. Get the story out before verifying its accuracy. This is modern day news reporting, if you can call it that.
Kelly Speaks
May. 15th, 2013 at 8:17 am
No actually Fox News paired up with Yahoo in 2006 and then Yahoo paired up with ABC in 2011…
phooeyrat
May. 15th, 2013 at 1:33 am
If Lois Lane and Clark Kent the “ace” reporters from the “Daily-Planet” got on this story, we would get too the bottom of this; pronto.
maggie
May. 15th, 2013 at 1:35 am
I will, as of today, never watch ABC again. Goodbye and good riddance and it’s only fair I let you know that I will tirelessly work at convincing my friends to no longer watch your station.
SinghX
May. 15th, 2013 at 7:16 am
I can’t even tell you what is on ABC; I had to think about what channel carries them in my area…they’ve been by-passed by my remote for years. I cannot name one program presented by that station…
Paws
May. 15th, 2013 at 7:03 am
This is NOT journalism!
Good grief.
When are we going to have an investigation into who altered these emails? When is THAT hearing by Congress?
bluerose (Rotuma Island)
May. 15th, 2013 at 7:16 am
and once again MSM has failed us
Kelly Speaks
May. 15th, 2013 at 8:15 am
I can tell you why ABC lied… they joined forces with Yahoo, who is in cahoots with Fox News…
usatoday30.usatoday.com/m...
abcnews.go.com/US/abc-new...
stormskies
May. 15th, 2013 at 9:33 am
So are the Repiglicans now going to investigate ABC News, and especially the person who is responsible for changing the original email ? How about all the fucking breathless pundits intoning all the disgusting judgements of Obama, and Clinton ? How about all of them, except Tapper, looking in their own ego mirrors and saying to themselves: “We are fucked”.
djchefron(Moderator)
May. 15th, 2013 at 10:19 am
The only thing ABC can do right now is to demand Karl’s resignation.Will they do it?Naw,because whats a little boo-boo among friends.
Thats how the village rolls.
Judy
May. 15th, 2013 at 10:30 am
People like Cokie Roberts who went on Morning Joe affirming the importance of Karl’s reporting as evidence against POTUS need to go back on and withdraw those comments. And it needs to be discussed on the George Stephanopolous show as well.
charlie
May. 15th, 2013 at 10:34 am
Jon Karl wrote that nobody could get copies the emails. If this was true, how did Jake Tapper get them?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How do we wind up with alot of our information?
Strategic leaks. And it’s not emails (plural)…it was one in a chain.
Stephen Hayes, the one one originally reported on this, has been calling for the WH to release ALL the emails for some time already. Today, Karl, followed by Tapper (and Chuck Todd) have joined Hayes and have asked the WH to provide the rest of the chain. Since Hayes and Karl are standing by their original reporting, this seems like a reasonable request.
djchefron(Moderator)
May. 15th, 2013 at 10:47 am
ABC last night referred to this statement from Karl.
I asked my original source today to explain the different wording on the Ben Rhodes e-mail, and the fact that the words “State Department” were not included in the e-mail provided to CNN’s Tapper.
This was my source’s response, via e-mail: “WH reply was after a long chain of email about State Dept concerns. So when WH emailer says, take into account all equities, he is talking about the State equities, since that is what the email chain was about.”
In plain English Karl knew he effed up. So how is that standing by his original story.Karl did no reporting all he did was take some piece of paper from a republican hack and reported it like it was news.It was a lie plain and simple.Now I dont know what Karl’s motivations were but I do know it had nothing to do with journalism
charlie
May. 15th, 2013 at 11:47 am
Karl knew he effed up. So how is that standing by his original story.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It sounded to me more like Karl went and double checked with his source. And let me re-phrase my original statement. Karl is saying HIS SOURCE is standing by the fact that the email referenced the State Department. He also noted that the source was not permitted to make copies of the original e-mails.
And FWIW, Karl’s ORIGINAL story described the emails he was referring to as “summaries”. Here’s the paragraph from his report on May 10th (with the link).
“Summaries of White House and State Department emails — some of which were first published by Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard — show that the State Department had extensive input into the editing of the talking points.”
abcnews.go.com/blogs/poli...
charlie
May. 15th, 2013 at 11:49 am
The White House can easily clear all this up.
I hope they do.
djchefron(Moderator)
May. 15th, 2013 at 12:14 pm
They did and of all people CNN gave the smackdown LMBAO
djchefron(Moderator)
May. 15th, 2013 at 11:57 am
NO,NO AND TRIPLE WHAMMY NO.When Karl report came out it was reported as BOMBSHELL he obtained White House materials mediamatters.org/blog/201... Exclusive it said.His report was that the White House was involved in a massive cover up with 12 I say again 12 revisions!!!And now oh never mind they were summaries.I’m sorry but that dog dont hunt so dont try to change the original fact.Karl committed journalistic malpractice plain and simple in his haste to become the next Woodard and Bernstein he got punked and you and the right has been bamboozled again.
Like I said every thing you have brought to our attention that is shocking,scandal,the President lied has been shot down.You need to stop digging because all you have to show for your efforts is fools gold.
charlie
May. 15th, 2013 at 12:20 pm
And now oh never mind they were summaries.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Did you read the original story again? They were described as summaries then and that hasn’t changed. It doesn’t matter what other hyperbole was used by everyone else to describe the content. It doesn’t change the original fact that Karl said from the get-go they were summaries.
Anyway, the WH hopefully will release ALL the emails.
I don’t think it will look good for them if they don’t.
Here’s the tweet from Tapper.
Jake Tapper ✔ @jaketapper
i agree with @jonkarl — the WH should release the full emails. If there’s “no ‘there’ there,” as POTUS said, shouldnt be a problem.
djchefron(Moderator)
May. 15th, 2013 at 12:29 pm
Exclusive: Benghazi Talking Points Underwent 12 Revisions, Scrubbed of Terror Reference
White House emails reviewed by ABC News suggest the edits were made with extensive input from the State Department. The edits included requests from the State Department that references to the Al Qaeda-affiliated group Ansar al-Sharia be deleted as well references to CIA warnings about terrorist threats in Benghazi in the months preceding the attack.
abcnews.go.com/blogs/poli...
That is how they played it.White House emails.When you first brought this up last week thats how you played it White House emails”How can I trust them”You can say summaries and ABC can insert summaries further down their initial report but if the front page blares out WMD’S confirmed but on page 18 it says with some caveats.What is the impression people get.Wait dont answer because we’re still paying for that sloppiness.Like I said not only your dogs dont hunt at this point there is no bark
charlie
May. 15th, 2013 at 12:49 pm
You’re quibbling over the placement of information?
How many times do news agencies bury the lede?
I would sooner say that type of reporting has less integrity than how Karl’s story is laid out.
Hopefully we’ll know more details soon and then the matter can be settled.
djchefron(Moderator)
May. 15th, 2013 at 12:56 pm
Quibbling HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH I cant breathe again. Act of Terror He didnt say terrorism HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
charlie
May. 15th, 2013 at 2:55 pm
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh good grief. We’re all entitled to be wrong, but you’re starting to abuse the privilege… (she said courteously).
Not a valid comparison (once again).
One instance of “quibbling” concerns itself with whether or not the administration was being less than truthful while the other instance worries about if a particular descriptor in a report was in the first or fifth paragraph.
Want to try again?
djchefron(Moderator)
May. 15th, 2013 at 3:44 pm
What???Let me see if I got this straight. Because the President said act of terror instead of terrorism he was being less than truthful?Excuse me for one second ny eyes just rolled out their sockets.OK where was I, but because although the lead would have one believe that ABC had the White house emails but further down 4 paragraphs they mention summaries?
Ok I just lost it.I am the stupidest person that ever walked the Earth explain the difference no I want to remain stupid just indulge me in this.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ACT OF TERROR AND TERRORISM?
charlie
May. 15th, 2013 at 11:19 pm
Been real busy.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ACT OF TERROR AND TERRORISM?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WaPo explains it and gives Obama four Pinocchios for his attempt at revisionist history.
www.washingtonpost.com/bl...
djchefron(Moderator)
May. 15th, 2013 at 11:27 pm
Well you may think WAPO is the final word but kessler is full of shit as noted by various comments in the article or you can go here Please, O great WaPo “fact-checker,” explain at us why we are supposed to give a deep-fried fuck that Obama omitted -ism from his terror:
Some readers may object to this continuing focus on words, but presidential aides spend a lot of time on words. Words have consequences. Is there a difference between “act of terror” and “act of terrorism”?
Well, we didn’t think so, but Kessler is going to spew a ton of words as us to say that it is because — and no, we are not making this up, we swear!:
Perhaps Obama, in his mind, thought this then was really “an act of war,” not a traditional terrorist attack, but he had not wanted to say that publicly.
Do you get it now? Obama must have lied because Kessler can see into his BRAAAINZ, and when the president said that thing that Kessler says he did not say, he really wanted to say something else but he didn’t, except that he did, so LIAR!!!!
Read more at wonkette.com/516255/lying...
But you wanted the truth and not some mind reading bullshit by a paper that employs the queen of hackery jen rubin Go here
www.politicususa.com/hour...
charlie
May. 16th, 2013 at 12:13 am
Well you may think WAPO is the final word
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No,I don’t give anyone the final word.
It’s been quite obvious for quite some time that Obama has been playing word games with the American people…and I don’t need WaPo or anyone else to point that out.
Gotta catch up on some e-mails.
Betty in LA
May. 15th, 2013 at 1:04 pm
Whenever a story has words like “suggests”, “might indicate”, “It’s possible that” my BS meter goes off. They can fairly say that the emails are consistent with their sentence, since their sentence said nothing definitive in the first place. The emails also suggested that Obama worships Cluthu, for all we know.
Mr. P
May. 15th, 2013 at 1:23 pm
Jake Tapper is a terrific reporter. His book, “The Outpost,” is the best book written about the Afghan war.
Danny Adams
May. 15th, 2013 at 2:31 pm
I see the “liberal media” is still hard at work shilling for Obama.
Evelyn
May. 15th, 2013 at 11:52 pm
The Terror-Terrorism argument is lame…the words mean the same thing…anyone who sticks with the story that the President covered up info is either stupid or just too biased to even think themselves. The truth is coming out and no matter “how much thou protest” it does not change the facts that people changed information, others didn’t do their job and check facts and the crazy and biased individuals used it to go after the President. Why can’t Congress get wound up like these idiots and get their jobs done?….all this energy trying to do anything to smear the President’s name with hate and anger could be better served if they would do the jobs they were elected to do…..hang on to your money because next is the “Overtime issue” to make them look crazier! Can you imagine what the history books will say about this…maybe it will show the fall of the current Republican Party and the rise of a more modern, progressive and for the people party. One can HOPE!
sherriww
May. 16th, 2013 at 9:03 am
Well,they released the emails,and wasn’t much of a “coverup”,since the emails show that ABC Lied about it and did not actually SEE the emails before telling all that story.They took some Hacks”word for it”,and reported it as fact that They Themselves had seen! No doubt,since CONGRESS KNEW and read those emails themselves,Long ago(all except the head guy,Boehner,who didn’t bother to show up that day!),no doubt it was one of our”esteemed”congress members who TOLD ABC that Lie to begin with,like,you know,”Cruz”,Ryan,Rubio,or several others”,who,of course have much to gain from lies about a Democratic President,and Hillary Clinton,who they might have to face in the 2016 election.WHEN are these guys going to be MADE to get to work on JOBS,EDUCATION,ROADS&bridges,the things we PAY them to do!??
Shiva
May. 16th, 2013 at 9:06 am
And you can bet that “Hack” was probably from the GOP
beancounterz
May. 17th, 2013 at 10:38 pm
Its time that ABC fire all the reporters involved in this story. It appears that ABC News is now being run by FOX and the GOP. They think they can just make up things and call them news.
allergictosmoke
May. 19th, 2013 at 8:32 am
Those that be always throw out these smoke screens to divert attention away from what is really going on like stealing from the poor and giving to the rich and we all fall for it like wolves to a slab of raw meat. yes they took away grants, and money for college, from out medicare, and on and on while ever one of use have our teeth (or what is left of them since we can’t get dental care) sunk into the slab of meat