EXAMINER.COM1 Hour Ago

CBS News tries to rescue Obama

by Anthony Martin

The attempt by CBS News to rescue Barack Obama in the midst of the IRS scandal was most obvious Monday evening. In the midst of a 30 minute news broadcast that focused almost entirely on the tragic tornado disaster near Oklahoma City, Scott Pelley and company managed to squeeze in an interview with an IRS veteran who recently retired from the agency after a long career.

The employee had worked in the Cincinnati division of the IRS, the place where the administration claims the scandal took place among "low level agents."

Had the interview been truly relevant, not only would it have been news but major lead news. But it turns out that the employee did not even work in the office where the illegal activity against conservative and religious groups took place. It was also mentioned in passing that there are 200 employees in the Cincinnati division.

But CBS News attempted to spin the facts to help Obama, implying that it would only be natural that in such a small division of 200 people, a scandal involving one single office within the division would have been common knowledge as if someone had taken a bull horn and broadcast it to the entire workforce.

"The IRS and Obamacare -- citizens brace for impact"

Supervisors, however, have a way of containing information about such scandals, particularly if they themselves are somehow part of it.

We already know that supervisory staff was involved. An IRS supervisor out of the Cincinnati office has already stated to various news organizations that the activity in which those "low level agents" were involved would have to be ordered from the top tier before they would be implemented. Thus, the targeting of conservative and religious groups was not a rogue operation. It was done with the full knowledge and approval of top tier supervisory staff.

But CBS persisted in the tall tale. The employee was asked if there were any talk of targeting groups based upon political persuasion. Naturally she would say no. Such a thing is a felony. And if someone in the division had done it, it would be kept carefully hidden from other employees.

Finally, CBS showed its full hand in attempting to rescue Obama by asking the employee if she ever heard anyone say, "This is being done by the specific request of President Obama." She said no.

What a surprise. If the employee had never heard that some of her cohorts in other offices were engaging in felonies, then she certainly would have never heard that Obama ordered such a thing. In short, the latter question is rendered irrelevant by the answer to the previous question.

Only one reason remains as to why CBS News would engage in this clever attempt to get an IRS employee on the record saying she never heard anyone say, "This is coming from President Obama." CBS wanted to try to rescue Obama, give him an out, provide him with cover, flimsy though it may be.

Nice try, Mr. Pelley, but you and your news organization failed at the basics of Journalism 101. And you forgot the cardinal rule of investigative reporting -- the only thing that matters is to get to the truth, or to get closer to the truth. Your interview did neither.

See also "The IRS and Obamacare -- citizens brace for impact" by Anthony G. Martin.

Notice! Brand New!

A new entry is now available in my Musings After Midnight series titled, "Vindication is Sweet but the Facts are Dire -- A Field Report on Proactive Patriots."

An index of all of my entries in "Musings After Midnight" is available at The Liberty Sphere.

You may also wish to visit my ministry site at Martin Christian Ministries.

CBS News tries to rescue Obama
http://www.examiner.com/article/cbs-news-tries-to-rescue-obama

John Hames