Media Matters Ask You, To Ask, ABC To Correct It's Propaganda On Their Benghazi Emails Story

On May 10, ABC News reported what it characterized as a major "exclusive" on the consulate attacks in Benghazi, Libya.  Claiming to have "obtained" key administration e-mails, the report appeared to illustrate White House and State Department aides editing out references to terrorism in talking points for political reasons.

The story seemed to vindicate conservatives, who for months had been screaming about a cover-up.  But when the e-mails in question were released to the public, they differed substantially from those ABC News "exclusively unearthed" in the scoop.  The truth had come out:  the reporter, ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl, was quoting not the actual e-mails, but rather summaries of the e-mails provided by a Republican source.  Despite repeated on-air claims, ABC News had never "obtained" the e-mails, and the damning "quotes" that triggered the "exclusive" turned out to be misleading.

ABC News is a respected news organization that viewers trust.  Click here to ask them to live up to their reputation and correct their inaccurate reporting.

By representing secondhand summaries from a source as direct transcriptions of the e-mails, Karl and his team broke the rules of journalism and fundamentally misled their audience.  Other networks that had reported on the scoop, including CNN and CBS, rushed to air segments correcting their reports.  The online editors at ABC News even updated the web version of the story and appended an “Editor’s Note” addressing the sourcing issue.

Amazingly, though, ABC News has never addressed or corrected any of the inaccurate reporting on the air.  On the airwaves, the repeated claim that ABC had "exclusively obtained" the administration e-mails and the fundamentally misleading "quotes" from them still stand.  In fact, in two on-air reports covering the release of the administration e-mails that debunked the "exclusive," Jonathan Karl erroneously claimed that those e-mails "confirm" ABC News' original story.  It is not surprising, then, that the false reporting has stuck--according to ABC’s own poll, a majority of Americans now think that the Obama administration is trying to cover up the facts about Benghazi.

ABC News, above all, is a network news outlet.  Its medium is television.  After a major substantive error in a flagship story, ABC owes its millions of viewers the truth. 

Tell ABC News to correct their false Benghazi "exclusive" on the air:  http://action.mediamatters.org/tell_abc_news_correct_false_benghazi_report

Help us hold the media accountable.  Your participation matters.

Cynthia Padera
Campaigns Manager
Media Matters for America

Obama’s gay inclusion at Morehouse

President Obama’s commencement address at Morehouse College in Atlanta certainly has gotten a lot of attention. Quite a few Africans Americans don’t like how he talks to predominantly black audiences. As The Post’s Vanessa Williams reported yesterday, “The personal-responsibility finger-wagging … is getting old” for many. My disagreement with that is well documented. But lost in all the talk about what the president said to the all-male historically black college is how Obama ensured that his finger-wagging message also applied to gay black men.





Now, there was some initial confusion about the reaction to what he said. But if you fast forward to 22:18 on the video of the president’s speech and listen attentively to the audio, you’ll hear something wonderful happen. Obama was extolling the hard work and dedication of one of the graduates who personified his urging to the men to “keep setting an example for what it means to be a man.”

L.A. Mayor’s Race

The epic two-year Los Angeles mayor’s race is finally over—even though in the end, the voters didn’t really seem to care. Wendy Greuel has conceded the race to Eric Garcetti, sources told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, making Garcetti the next mayor of America’s second-largest city. Garcetti will replace incumbent Antonio Villaraigosa, the city’s first Latino mayor. Despite the historic potential of both this year’s candidates—Garcetti will be the first Jewish mayor and Greuel would have been the first woman—officials estimate that three out of four L.A. residents did not vote.

Read it at Los Angeles Times

Stephen Colbert lays waste to ABC's Jonathan Karl for his Benghazi lies

Tonight, I am proud to introduce for the first time on The Colbert Report, the Obama Scandal Booth!  (wild audience cheering and applause)

Welcome to the Obama Scandal Booth, brought to you by Mazda, and the scandalously sleek redesign of the all-new 2014 Mazda Six.  Mazda, it's not your father's Oldsmobile... cuz it's a Mazda.

Now inside this booth are slips of paper, each with the name of a White House scandal — IRS, AP, Benghazi, immortal scorpion soldiers.  Oh, it's coming out.  And just moments from now, ladies and gentlemen, I will enter the booth and, like my colleagues, grasp wildly at any accusation that floats past.  (audience cheering and applause)

Ten seconds!  Jimmy, ten seconds on the clock, please.  (Stephen enters booth)

Jimmy, let's get ready to scandal!

MCCONNELL WON'T BLOCK IMMIGRATION BILL

 : "Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will not try to block immigration reform from reaching the floor, despite complaints from some conservative leaders. McConnell on Tuesday praised the Gang of Eight’s work and said he is 'hopeful' of passing comprehensive immigration reform legislation through the Senate. McConnell indicated he would not block a vote on a motion to proceed to the legislation crafted by four Democrats and four Republicans. 'The status quo is not good; the current situation is not good,' McConnell said about the nation’s immigration system, which his colleagues frequently describe as broken."  Read More  [The Hill]  * WARNING, THE HILL IS FULL OF RIGHT WING THINK TANK EMBEDS  

REID SETS CORDRAY VOTE FOR JULY

 "The likelihood of a knockdown fight over the filibuster this summer increased on Tuesday as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pulled back a vote on the confirmation of Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Cordray is a contentious nominee because 43 Republicans have demanded changes to the structure of the CFPB before they will approve any nominee to run it. That means Republicans can deny Democrats the 60 votes needed to begin debate on a CFPB nominee. President Barack Obama gave Cordray a recess appointment in January 2012, which Republicans have challenged as illegal, citing a recent court case that invalidated other recess appointments. Reid indicated that he would bring Cordray's nomination to a vote in July, and a Senate Democratic aide said that vote will come at a time when Reid is ready to launch into a broader fight over all of Obama's stalled nominees. The 'plan is to wait until immigration is complete before engaging in total all-out nomination fight,' said the aide." 
Read More....

ABC Doubling down on their Right Wing Propaganda

The Blow Email is authored by:  MICHAEL FALCONE ( @michaelpfalcone )  
Americans, in a new ABC News-Washington Post poll out today, sharply reject special scrutiny of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service, suspect an administration cover-up of the Benghazi incident and express substantial distrust of the federal government more generally, ABC News Pollster GARY LANGER notes. Yet the national survey also finds no backlash against Barack Obama, at least at this point. His job approval rating is stable at 51 percent. Moreover, the partisan gap in views of his performance is its smallest since December 2011, and Obama has majority approval among men for the first time since December 2010. Both may reflect the effects of an improving economy: 56 percent of Americans now say the economy is beginning to recover, up by a dramatic 20 percentage points in the past year and a half, to the most since ABC and the Post first asked the question in late 2009. Additionally, 53 percent now say they're optimistic about the economy's prospects in the year ahead - a majority for the first time in four years. See the full ABC News-Washington Post poll: http://abcn.ws/17WKvON BTW these poll numbers show a uptick in Obama's numbers, yet more propaganda from ABC News

Please Contact ABC and tell them enough is enough and retract their propaganda and for Right Wing Think Tank embed Jonathan Karl.
http://abc.go.com/site/contact-us