Benghazi is the new circle derp

Obama is right. The Benghazi frenzy is a sideshow. Actually I would call it a freak show stuffed into a clown car, but not going to quibble about it. Certainly, it's painfully obvious why the GOPers are pushing it. With polling already being done showing she would blow anybody on both sides of the fence out of the race in 2016, they fear the Hillary.


[graphic via]

What may not be apparent, at least to those who don't watch the media players closely, is why our "both sides do it" journos suddenly got so interested in pushing such an obviously fake controversy and in fact, taking the GOP's side in blaming the White House. Kevin Drum thinks it boils down to just another fight over syntax.

No, it will be because the small group of reporters who are credentialed to the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room feels aggrieved that the press secretary told them something to their faces that concealed a bit of unseemly bureaucratic squabbling. It doesn't matter if the subject matter itself was important. In this case, it wasn't: the nickel version is that the State Department objected to the CIA adding a sentence making sure everyone knew they had warned about possible attacks beforehand, a statement that was both gratuitous and off subject. But trivial or not, Carney misled the reporters in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room about this, and that makes it personal.

Never underestimate the power of a press corps that suddenly decides the story is personal. It may be a while before they let go of this.

Maybe Kev wasn't on the twitter when it happened. The quibbling over the definition of the word "editing" was just a cover for why they were mad. The real outrage was over Jay having played favorites before the briefing started. He held a background briefing beforehand and only a few of the very important journalists were invited. So Kevin is right, it's personal. Hell hath no fury like a insider journo who's been consigned to the B list.

Meanwhile Greg Sargent wryly notes it feels like the 1990s all over again. Shorter, less polite version: Petty scandal mongering because of perceived slights is not responsible journalism. It's tacky and makes them look a pack of jackals.