At the AIM conference in September, “ObamaNation: A Day of Truth,” we were lucky to hear from Richard Benedetto, as he shared his thoughts on how the media are impacting the election. Benedetto is a retired White House correspondent and columnist for USA Today and Gannett News Service. He reported on local, state, and national government and politics for nearly 40 years and continues to write political commentary for publications such as Politico.
Explaining the current election cycle, Benedetto said, “This campaign has kind of flabbergasted me because I watch how the White House is being covered by the press corps, because it seems to be so well managed by the White House, and the press seems to be just going along with whatever.”
During his speech the topic of Benghazi came up. “You would have thought that the Libyan bombing was Romney’s fault, from the media coverage.” Although Benedetto pointed out that some this coverage was an unforced error by Romney. He explained, “Part of it was Romney’s mistake, and that is his getting out in front of the President. He was a perfect target. Once he got out there, in front of the President, he was fair game.”
One of the fundamental problems at the root of media bias, according to Benedetto, has to do with why journalists decide to enter that line of work. “So who’s attracted to the business? Well, a lot of people who think that journalism is a way to promote a cause. I tell people, ‘If you’ve got a cause, go to work for the cause; don’t go to work in the newspaper business.’”
You can watch the highlights of Richard Benedetto’s speech here:
Watch Richard Benedetto’s full speech below, or watch it with the transcript here:
September 11th US Embassy statement: “The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.”
Sept. 11th: Mitt Romney: “I’m outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi,”; “It’s disgraceful that the Obama Administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.”
September 12th Obama: “There’s a broader lesson to be learned here: Governor Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later, and as president, one of the things I’ve learned is you can’t do that,” Obama said in an interview with CBS News on Wednesday.
CBS sat on Obama Benghazi clip since Sept. 12. Obama: “…there are folks involved in this who were looking to target Americans from the start.”
http://times247.com/articles/cbs-sat-on-clip-of-obama-suggesting-benghazi-was-premeditated#ixzz2ASqArE00