Originally published June 7 2013
Insiders galore: Presidents of both ABC and CBS news have siblings working in the White House
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) For years the mainstream media has been criticized for what many analysts see as an incestuous relationship with the power brokers in Washington, D.C., and while top media performers roundly reject such notions, it doesn't help their argument to know that at virtually any given time, former media professionals can be found working for various administrations.
That is especially true of the Obama Administration.
Take Jay Carney, the president's spokesman, for example. Before he first took a job as Vice President Biden's aide and then as the official mouthpiece for the White House, Carney was a journalist covering Washington politics in various capacities before eventually rising to the level of Washington Bureau Chief for Time magazine (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49548.html).
As blatant as that is, media-administration ties run deeper, according to political consultant and media commentator Richard Grenell - and the relationship is not healthy, from the standpoint of serving the public.
"CBS News President David Rhodes and ABC News President Ben Sherwood, both of them have siblings that not only work at the White House, that not only work for President Obama, but they work at the NSC (National Security Council) on foreign policy issues directly related to Benghazi," Grenell said during a recent Fox News interview.
'It is time for the media to start asking questions...'
He continued:
I think the media's becoming the story, let's face it. ... Let's call a spade a spade. Let's also show you why CNN did not go very far in covering these hearings because the CNN deputy bureau chief, Virginia Moseley, is married to Hillary Clinton's deputy, Tom Nides. It is time for the media to start asking questions why are they not covering this. It's a family matter for some of them.
"So they don't want to bring embarrassment upon folks who, who they're close to," responded host Jon Scott.
"Who directly are related to this story. Absolutely. They're covering for them. There's no question about it," Grenell replied.
Gee - could these relationships have anything at all to do with the softball coverage of the Obama Administration's myriad of scandals?
NewsBusters.org sheds some light on that question.
Sherwood's sister, Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, is President Obama's special assistant; Virginia Moseley's husband, Tom Nides, is the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources.
Rhodes' brother, Ben, is the Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communication. And incidentally, as ABCNews.com reported May 10 that "Rhodes was a key player in revising the White House's Benghazi talking points last September," NewsBusters.org noted:
In an email dated 9/14/12 at 9:34 p.m. - three days after the attack and two days before Ambassador Rice appeared on the Sunday shows - Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes wrote an email saying the State Department's concerns needed to be addressed.
"We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don't want to undermine the FBI investigation. We thus will work through the talking points tomorrow morning at the Deputies Committee meeting."
After that meeting, which took place Saturday morning at the White House, the CIA drafted the final version of the talking points - deleting all references to al Qaeda and to the security warnings in Benghazi prior to the attack.
In addition, Newsbusters.org reported, top officials at CBS News have been harder on one of their own investigative reporters - Sharyl Attkisson - than the White House, busting her chops for her dogged coverage of Benghazi and warning she was "wading dangerously close to advocacy..."
"If Attkisson gets the boot, it could very well be with a foot attached to the brother of an Obama Administration official directly involved in the cover-up," Newsbusters.org said. "A family matter indeed."
'Time to rethink'
Even some veteran news people see problems with the tight relationships between the American media - who are supposed to be the public's government watchdog - and the power brokers the media is supposed to cover.
Longtime NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw is a vocal critic of the annual White House Correspondents Dinner. In comments following this year's event, which was held in April, Brokaw it was "time to rethink" the occasion since it, in his words, "separates the press from the people that they're supposed to serve, symbolically."
He's right. The relationship between Washington's press and Washington's power elite is far too close - though if the spate of scandals, up to and including revelations that Obama's out-of-control Justice Department tapped 20 Associated Press phone lines, is any indication, the press' infatuation with Obama may soon come to an abrupt halt.
Let's hope so.
Sources for this article include:
http://newsbusters.org
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49548.html
http://abcnews.go.com
http://www.dailymail.co.uk
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