Media Buries Lawsuit Against Holder

by Mary Chastain 14 Aug 2012

 

 Yesterday the Oversight Committee filed a civil contempt lawsuit against Attorney General Eric Holder to force him to turn over documents pertaining to Operation Fast & Furious. Yet the Old Media still ignores Fast & Furious despite the fact that 53% Americans approve of the contempt charge and 69% want President Obama to release the documents. Representative Joe Walsh told Breitbart News Mr. Holder was able to succeed in stonewalling Congress because of a compliant media. It’s very frustrating for the committee.

Arizona Representatives Ben Quayle and Paul Gosar also said it’s one of the top issues for their constituents. Mr. Quayle said Mr. Holder’s handling of Fast & Furious is brought up every time he holds a townhall.

The Associated Press wrote up a story and, as they usually do with stories about Fast & Furious, the rest of the outlets reprinted it.

The New York Times didn’t even reprint the entire article. Instead they printed ONE paragraph. Also, the reader has to physically search for it unless they type in “Eric Holder” in the search engine, it wouldn't be found. 

The Washington Post reprinted the AP article, but they made it easy to find by putting it on the front page of their website. This is sad because after the contempt vote in June they were getting better at their coverage.

FOX News had it as their top story on the webpage. CNN did have a decent article on Fast & Furious, but they buried it. The NBC News website had an article that was found only through my Google alerts email. In the article they quoted Nancy Pelosi and DOJ spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler. They paraphrase Speaker John Boehner’s statement, but there are no quotes from Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa or any other member of the committee. It’s a shame they relied on Mrs. Pelosi because I destroyed her statement when it came out.

USA Today had a semi-original piece that also paraphrased Speaker Boehner, but also quoted Minority Whip Steny Hoyer. Again, they didn’t bother to quote Chairman Issa or other members of the committee. I also had to come across this article through Google alerts.

This shouldn't come as a surprise, but when it involves a story that is very important no reader should have to search for a story or rely on Google alerts. These outlets should have someone covering this story all the time. They should all write an original copy.

No wonder they're slowly dying out.

Big Journalism