SCANDAL VS. SCANDAL: A Media Retrospective #Benghazi

Compare and contrast:

The Pet Goat vs. Going to Sleep During an Attack

Remember The Pet Goat? That was the book that President George W. Bush read for seven (7) minutes to an elementary school class after he received word of the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Bush was pilloried mercilessly for his "inaction", even though the Secret Service is reported to have requested the delay to enhance the president's security for the trip to the airport.

How does that compare to Benghazi? Eight months after the slaughter of Americans, we still don't know what the president did after a 5pm ET meeting with SECDEF Panetta. No one knows, but many have surmised he watched sports and then went to sleep to prepare for a fundraiser the next day.

Cindy Sheehan vs. Pat Smith
The mother of a fallen soldier during the Iraq War, Cindy Sheehan became a poster child for the Democrat-media complex. No less a vintage media star than Maureen Dowd stated unequivocally that "the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute".

As for the mother of murdered diplomatic official Sean Smith, Dowd is less vocal. Silent, even. Pat Smith has struggled to make her voice heard because, though apolitical, her message is one of pain, grief and anger. "They want to shut me up," she's stated, referring to the Obama administration that has treated her with utter disdain.

Valerie Plame vs. Benghazi
Remember what all of the hullabaloo about Valerie Plame was about?

Neither do I.

The former intelligence officer didn't get shipped to one of the most dangerous locations on earth, she didn't have all of her security stripped from her over her vociferous pleas, she wasn't the victim of an all-out terrorist attack on her office, she wasn't killed during a firefight, her body wasn't dragged through the streets of Benghazi, and her death wasn't the subject of administration lies and a massive cover-up.

No, that was Ambassador Chris Stevens along with the heroes who tried to save his life.

* * * * * * * * *
And a cadre of propagandists in the mold of Julius Streicher claim that Benghazi isn't a scandal. Michael Hersh is one such pathetic hack. Writing in the left wing National Journal, Hersh claims that there was no cover-up at all.

Hersh intentionally omitted referencing yesterday's most damning testimony. After the attack, Clinton consigliere Cheryl Mills demanded that Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission/chargé d’affairs in Libya, avoid answering any questions from the visiting Congressional delegation.

Hicks was asked whether he’d ever been told before not to meet with a congressional delegation; his response: “Never.”

And just who is Cheryl Mills?

Cheryl Mills is no run-of-the-mill State Department apparatchik, even among the top tier. She’s been one of the Clintons’ right-hand men for decades. She worked in Bill’s White House legal office, then as counsel to Hillary’s presidential campaign, then became chief of staff at State when Hillary was appointed secretary. If she’s the right-hand man, what other conclusion is there than that Hillary’s the one who wanted Hicks to keep his mouth shut when meeting with Chaffetz?

And precisely what did President Obama do after he received word of the attacks? No one knows and an incurious media has never bothered to ask that question.

When a local reporter unexpectedly broached the subject with the president, Obama stumbled through an ill-conceived and incoherent answer.

We know, in fact, that the president did nothing. Except watch sports on TV and then go to sleep.

And we also know, despite his sputtering exhortations to the contrary, that "there was never any intention to rescue our people in Libya."

Consider what met the threshold for a scandal then versus now: can there be any doubt that the media, as this country once knew it, is dead?