No harm done, right?
If anyone out there is still skeptical of the notion that the Fox News heads get together each morning and decide, Mad-Libs style, what the official storyline for the day will be, this will probably test your remaining petty optimism. For the rest of us it's fresh evidence of our new theory that the aforementioned meeting takes place in a Fox News office cocaine-and-pills ball pit, because deciding that the potential prosecution of ex-CIA director David Petraeus for sharing classified secrets with his biographer-turned-mistress is
in reality all part of the cover-up of
Benghazi! is definitely a cocaine-and-pills
sort of theory.
Wingnutty Expert on Everything Andrew Napolitano was all over Fox News Monday and Tuesday to float his expert opinion on why former CIA director David Petraeus is maybe going to face criminal charges for being a Gangster of Love. It’s all just because Barack Obama is out to get David Petraeus, who never did nothin’ wrong, because 1) Obama wanted to short-circuit Petraeus’s bright political career, and/or 2) Petraeus was about to spill the beans on what REALLY happened at Benghazi, [...]
Lest you think this was merely Andrew Napolitano riding the white pony, the person who
really was interested in this theory was
Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy. And if Steve Doocy is your most eager advocate of a theory, you probably
need a new theory.
You know, I've talked to some people down in Washington who know about this story. They feel that it's all about keeping him quiet. Because after Benghazi he said, look, it was based on the video. Then everybody goes c'mon, we know it's not about that—he was about to tell the true story and then he gets a call, hey we know about your girlfriend. It's to keep him quiet.
Ah, but the both of them together were not the only peddlers of the Unified Benghazi Conspiracy Theory. It also catapulted itself firmly into the "straight news reporting" beat, with "chief intelligence correspondent" Catherine Herridge dutifully peddling those wares for Bret Baier's
Special Report. Hat tip to Senators Goofus and Gallant
for the assist.
The attorney general insisted on the Sunday talk shows there was no unnecessary delay, and Eric Holder attempted to tamp down the concerns of Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham that the former CIA Director with firsthand knowledge of the Benghazi terrorist attack was being silenced. [...]
In November the Republican chairman of the Benghazi Select Committee said he hoped that Petraeus would testify voluntarily. But a former Justice Department official says the felony case changes everything.
For the life of me I'm not sure how this plan was going to work. How was this supposed to have stopped Petraeus from "telling the true story?" If you're blackmailing someone, aren't you telling them that you know their naughty secret and will
not take it public unless something-something? If you're Petraeus, aren't you supposed to say that if they don't back down from their devious takedown of your career you'll go to the press and will tell everyone what you really know about Benghazi Hillary Sekrit Muslim Pancake Door Hinge Piano Wire?
But then again, that's presuming the theory is presented as something meant to be taken seriously, as opposed to just another way to wedge Benghazi! into every possible bit of news coverage, every day, so that viewers don't forget they're still supposed to be obsessed with that one. If you imagine a memo going out that says "every Fox News program today must say the word Benghazi five times or you're all canned" it makes much more sense.