Transparency or cover-up? 'Off-the-record' briefing becomes 'deep background'
Jay Carney
Credits:
Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images
A Friday gathering originally described as an
"off-the-record" meeting between the White House and select members of
the press became a "deep background" briefing to discuss revelations
about the Benghazi investigation, Politico reported.
"The session was announced to reporters in the wake of an ABC News report showing that White House and State Dept. officials were involved in revising the now-discredited CIA talking points about the attack on Benghazi," Dylan Byers wrote.
ABC's Jonathan Karl reported Friday that 12 different versions of the talking points showed they were extensively edited before being distributed to Congress and Ambassador Rice. Worse yet, Karl said, the edits appear to have been made "with extensive input from the State Department."
"The edits included requests from the State Department that references to the Al Qaeda-affiliated group Ansar al-Sharia be deleted as well references to CIA warnings about terrorist threats in Benghazi in the months preceding the attack," Karl said.
Karl went on to say the edits appear to directly contradict what White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said last year.
“Those talking points originated from the intelligence community," Carney said on Nov. 28. "They reflect the IC’s best assessments of what they thought had happened.”
The meeting with reporters pushed the regularly-scheduled on-the-record White House press briefing to 3:15 p.m. Friday, The Blaze said.
Politico explained that a "deep background" meeting is one in which the information presented can be used in reporting but the briefers can't be quoted.
"So expect a fair number of 'White House sources' to appear in reportage for the next few days," Ben Shapiro wrote at Breitbart.com.
A post at Twitchy said that a number of Twitter users "speculated that the decision had to do with a desperate effort to cover itself in light of the damning new evidence for a Benghazi cover-up."
"No doubt this 'off-the-record' meeting was designed to get all the president’s horses and all the president’s men to put the Benghazi humpty dumpty together again," Shapiro added.
Related:
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"The session was announced to reporters in the wake of an ABC News report showing that White House and State Dept. officials were involved in revising the now-discredited CIA talking points about the attack on Benghazi," Dylan Byers wrote.
ABC's Jonathan Karl reported Friday that 12 different versions of the talking points showed they were extensively edited before being distributed to Congress and Ambassador Rice. Worse yet, Karl said, the edits appear to have been made "with extensive input from the State Department."
"The edits included requests from the State Department that references to the Al Qaeda-affiliated group Ansar al-Sharia be deleted as well references to CIA warnings about terrorist threats in Benghazi in the months preceding the attack," Karl said.
Karl went on to say the edits appear to directly contradict what White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said last year.
“Those talking points originated from the intelligence community," Carney said on Nov. 28. "They reflect the IC’s best assessments of what they thought had happened.”
The meeting with reporters pushed the regularly-scheduled on-the-record White House press briefing to 3:15 p.m. Friday, The Blaze said.
Politico explained that a "deep background" meeting is one in which the information presented can be used in reporting but the briefers can't be quoted.
"So expect a fair number of 'White House sources' to appear in reportage for the next few days," Ben Shapiro wrote at Breitbart.com.
A post at Twitchy said that a number of Twitter users "speculated that the decision had to do with a desperate effort to cover itself in light of the damning new evidence for a Benghazi cover-up."
"No doubt this 'off-the-record' meeting was designed to get all the president’s horses and all the president’s men to put the Benghazi humpty dumpty together again," Shapiro added.
Related:
- Media Matters blogger: Furor over Benghazi attack hype, more died under Reagan
- Conservatives demand to know why RNC never aired Benghazi ad
- Wash. Post: Rich, white people who like Chick-fil-A tweeting about Benghazi
- CNN's Candy Crowley biggest loser in presidential debate
- Families of slain SEAL Team 6 to blame government for deaths of servicemen
- Benghazi whistleblower Greg Hicks: Clinton knew about terror attack at 2 a.m.
- Jay Carney on threats to whistleblowers: 'Benghazi happened a long time ago'
- Dan Rather claims Obama's opponents 'want to cut his heart out'
- President Obama: Troops 'fighting on my behalf'
If you like this article, you can follow Joe on Twitter @jnewby1956, visit and like his Facebook page, or subscribe to receive email updates when a new article is published.
For hard-hitting conservative commentary, please visit Joe's blog, the Conservative Firing Line. You can also find Joe's articles at Right News Now, Liberty Unyielding and PolitiCollision.
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