SATURDAY NIGHT AT FOX WITH RITA,
ROBERT, & CYNTHIA…
A MEDIA WATCH SPECIAL REPORT
June 1, 2002
Over the past few days there’s been much speculation as to what the motive might be behind Judicial Watch’s Larry Klayman and his championing of FBI Agent Robert Wright’s story which was showcased at a press conference that aired on Cspan2 on May 30. Is it a ploy to go after Bill Clinton again? Or is Klayman simply all ego, ready to depart from his “conservative” roots in the pursuit of more notoriety?
For interesting speculation and information on the various media outlets that are covering this story you might want to visit this thread, along with several others, at the Democratic Underground: http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=22717&forum=DCForumID5#66
Fueling much of this speculation is the fact
that much of the press attention has been coming from the likes
of Newsmax. And FOX was quick to jump in with Rita
Cosby’s interview of Agent Wright on FOX Wire, airing
Saturday night. Since I hadn’t slummed over at FOX for
ages, I thought I’d check it out, knowing that if my blood
pressure started to spike, I could always flip the channel to
HGTV for another relaxing kitchen remodeling show.
Rita, all glossed up and dressed in red
first turned to Molly Henneberg who reported on the request for
$58 million from the FBI that was turned down. The word
“John Ashcroft” never crossed her lips and she referred
to the story as about a “budget issue” rather than
having anything to with counter-terrorism. Then she
reported that the story was being called a “leak” from
disgruntled employees who had been fired by Mueller.
Whew!! I had forgotten how blindingly
efficient FOX News spin could be!! “Disgruntled
employees” was the last tidbit hanging in the air—who
the heck needs to hear about John Ashcroft ?!!
Then on to Robert Wright, who looks like he
could double for the late Dr. Mark Green on ER. Nerdy, sincere as
hell, with the eerie overtones of someone you might see on the
700 Club—my first impression of Wright was that he could be
an eel.
Breathless, Cosby started asking about Wright’s job at the FBI. He said he spent 1993-94 tracking assets of terrorist organizations. Right away, my Clinton radar went on.
Cosby—What was the reaction from your
supervisors?
Wright—“Initially, not much support, eventually, when I got a new supervisor, I got more support, resulting in 1998, in arrests (sic). But, still not a lot of support from headquarters.”
Cosby—Is this credible information?
Wright-- “Yes, I did the best I
could, with little support. I worked an average of 4 hours a day
overtime and on weekends, without putting it on my timecard.
I think they though I was putting in too much time on this, but
it had to be done.”
Crosby—The lack of support. What was
the situation? There just wasn’t much effort to further the
investigation?
Wright—(hemming and hawing) “Holding
meetings, trying to limit the scope…”
Cosby--Why?
Wright—“I can’t comment on
that…”
Cosby—Was it an individual or the
bureau as a whole?
Wright—“I can narrow it down to 3
individuals and the bureaucracy as a whole…I think they were
sincere in investigating, …but it wasn’t the way to
go…”
Cosby--Gain?
Wright—The report was initially put
together so it would be available to Congress…It was
completed except for last 3 pages on Sept. 10…it’ll
take years, with the roadblocks that will be set up. Anything
coming out of it will be donated to charity….
Cosby, asking about Wright’s reaction
to the Muslim agent refusing to wire, saying a “a
Muslim doesn’t record another Muslim “ …
Wright—“Shock, disbelief, same as
the others in the room…. Supervisors did some follow up, but
nothing was ever enforced…”
Cosby--Could the FBI have been successful in
preventing 911?
Wright—“I can’t say 100% that
they would have been, but there was a greater chance.”
My reaction to this?? It was eerily
low key for a FOX story, if you discount Cosby’s normal
hyperventilating. Obviously, slamming the FBI for lack of
“support” and disengagement, while presenting Wright as
a boy scout who didn’t put his overtime on his timecard
because he was so dedicated. Biggest surprise: no direct
mention of Bill Clinton; however the only dates mentioned were
from the Clinton Administration’s tenure, so the groundwork
has been laid for future slamming by having these soundbites
ready. I got the feeling that this was a groundwork
interview and perhaps FOX will be using Wright more heavily in
the future. But who knows what’s really going on here?
I only half watched the next segment with a
Muslim congressional candidate from New Jersey who was on to
describe how the FBI’s outreach event to attract Muslim
agents was a boffo success. He managed to answer
Cosby’s inevitable reference to the Muslim agent from the
previous segment with a “If the story is true, it’s
terrible ” comment. However, cynic that I am, I
couldn’t help get the feeling that the man, an academic who
is probably going to lose his primary, was being trotted out
mostly to shore up this Administration’s image among the
Muslim community since he had, by coincidence, attended the FBI
event.
Then I braced myself for the Cynthia
McKinney Revisited segment.
Cosby started out with a piece of negative
email from a guy who was “The Booker” for the segment
and had McKinney in his sights. (Cosby solicits suggestions
for guests from the audience which acts as “the
booker.”) Of course, since McKinney wasn’t
interested in showing up, the next best thing was a
“debate” between Phil Kent, President of the
Georgia-based Southeast Legal Foundation (which can’t be up
to anything good, from the sound of it) and
Cosby played a tape of the March, 2002
comments made by McKinney which sounded right on about the CIA
and FBI sending in warning and the their not being acted on,
while the Administration told Tom Daschle not to investigate.
When Cosby asked if McKinney was vindicated,
Kent retorted, “She absolutely has not been
vindicated…she said Bush knew planes would hit the towers
and (sic) they are profiting off what happened.”
McDonald replied, “VP Cheney has
refused to turn over documents,” and mentioned all the Enron
ties in the Administration and the “tremendous profits being
made off this war.” He said everyone should look at the
political contributions and that McKinney was right on target.
“The American people should not be so naïve, “ he
admonished and said that McKinney never said the President knew
about the planes and that this was all “right wing”
attack.
Kent then said that “radical Islamism
money—terrorist blood money—was being
“funneled” to McKinney and that “even Hillary
Clinton refused money from this group.” McDonald
went right back at him: “McKinney and about 50
Republicans” but he was interrupted by Cosby shrieking about
how “but she’s on the hot seat, wouldn’t it set a
good example??” McDonald muscled his way in and
snapped back that this Islamic group “gives money to both
Republicans and Democrats because they deserve a voice like any
other group.”
Then Cosby read the McKinney statement of
5/16/2002 and Kent said that, “Every American would welcome
a Congressional investigation, even the President says he
supports one,”
Then Cosby revved up again—“How
come Cynthia McKinney has not come on?? If she’s going to
make these harsh comments, why not come on…if she’s
going to make these outrageous comments, why not come on?”
When I heard the word “outrageous” I really got
steamed—why should she go on your show, Rita, if you’ve
already prepared your spin and won’t be doing an interview
at all, just a hatchet job???
McDonald kept his cool—“We know
what happens to our leaders—we know what happened to Martin
Luther King— we’re not going to subject out leaders to
10 second bites. She’s been talking to the black
media” and other outlets. The man deserves a medal for
throwing that back into Cosby’s face!
Kent got the last word, of course, by saying
that McKinney has made anti-white and anti-Jewish statements and
that “She has a history of wild statements, her friend
Timothy is protecting her….”
Earlier, he had gotten the word
“loony” in, so I guess this was a fairly mild end to an
entirely predictable and disgusting segment.
Rather than watch any more of this nonsense,
I used my time wisely by firing off an email to Rita in which I
told her that she would never “book” Cynthia McKinney
because Cynthia knew she wasn’t a journalist.
With that, I took a breather and then
watched Martha Stewart making new brass look old.
Copyright 2002, Gloria R. Lalumia