Benghazi Was Always a Hoax, Email No Different. Who's to Blame? The Media. Who Can Fix It? The Media.

Don't forget that Darrell Issa badgered Clinton on Benghazi long
before Trey Gowdy got his shot. But there was never any there there.

Pretty stunning what's come from Kevin McCarthy's off-hand remark that Benghazi had knocked Hillary Clinton's poll numbers hard. He never suspected that it would knock a hole in his career instead of hers.

Now it seems the cat's out of the bag, what with the NYTimes calling for the Select Committee to pack it up, just as more trash about the committee's nefarious motives emerge.

I don't know how the committee can continue this with a straight face, but rest assured it will be in business at least until Hillary Clinton testifies on October 22nd. I'm making popcorn for sure. It'll be a barn burner, and I'll wager it won't be Hillary's barn that goes up in flames.

Next, we have to see how hard people can continue to press Hillary on the email "scandal," one that the NYTimes had a hand in promoting with a host of misreported stories.

At some point, someone of influence will declare the email "scandal" a puff of smoke without a fire. Expect it any day, but don't count on a major Republican politician accidentally admitting it on Hannity.

The nexus of the trumped-up email scandal (no pun intended) lies at intersection of two facts: one, classified material wasn't sent on Clinton's private email server, and, two, the use of the private system was not against State Department rules.

The first, that classified material might have been sent or received is indeed made murky by the habit of federal agencies classifying documents, including emails, long after the facts of their provenance have been lost in the fog of document reclassification. Politifact takes a look and gives Clinton a well-deserved break:

We’ve noticed several Republican candidates claiming that Clinton negligently handled classified information. But they’re jumping the gun. There isn’t enough evidence to prove that. Some evidence suggests Clinton and her team went to some trouble to keep classified information out the email system.

This is not to say Clinton’s email setup was allowed or appropriate -- for example, it skirted open records laws and presents challenges to archivists. And subsequent investigations may yield surprises or other unexpected evidence. But because of the way classification works and because of the incomplete record of her emails, we continue to reserve judgment.

What's interesting about Politifact's opinion here is that they give Clinton a break on the first facet of the email "scandal," but then proceed to bust her on the second facet, her email setup. In fact, however, Politifact has been proven wrong on this second point by none other than the State Department itself.

So, to recount, there has been no proof so far that Hillary Clinton sent information, classified at the time, over her private system, and there is proof that no State Department rules prohibited use of a private email system. There's no proof of any wrongdoing, even if our blessed media did hound Hillary until she apologized for her email sins, in case there were any.

What's a diligent media to do, given such facts? Why, go after the Republicans for spreading such bunk. Will they? Who knows? Most of the media believe it's their job to puff up such scandals while maintaining narratives of their choosing.

It's clear to me that the media should be reporting that the constant scandal-baiting by Republicans is repugnant. It's also clear to me that the media has been scandal-baiting the Clintons for so long they wouldn't know what's true if it bit them on the ass. Whitewater anyone?


Note. I may have given the impression that I think the media won't embrace the truth about the phoniness of Hillary's scandals. While it may be true that the media will just gloss over their failure to get it right, it's also possible they'll grab a chance to stick it to the real villains in this monstrosity -- the GOP and its "candidates" -- if they feel they can get away with it without losing their precious access. In other words, they'll tell the truth right after they figure out that the GOP are the losers and turn around and say "We always loved Hillary, seriously we did!"