Former CBS investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson on Sunday discussed why she left CBS News last month and said that news outlets have become less interested in investigative reports that challenge government and corporate interests.
“I think that’s part of a broader trend that’s happening, not just at CBS. But there seems to be, the last couple of years, much less interest in what I call original and investigative in-depth reporting,” she said on Fox News’ “Media Buzz.”. “There seems to be a visceral reaction to doing stories that could ruffle feathers, whether it’s certain people in the political spectrum or even corporate interests.”
“The press in general seems to be very shy about challenging the administration,” she continued.
Attkisson said that by the time she left, her decision was easy because she had nothing left to do with few of her stories making it on air. She said that under the Obama administration particularly, she experienced a lot of pushback on stories from the White House.
“Now there’ve always been tensions, there have always been calls from the White House under any administration I assume, when they don’t like a particular story. But it is particularly aggressive under the Obama administration and I think it’s a campaign that’s very well organized, that’s designed to have sort of a chilling effect and to some degree has been somewhat successful in getting broadcast producers who don’t really want to deal with the headache of it — why put on these controversial stories that we”re going to have to fight people on, when we can fill the broadcast with other perfectly decent stories that don’t ruffle the same feathers?”
Image via Fox News
[H/t Mediaite]
“much less interest in what I call original and investigative in-depth reporting,”
Sharyl, do you mean the Ben Ghazi obsession, the birth certificate insanity, or the Obamacare sign up denial?
Seems to me the only investigations were really just witch hunts that started from one or another of the naysayers’ patent prejudice; racial, political or personal… her particular mix of those seems political and personal, not racial, but who knows.
What a load of codswallop. Obama has been relentlessly pilloried by his opponents in both the Congress and the press. More than any president I can remember–and I can remember them back to Eisenhower.
Jack ya beat me to the reply. Nicely parsed I’d say.
So when is this liar going to go to Fox?
So I am going to assume she has never looked back at other administrations, like the Bush II, Reagan or certainly Nixon. If she was actually good at her job she would push back not whine.