Sharyl Attkisson, the investigative reporter who left CBS News earlier this year reportedly because of her frustrations with the network’s perceived liberal bias, said Friday that the new face of the White House’s press team stifled her efforts to get more information about the 2012 attack in Benghazi.
Almost immediately after President Obama announced that Josh Earnest would replace Jay Carney as White House press secretary, Attkisson reacted to the news on Twitter.
White House spokesman Jay Carney steps down.
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) May 30, 2014
Josh Earnest takes over Carney’s job.
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) May 30, 2014
Then Attkisson, the author of a forthcoming book on her frustrations with the Obama administration, said that Earnest prevented her from receiving photos of the Benghazi attack.
Josh is apparently the White House official who has told the White House press office not to release Benghazi night White House photos to me
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) May 30, 2014
And has ignored a year and a half of our calls and emails to obtain the photos.
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) May 30, 2014
Attkisson’s reporting on Benghazi and the Fast and Furious gun-running operation has made her a journalistic heroine on the right. She has continued to give fodder to conservatives since her resignation from CBS in March.
Last month, Attkisson said that CBS and other outlets are too “shy” to challenge the Obama administration and suggested that liberal watchdog Media Matters may have been paid to target her reporting.
CBS and Media Matters each strongly denied the claims.
The tweets on Friday weren’t the first time that Attkisson has levied such charges at Earnest. She made similar comments about the newly named press secretary during an interview last month with right-wing shock jock Glenn Beck.
“I’ve asked for the White House photographs taken that night,” she told Beck. “The White House photo office went from telling me the very day I asked that I could have them to referring me to Josh Earnest, a press officer at the White House, saying he had to release them. And it’s been a year-and-a-half and he won’t return my calls or emails.”
