Foreign Policy

How Conservatives on Twitter Forced Obama to Face the Benghazi Debacle

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One of the most under-appreciated events in politics happened this last Friday on social media. While pundits argue about the value of the new media, and whether it detracts from “real” reporters, conservatives were able to quickly leverage social media resources to out-run the mainstream media blackout on the Obama administration’s culpability in the terrorist attack on our embassies on September 11th, and the death of our ambassador and  3 American soldiers.

Late on Thursday night the story broke that the father of one of the murdered at Benghazi was accusing the Obama administration of withholding assistance to the attacked, as many as three times. This set the conservative blogosphere afire, but was met with glassy-eyed yawns from the lapdog mainstream media all too eager to protect Obama.

On Friday morning, Fox News and conservatives on social media mounted a beleaguered attempt to force the issue and make the administration face the accusations from a frustrated and angry father of a deceased Navy Seal.

And then a fissure in the stranglehold of the mainstream media appeared.

Kyle Clark of Channel 9 News was able to secure an interview with President Obama, and to his great credit, opened up to twitter for suggestions on what questions he should ask:

This got 14 retweets, not a lot considering that Obama has millions of followers. Thankfully, local conservative Kelly Maher took the initiative to spread the word:

This was picked up by Tabitha Hale of the Franklin Center:

and also Jason Whitman, the National Policy Chairman for the Republican Party:

https://twitter.com/JasonBWhitman/status/261894291381710849

Immediately conservatives filled the request, and demanded Obama answer the newly revealed accusations about Benghazi:

https://twitter.com/JasonBWhitman/status/261894086615781376

Your favorite friendly neighborhood Mexican jumped in, having seen Tabitha’s tweet. I paused to try to zero in on what I thought was the most precise and incisive question on the this issue. After considering how best to phrase my question, I made this suggestion:

Many other conservatives made similar requests, so much so that Kyle Clark made this funny admission:

After the interview, Clark posted this blockbuster twitter message that lit up the twitter conservative sphere:

Think on this – after the media wanting you to think that the most important issue this election is whether Big Bird will keep his government subsidied welfare check, a local reporter taking question suggestions from twitter forced Obama to face a real question about Benghazi.

Clark clarified that his questioning to Obama had to do precisely with any denials of security during the attack – not before:

After 9 News in Denver posted a transcript of the interview and a video, the headlines shouted out the inability of a feckless president to admit any responsibility:

Obama Refuses To Answer Directly When Asked if Security Denied DURING Benghazi Attack

The headline traveled from blogs to smaller news outlets all the way up to Fox News:

Obama avoids question on whether Americans in Libya were denied requests for help

and Glenn Beck’s Blaze news source:

Obama Refuses to Answer ‘Repeated Questions on Whether Requests for Help in Benghazi Were Denied

And finally, Jake Tapper at ABC News:

President Obama Begs Off Answering Whether Americans in Benghazi Were Denied Requests for Help

This is not a small matter. Prior to this event, the Obama administration had claimed they had not denied security requests from the embassy in Benghazi. The CIA made it clear that they didn’t deny any security requests, but their wording left it open to interpretation that someone else higher up in the chain of authority had.  Leon Panetta said they could not send in any military without sufficient information, further substantiating the claim that request were denied. 

With this seemingly pedestrian interview, Obama could not answer whether he or anyone else in his administration had denied security requests while Americans were under attack from terrorists.

Because of conservatives on twitter, he had to deny this twice.

This is the new face of journalism, this is how we break through the pathetic and deplorable lapdog media complicity with the Obama administration.

This is war.

Listen to our podcast about the most recent details of the Benghazi Terrorist Attack