Tom Ricks, on Fox, Tells Fox It Hyped Benghazi Attack
Despite warning a producer beforehand, Foreign Policy blogger Tom Ricks went on Fox News and called out network for its coverage of the September 11 attacks in Benghazi. The controversy was "hyped — by this network especially," Ricks said, before being booted off the air. And that was him being nice. The Fox anchor, who suggested there might be a "White House coverup" of some sort, asked Ricks whether the deaths of four Americans was really hype. Ricks responded with a little quiz.
Ricks: How many security contractors died in Iraq do you know?
Anchor: I don't.
Ricks: No, nobody does, because nobody cared.
We know that several hundred died but there was never an official count done. SO when i see this focus on what was aessentially a small firefight -- one, I've covered firefights a lot of firefights -- it's impossible to figure out what happened in them sometimes.
And second, I think that the empahsis on Benghazi has been extremely political, partly because Fox was operating as a wing of the Republican Party.
And at that, the anchor promptly ended the interview — despite what Politico's Mackenzie Weinger reports as fair warning by Ricks to a Fox producer before going on-air.
