A Media Watch Special Report

Saturday Night At Fox With Rita, Robert, & Cynthia ...

June 1, 2002

Over the past few days there's been much speculation as to what the motive might be behind Judicial Watch's Larry Klayman and his championing of FBI Agent Robert Wright's story which was showcased at a press conference that aired on Cspan2 on May 30. Is it a ploy to go after Bill Clinton again? Or is Klayman simply all ego, ready to depart from his "conservative" roots in the pursuit of more notoriety? (For interesting speculation and information on the various media outlets that are covering this story you might want to visit this thread, along with several others, at the Democratic Underground: http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=
22717&forum=DCForumID5#66 .)

Fueling much of this speculation is the fact that much of the press attention has been coming from the likes of Newsmax. And FOX was quick to jump in with Rita Cosby's interview of Agent Wright on FOX Wire, airing Saturday night. Since I hadn't slummed over at FOX for ages, I thought I'd check it out, knowing that if my blood pressure started to spike, I could always flip the channel to HGTV for another relaxing kitchen remodeling show.

Rita, all glossed up and dressed in red first turned to Molly Henneberg who reported on the request for $58 million from the FBI that was turned down. The word "John Ashcroft" never crossed her lips and she referred to the story as about a "budget issue" rather than having anything to with counter-terrorism. Then she reported that the story was being called a "leak" from disgruntled employees who had been fired by Mueller.

Whew!! I had forgotten how blindingly efficient FOX News spin could be!! "Disgruntled employees" was the last tidbit hanging in the air -- who the heck needs to hear about John Ashcroft ?!!

Then on to Robert Wright, who looks like he could double for the late Dr. Mark Green on ER. Nerdy, sincere as hell, with the eerie overtones of someone you might see on the 700 Club -- my first impression of Wright was that he could be an eel.

Breathless, Cosby started asking about Wright's job at the FBI. He said he spent 1993-94 tracking assets of terrorist organizations. Right away, my Clinton radar went on.

Cosby: What was the reaction from your supervisors?
Wright: "Initially, not much support, eventually, when I got a new supervisor, I got more support, resulting in 1998, in arrests (sic). But, still not a lot of support from headquarters."

Cosby: Is this credible information?
Wright: "Yes, I did the best I could, with little support. I worked an average of 4 hours a day overtime and on weekends, without putting it on my timecard. I think they thought I was putting in too much time on this, but it had to be done."

Cosby: The lack of support. What was the situation? There just wasn't much effort to further the investigation?
Wright: (hemming and hawing) "Holding meetings, trying to limit the scope..."

Cosby: Why?
Wright: "I can't comment on that..."

Cosby: Was it an individual or the bureau as a whole?
Wright: "I can narrow it down to 3 individuals and the bureaucracy as a whole...I think they were sincere in investigating, ...but it wasn't the way to go..."

Cosby: Gain?
Wright: The report was initially put together so it would be available to Congress...It was completed except for last three pages on Sept. 10...it'll take years, with the roadblocks that will be set up. Anything coming out of it will be donated to charity....

Cosby, asking about Wright's reaction to the Muslim agent refusing to wire, saying a "a Muslim doesn't record another Muslim" ...
Wright: "Shock, disbelief, same as the others in the room.... Supervisors did some follow up, but nothing was ever enforced..."

Cosby: Could the FBI have been successful in preventing 911?
Wright: "I can't say 100% that they would have been, but there was a greater chance."

My reaction to this?? It was eerily low key for a FOX story, if you discount Cosby's normal hyperventilating. Obviously, slamming the FBI for lack of "support" and disengagement, while presenting Wright as a boy scout who didn't put his overtime on his timecard because he was so dedicated. Biggest surprise: no direct mention of Bill Clinton; however the only dates mentioned were from the Clinton Administration's tenure, so the groundwork has been laid for future slamming by having these soundbites ready. I got the feeling that this was a groundwork interview and perhaps FOX will be using Wright more heavily in the future. But who knows what's really going on here?

I only half-watched the next segment with a Muslim congressional candidate from New Jersey who was on to describe how the FBI's outreach event to attract Muslim agents was a boffo success. He managed to answer Cosby's inevitable reference to the Muslim agent from the previous segment with a "If the story is true, it's terrible " comment.

However, cynic that I am, I couldn't help get the feeling that the man, an academic who is probably going to lose his primary, was being trotted out mostly to shore up this Administration's image among the Muslim community since he had, by coincidence, attended the FBI event.

Then I braced myself for the Cynthia McKinney Revisited segment.

Cosby started out with a piece of negative email from a guy who was "The Booker" for the segment and had McKinney in his sights. (Cosby solicits suggestions for guests from the audience which acts as "the booker.") Of course, since McKinney wasn't interested in showing up, the next best thing was a "debate" between Phil Kent, President of the Georgia-based Southeast Legal Foundation (which can't be up to anything good, from the sound of it) and Rev. Timothy McDonald of the Concerned Black Clergy.

Cosby played a tape of the March, 2002 comments made by McKinney which sounded right on about the CIA and FBI sending in warning and the their not being acted on, while the Administration told Tom Daschle not to investigate.

When Cosby asked if McKinney was vindicated, Kent retorted, "She absolutely has not been vindicated...she said Bush knew planes would hit the towers and (sic) they are profiting off what happened."

McDonald replied, "VP Cheney has refused to turn over documents," and mentioned all the Enron ties in the Administration and the "tremendous profits being made off this war." He said everyone should look at the political contributions and that McKinney was right on target. "The American people should not be so naïve, " he admonished and said that McKinney never said the President knew about the planes and that this was all "right wing" attack.

Kent then said that "radical Islamism money -- terrorist blood money -- was being funneled" to McKinney and that "even Hillary Clinton refused money from this group." McDonald went right back at him: "McKinney and about 50 Republicans," but he was interrupted by Cosby shrieking about how "but she's on the hot seat, wouldn't it set a good example??" McDonald muscled his way in and snapped back that this Islamic group "gives money to both Republicans and Democrats because they deserve a voice like any other group."

Then Cosby read the McKinney statement of 5/16/2002 and Kent said that, "Every American would welcome a Congressional investigation, even the President says he supports one," conveniently ignoring the calls for an independent inquiry.

Then Cosby revved up again -- "How come Cynthia McKinney has not come on?? If she's going to make these harsh comments, why not come on...if she's going to make these outrageous comments, why not come on?" When I heard the word "outrageous" I really got steamed -- why should she go on your show, Rita, if you've already prepared your spin and won't be doing an interview at all, just a hatchet job???

McDonald kept his cool -- "We know what happens to our leaders -- we know what happened to Martin Luther King -- we're not going to subject our leaders to 10 second bites. She's been talking to the black media" and other outlets. The man deserves a medal for throwing that back into Cosby's face!

Kent got the last word, of course, by saying that McKinney has made anti-white and anti-Jewish statements and that "She has a history of wild statements, her friend Timothy is protecting her...." Earlier, he had gotten the word "loony" in, so I guess this was a fairly mild end to an entirely predictable and disgusting segment.

Rather than watch any more of this nonsense, I used my time wisely by firing off an email to Rita in which I told her that she would never "book" Cynthia McKinney because Cynthia knew she wasn't a journalist.

With that, I took a breather and then watched Martha Stewart making new brass look old. Just the thing to counter the toxic effects of a Saturday night with Rita and FOX, which I hope never to experience again...

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© 2002, Gloria R. Lalumia
insight@zianet.com

More Stuff at: http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical

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