And... from the conservative 'MediaMatters.org', (investigators into the 'liberal media'):
The only hookers Fox WON'T cover ...
mediamatters.org
As Media Matters has repeatedly documented, if there's one kind of story Fox News likes nearly as much as partisan smears of progressives, it's a story about the sex trade. From the arrest of a man who left his son in his unlocked vehicle while he went to a strip club to a porn star at a fundraiser to Playboy's newest Playmate of the Year to interviews with Victoria's Secret models to a segment advising women to show "less skin" at the workplace (a segment that, naturally, required Fox to air images of women showing a great deal of skin) to a piece about a pole-dancing Pamela Anderson, Fox takes every available opportunity to broadcast photos and video of scantily clad women.
So when you have a story that involves A) prostitutes and B) corrupt politicians, you would think Fox News would be all over it, taking advantage of the ratings gold that had fallen into its lap.
Ah, but the corrupt politicians allegedly involved are Republicans. That changes everything, doesn't it? And not just for Fox News -- as blogger Joshua Micah Marshall has noted, major media outlets have all but ignored a story about "members of Congress getting sauced up at rollicking parties and set up with hookers by crooked defense contractors in exchange for help bagging pricey defense contracts." Marshall and his colleagues at TPMMuckracker.com (along with Harper's Magazine's Ken Silverstein and The Wall Street Journal's Scot J. Paltrow) have taken the lead in covering the federal investigation into whether contractors implicated in the bribery case of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (currently serving a jail term for his misdeeds) provided Cunningham and other members of Congress with prostitutes and free limousines and hotel suites. As part of the probe, Silverstein wrote, the FBI is reportedly investigating current and former lawmakers on congressional defense and intelligence committees, "including one person who now holds a powerful intelligence post" -- a description that fits CIA director Porter Goss to a "T."
Josh Marshall:
You'd expect the press to be all over it. As [TPMMuckraker reporter] Justin [Rood] reported yesterday, the legendary Watergate Hotel has already received mulitple [sic] subpoenas from federal investigators investigating the hotel's role in 'Hookergate'. So this thing's for real.
Yet, I'm not seeing any morning show's running with it.
And, while the [Patrick] Kennedy story is 'newsy' it doesn't really have any greater policy implications. And the public trust implications are minor. The Wilkes-Watergate-Hooker story, on the other hand, is both. It's salacious, which the press loves. And it's also directly tied to crooks ripping off taxpayers, probably allowing our service members abroad to have shoddy equipment or defense dollars going to worthless projects.
So, we're on the Kennedy case. But why the silence on the much bigger scandal bubbling up out of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee?
Cricket, cricket ...
Late Update: A number of readers have told me that NBC Nightly News has a piece on the story last night. Good for them.
How thorough was the media blackout on this burgeoning scandal? Goss abruptly resigned his CIA post today after barely a year on the job -- and the cable news networks held out as long as they possibly could before mentioning the "Hookergate" story.
CNN, for example, not only avoided mentioning the speculation that he is caught up in the investigation in its initial reports, it went so far as to tell viewers: "Taking a look at what's out on the Internet -- not much controversy involving the director himself."
Well, unless you count the suggestion that the Director of Central Intelligence may be implicated in an FBI investigation into whether contractors already involved in a bribery case also supplied prostitutes, limos, and hotel suites to members of Congress who sit on defense and intelligence committees. Other than THAT, there isn't much controversy involving Goss.
CNN wasn't alone in looking the other way, of course: Fox News and MSNBC also held out as long as they could. Initial reports by The New York Times and The Washington Post similarly failed to mention the prostitutes-and-limos story.
Eventually the investigation did seep into news reports -- but not for long. On CNN, former Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), who served with Goss when both were Republican members of Congress, first pointed out that the Cunningham investigation is "starting to reach into the CIA":
CAROL LIN (CNN anchor): But Congressman, see, there's something that doesn't make sense here, you know? There's something that doesn't make sense. And what I am wondering is whether this resignation is an indication of something to come. Porter Goss wants to get out of the way. Do you have any sense of that on Capitol Hill or from your sources in Washington?
BARR: It could very well be. I mean, we've seen brewing out of the Duke Cunningham -- former Congressman Duke Cunningham scandal, which has been growing now for several months --
LIN: That he accepted bribes from defense contractors.
BARR: Right. It's starting to reach into the CIA. And that could very well be something that is going to -- you know, like a sore that's been festering. That could bust out sometime now. And maybe that could reach into the top levels of the agency.
LIN: Are you saying the director himself, Congressman? Are you saying the director himself?
BARR: I can't imagine that. I know Porter. I've known him for many years. I cannot imagine that he would be a part of that, but if you have the top two or three people at an agency working under him, and he's the one that put them in there and placed the faith and trust of the government in these people, and then they become tainted with this, it certainly reflects on the leadership.
Later, CNN senior national correspondent John Roberts elaborated:
ROBERTS: Now, just to add a little bit to what former Congressman Bob Barr was talking about, what's all swirling around the CIA with the Duke Cunningham case goes to a fellow named Brent Wilkes, who was an unindicted co-conspirator in that -- that Cunningham case. There is a fellow who has pled guilty in that case by the name of Mitchell Wade who contends -- and this is only a contention, allegations again -- that Wilkes had been procuring prostitutes and limousines for Duke Cunningham and had also been hosting poker parties at a couple of hotels in Washington, one of them being the Watergate hotel right down there by the Potomac, and the other one being the Westin Grand up on M street at 24th.
Now, Wilkes has denied any involvement in this prostitution idea, but we do know that he did have some poker parties and that a very senior official at the CIA had been a guest at a few of those poker parties, a fellow by the name of Dusty Foggo, who is actually the number three at the CIA. There is an inspector general's investigation at the CIA going on over Foggo's appearance at those poker parties. And the CIA, I should say, has also come out to say that at no time did CIA director Porter Goss ever appear at one of those poker parties. So, this is reaching into the highest levels of the CIA.
Curiously, however, CNN omitted any reference to the investigation from the article it posted on CNN.com more than an hour later -- despite the fact that the article quoted other comments from Barr, including his statement that "I think there's going to be more coming out; we don't know the whole story." CNN's judgment about the significance of Goss's resignation is illustrated by the CNN.com front page at 4:30 p.m. ET, which is dominated by news of Rep. Patrick Kennedy's statement that he is entering a rehabilitation program for an addiction to prescription pain medication; Goss's resignation is given a three-word link to an article that omits mention of the Cunningham investigation. |
