Former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson quipped Monday on Fox and Friends that if she let all the left-wing blogs and media voices influence her reporting, all she'd have left to cover would be the weather.
"I basically am trying to keep my nose to the grindstone, and if I were influenced by the left-wing blogs and the people who are trying to steer public opinion a certain way, I would be left covering pretty much nothing but the weather now," she said. "I'm still continuing to do what I see as my job."
Attkisson has come under fire from liberal groups like "Media Matters for America" for her reporting on the Benghazi terrorist attack and the White House's controversial political response. Former Obama administration members David Plouffe and Van Jones attacked Republicans for pursuing Benghazi on This Week Sunday, calling it politicized and blaming Fox News for keeping the story alive.
"Well, the key words they use such as 'conspiracy' and 'delusional' are, in my opinion, clearly designed to try to controversialize a story, a legitimate news story, a legitimate area of journalistic inquiry," she said. "To some degree, that's successful, but I think primarily among those that don't want to look at this as a story in the first place.
Full exchange:
SHARYL ATTKISSON: Well, the key words they use such as conspiracy and delusional are in my opinion, clearly designed to try to controversialize a story, a legitimate news story, a legitimate area of journalistic inquiry. To some degree, that's successful, but I think primarily among those that don't want to look at this as a story in the first place. But I see that as a well-orchestrated strategy to controversialize a story they really don't want to hear about.
BRIAN KILMEADE: It's interesting in the past, when something pops up that there's an ongoing investigation about Valerie Plame for example, you had George Bush say, 'I'm going to get a special prosecutor involved,' and he demanded everybody cooperate with the investigation. Now you have someone who just puts up -- you have an administration who puts up blocking signs everywhere you go and tries to go after those who are asking the questions. We look at your background, Sharyl. You're hardly somebody who goes after conservative causes. You go after everybody. You went after the Bush administration. You called it a bait and switch when it comes to talk. You investigated the Red Cross in 2003, you won awards for it. You're pursuing this story like anything else. How is the answer you're getting different from anything else?
ATTKISSON: I basically am trying to keep my nose to the grindstone, and if I were influenced by the left-wing blogs and the people who are trying to steer public opinion a certain way, I would be left covering pretty much nothing but the weather now. I'm still continuing to do what I see as my job, but I can tell you that other investigative journalists have noticed the trend that you've mentioned. I was at a conference about a week and a half ago and these are reporters, Pulitzer Prize winners from the New York Times and other publications who are all raising red flags about what the Obama administration has done in terms of restrictions to press freedoms. They were saying things like we have to speak truth to power and stand up and take action.