Former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson said the Obama administration has a "chilling effect" on journalism.
Speaking with Fox News’ Howard Kurtz Sunday on Media Buzz, Attkisson, who quit her job at the news network last month, said that the White House tries to kill all negative stories about the president or his administration.
"Any journalist…would agree… that there’s pressure coming to bear on journalists for just doing their job in ways that have never come to bear before….It’s particularly aggressive under the Obama administration. I think it’s a campaign that’s very well organized – this design to have sort of a chilling effect, and to some degree has been somewhat successful…," Attkisson explained to Kurtz.
She added that there is a large amount of pushback from the Obama administration when unfavorable truths are discovered and reported about.
"Rather than providing the information that I think they’re required to provide, the public information that we own and answering questions, it’s just a lot of obfuscation, accusations, saying things are phony scandals, bogus, not real, giving misinformation and false information… and then modifying it when they’re caught doing so…," she said.
When presented with information or reports contrary to what the administration wants the public knowing, the White House may admit the discrepancy or give a different account of what actually happened.
Attkisson called the White House’s cunning scheme to edit information "a tedious process that results in very little real information."