Today Media Matters for America will deliver printed copies of The Benghazi Hoax, our book comprehensively debunking the worst right-wing lies surrounding the 2012 attacks, to members of the House Select Committee on Benghazi in advance of their October 22 hearing with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 

In a letter to the members, Media Matters president Bradley Beychok notes that the committee has been exposed by the Republican Party as “a partisan stunt intended to damage” Clinton, and calls on them to “help squelch the untruths and put an end to the lies and perpetual misinformation that Fox News and other right-wing media have disseminated about the attacks for several years.”

The letter in full:

Dear Committee Member:

During an appearance on Fox News' Hannity on September 29, Representative Kevin McCarthy -- then House Speaker-in-Waiting -- displayed a level of candor that is rarely seen in politics. McCarthy publicly exposed the House Select Committee on Benghazi, on which you serve, for what it is: a partisan stunt intended to damage former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The fallout was swift. McCarthy is no longer in line to be Speaker of the House. A former Benghazi committee staffer corroborated McCarthy's words, saying the “partisan investigation” had shifted its focus almost exclusively to Clinton. Just last week, in a stunning turn of events, a second GOP congressman, Richard Hanna, also corroborated McCarthy's statements, telling a radio interviewer that McCarthy “had it right to begin with” and that there was a “big part of this investigation that was designed to go after people and an individual, Hillary Clinton.” 

In the three years since the attack on the U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, conservative media have relentlessly advanced a series of phony scandals implicating the Obama administration in the attack and alleging some sort of cover-up.

In advance of Secretary Clinton's anticipated testimony before the committee on October 22, I am writing to provide you with an updated copy of Media Matters for America's book, The Benghazi Hoax. It is a comprehensive guide to the most common smears and lies about the attack in Benghazi and how the administration responded.

Just this weekend, Representative Elijah Cummings, the ranking member of the select committee on which you serve, debunked the right-wing media claim that Hillary Clinton compromised national security by revealing the name of a CIA source in an email sent from her private account. The false claim -- which originated with Republican members of your committee -- landed squarely in the conservative press, exposing the right-wing echo chamber between conservative politicians and a conservative media that pushes misinformation devoid of the facts.

Which is why, in light of the tomes of misinformation that have muddled the media coverage of the investigations into the attacks on Benghazi, Media Matters for America hopes that by providing you this primer we can count on you to be equipped with the facts prior to Secretary Clinton's appearance before the committee.

We hope we can count on you to help squelch the untruths and put an end to the lies and perpetual misinformation that Fox News and other right-wing media have disseminated about the attacks for several years.

Sincerely,

Bradley Beychok

President, Media Matters for America