Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) publicly admitted that his dogged investigation into the IRS may be at a “dead end” given a former IRS official's refusal to testify, but you won't hear that on Fox News.  

The Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee called on former IRS official Lois Lerner to testify on March 5 in yet another hearing on the IRS' inappropriate targeting of organizations seeking tax exempt status. For the second time, Lerner testified that she would invoke her Fifth Amendment rights and not answer the committee's questions.  

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Issa articulated that his investigation into the IRS could “dead end” given Lerner's refusal to testify. As Talking Points Memo reported:

Issa was asked how bad of a setback Wednesday's hearing was for the investigation.

“As you can see from our questioning today, we have continued to gather facts around Ms. Lerner's absence of testimony,” Issa replied. “It would have allowed us to bring this investigation to a -- probably pretty quick close if she had been willing to answers those questions. Without it we will undoubtably [sic] have a few more questions to try to find out things that she could have answered quickly today.”

A reporter than asked Issa if he was still “confident” the investigation would “get to the bottom of this.”

“It may well be we have gotten to the bottom of it,” Issa said. “At this point, roads lead to Ms. Lerner. The witness who to took the Fifth. That becomes -- she becomes one of the key characters at this point. Had she been willing to explain those emails which were provided through separate subpoenas, then we could have perhaps brought this to a close. Without that, it may dead end with Ms. Lerner.”

Fox News was quick to hype Issa's hearing, but not nearly so quick to acknowledge the congressman's admission that his IRS investigation might be over.

Summarizing the House hearing that evening on Special Report, Fox correspondent Mike Emanuel concluded, “At this point, Issa seems prepared to move forward with the IRS investigation without hearing from Lerner”:

Issa even appeared on On The Record with Greta Van Susteren later, and in the more than nine minutes he and the Fox host talked about the hearing and his IRS investigation, it was never acknowledged that Issa had told reporters his relentless inquiry may be at a close.

Fox has a special interest in Issa continuing his IRS witch-hunt -- the network is the congressman's chosen mouthpiece for trumpeting distortions about Lerner and the agencies' actions.