Fox News national security analyst KT McFarland ignored key findings in a new bipartisan Senate report on the attacks in Benghazi to revive calls for a special prosecutor or select congressional committee to further investigate the attacks, despite the fact that the new exhaustive report is largely in line with previous investigations.
On the January 15 edition of Happening Now, McFarland discussed the newly released Senate Select Intelligence Committee report, declaring it a “bombshell.” She went on to conclude that the report proved Benghazi is “not a phony scandal" and that it showed the need for a special prosecutor or special select committee to investigate “more unanswered questions.”
Fox has supported efforts to establish a special prosecutor or select committee to investigate Benghazi in the past. In May 2013, Fox turned to Whitewater deputy counsel Robert Bittman to express support for a similar investigation into Benghazi. That July, six separate Fox shows promoted a doomed right-wing effort to force the House to convene a select committee to investigate the attacks.
McFarland did not detail what “unanswered questions” are left to investigate, but the report concluded that there “were no efforts by the White House or any other Executive Branch entities to 'cover-up' facts” in the Obama administration's early attempts to explain how the attack happened. According to the New York Times, the report “is broadly consistent with the findings of previous inquiries” into the attacks, and it “does not break significant new ground on this issue.”
Fox has used the release of other investigations into Benghazi to fan the flames of this “scandal” even when the results debunk their favorite narratives. This report similarly debunks many myths about Benghazi that Fox has pushed for many months.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. said in a statement that she hopes the report “will put to rest many of the conspiracy theories and political accusations about what happened in Benghazi.” It won't if Fox News has its way.