Rush Limbaugh complained that the media are “suppressing” stories about the September 11 attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya to shield President Obama from criticism from right-wing critics. And the reason they're doing so, he added, is because Obama is black. Yet news outlets continue to report on and question the administration's response to the incident; and most right-wing critics are basing their attacks on distortions.
On his radio show on Wednesday, Limbaugh claimed there was a “racial component” to the media's “sheltering” of Obama from stories on the attack in Benghazi. He rationalized this by saying that the media look at Obama and “they feel sorry for him” and claimed that this was a “form of discrimination -- the soft bigotry of low expectations.”
Limbaugh explained his reasoning this way:
LIMBAUGH: Liberals consider themselves elites. They're elites intellectually -- smarter than everybody else. They're better people. They look at the original sin of slavery in this country as something that will forever shape, harm, penalize blacks. It is something that as far as liberals, especially in the media, are concerned, will never be overcome. They're still slaves in one way or another.
This manifests itself in people feeling sorry for them, their sympathy -- they actually think that without advantages that African-Americans, and other minorities too by the way, can't accomplish things. The country is too unfair. The country is too unjust. The founding of the county was just a stacked deck: blacks didn't have a chance.
Limbaugh also stated that this view leads the media to have an “almost parental type protective bubble,” which is reflected in how they view government's “shepherding” role in society.
In fact, a Nexis database search shows that there have been at least 185 stories about the attack in Benghazi within the last week alone -- including 15 in The Washington Post and 14 in The New York Times.
Media have also continued to press Obama for answers on what happened in Benghazi during interviews. During an interview on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Monday, Obama was asked twice about the attack in Benghazi. During an October 26 interview with Denver TV station KUSA, Obama also fielded questions about the attack. And in an October 18 interview on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart questioned Obama about Libya.
Right-wing media figures, including Limbaugh, have continued to politicize the attack, trying to further the narrative that the Obama administration is engaged in a cover-up. But their attacks are based on multiple distortions and outright conspiracy theories, including that support wasn't provided to those under siege at the Benghazi compound and that the administration made a “political decision” to “sacrifice Americans” in the attack.