Following in the footsteps of others in the right-wing media, Fox News host Sean Hannity selectively edited a video of outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to portray President Obama as “virtually absent” during the September 2012 attack on a diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya. In fact, Panetta testified that White House officials were kept informed of events throughout the incident.

On the February 7 edition of his Fox News program, Hannity said “a major bombshell was revealed” during Panetta's testimony during a congressional briefing that Obama “was virtually absent” during the Benghazi attack. Hannity then played segments of Panetta's testimony.

But Hannity did not air the section of Panetta's testimony in which he pointed out that information about the attack “went to the White House” and that Obama stayed in contact with military officials and was “well-informed” during the attack. Hannity also failed to air a clip of Gen. Martin Dempsey stating that White House staff “was engaged with the national military command center pretty constantly through the period, which is the way it would normally work.”

Hannity joins numerous other right-wing outlets in selectively editing the testimony of Panetta and Dempsey.