Salon.com > Jake Tapper

ABC’s Benghazi problem festers

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

What did they know and when they did they know it? That question has been posed to the White House a lot this week -- but it should also be put to ABC News, which has been caught reporting as fact emails about the Benghazi controversy that, it turns out, were doctored by Republican aides. There's no indication that ABC and its reporter, Jonathan Karl, knew the emails were manipulated before reporting them, of course. But the network may run into trouble for overplaying its hand in claiming it had "obtained" emails that, we learn today from CBS News, were actually notes taken by GOP aides being briefed on the emails.

That might be less of a problem if the characterization of the emails was accurate. It was not.

Here's a timeline of ABC's role in the matter:

Friday, May 10 - Morning: Karl's explosive report that ABC had obtained 12 different versions of the administration's talking points on the Benghazi attack quickly made the controversy the top news item of the day as every other news organization rushed to aggregate and digest his report (including Salon).

Two scandals deflated, one persists

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:33:00 +0000

The Obama administration started Tuesday mired in three scandals the GOP seemed able to tie “into one ‘Big Brother Obama’ storyline,” in the words of Greg Sargent, and ended it appearing to face political culpability on only one, the Department of Justice’s broad subpoenas obtaining phone records from the Associated Press. It’s not to say Benghazi or the IRS mess went away, but the GOP’s creepy plotline got a whole lot less plausible.

The Benghazi “scandal” lost velocity thanks to CNN’s Jake Tapper reporting that an email key to the notion that the White House doctored talking points to protect the State Department didn’t at all read the way ABC’s Jonathan Karl reported it. Karl quoted White House national security communications adviser Ben Rhodes’ email specifically saying the talking points should “reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department,” but the actual email obtained by Tapper didn’t mention the State Department at all. Karl ended the day with the shocking admission that while he’d reported on air that he’d “obtained” the emails in question, and wrote online that he’d “reviewed” them, in fact he’d only heard about them from the notes of a source – presumed to be a House GOP staffer.

Who doctored a White House email?

Tue, 14 May 2013 17:36:00 +0000

Was ABC News used by someone with an ax to grind against the State Department? It looks possible. A key email in its “scoop” that the administration’s “talking points” on Benghazi had been changed a dozen times came from White House national security communications adviser Ben Rhodes. It seemed to confirm that the White House wanted the talking points changed to protect all agencies’ interests, “including those of the State Department,” in the words of the email allegedly sent by Rhodes.

But CNN’s Jake Tapper reveals that Rhodes’ email didn’t mention the State Department, and doesn’t even seem to implicitly reference it. The email as published by Karl differs significantly from the original obtained by Tapper.

According to ABC’s Jonathan Karl, Rhodes weighed in after State Department’s Victoria Nuland, who expressed concerns about the way the talking points might hurt “my building's leadership.” ABC quotes Rhodes saying:

David Gregory irate about soda, meh on civil rights

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:10:00 +0000

In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's NYPD is stopping large numbers of innocent people walking down the street each day -- questioning them as to their whereabouts and invasively frisking their bodies in a hunt for weapons and drugs. The stops are almost entirely (nearly nine in 10) targeting young black and Latino men. The overwhelming majority of those stopped are doing nothing wrong (just 6 percent of stops lead to arrests, and a small fraction of those are ever prosecuted). And it's having a deleterious effect on the psyche of the targets (as well as community relations with police).

Colbert backs his sister

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:47:00 +0000

Stephen Colbert broke character to chat with CNN's Jake Tapper about his sister's bid for Congress in South Carolina, which will hold its primaries on Tuesday.

Elizabeth Colbert-Busch is running against two other Democrats in the primary, and if she wins she will likely face off with favored Republican candidate, former Gov. Mark Sanford.

Colbert said that "this is the first" time he's actually gotten involved in an election, and that he has been breaking character to help his sister campaign. "She's my sister, and I'm willing to break the jewel of my own creation to try to do something for her. I'm not worried about what it'll do to my show."

He added, "I don't care" if people object to his involvement.

Tapper also asked Colbert about Mark Sanford, who is likely to win the Republican nomination. "Mark Sanford is favored," Colbert said. "The former governor of the Appalachian Trail." He added: "I will make jokes about it. I said, 'Lulu, if you do something funny I will make jokes about you.'"

Courage and malfeasance in Afghanistan: “Anyone we drop off will die”

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 17:30:00 +0000

It was madness.

At Jalalabad Airfield, in eastern Afghanistan in the summer of 2006, a young intelligence analyst named Jacob Whittaker tried with great difficulty to understand exactly what he was hearing.

The 10th Mountain Division of the United States Army wanted to do what?

Whittaker had to choose his words carefully. He was just a low-ranking specialist with the Idaho National Guard, a very low man on a very tall totem pole. A round-faced twenty-six-year-old, Whittaker had simple tastes — Boise State football, comic books — and a reputation for mulishness belied by his innocent appearance.

Whittaker stared at his superior officer, Second Lieutenant Ryan Lockner, who was running this briefing for him and Sergeant Aaron Ives. Lockner headed intelligence for Task Force Talon, the Army’s aviation component at Jalalabad Airfield, in Nangarhar Province, adjacent to the Pakistan border. Military leaders considered this area, officially designated Regional Command East, the most dangerous part of an increasingly dangerous country.