Before her recent
resignation from CBS, Sharyl Attkisson was a mainstream news star. Multiple
Emmys. CNN anchor, CBS anchor on stories about space exploration. Host of CBS’
News Up to the Minute. PBS host for Health Week. Investigative reporter for
CBS.
Attkisson dug deep
into Fast&Furious, Benghazi, and the ill-effects of vaccines. Too deep. Her
bosses shut her down and didn’t air key stories.
She now has her own
website, sharylattkisson.com. She is writing a book, Stonewalled: My
Fight for the Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation and
Harassment in Obama’s Washington.
It’s not every day
that a major mainstream journalist leaves the fold and then seeks to expose the
corruption that impinged on her work.
She agreed to do an
email interview. Some of the questions I sent went to the heart of her
book-in-progress, so she declined to answer them. However, her answers to my
other questions were revealing and explosive.
I know you’ve had
problems with your Wikipedia page. What happened there?
Long story short:
there is a concreted effort by special interests who exploit Wikipedia editing
privileges to control my biographical page to disparage my reporting on certain
topics and skew the information. Judging from the editing, the interest(s)
involved relates to the pharmaceutical/vaccine industry. I am far from alone.
There is an entire Wikipedia subculture that exists to control pages and
topics, and another one that watchdogs all that’s gone wrong with Wikipedia
(Wikipediocracy). It’s a fascinating subject.
In 2009, you
spearheaded coverage of the so-called Swine Flu pandemic. You discovered that,
in the summer of 2009, the Centers for Disease Control, ignoring their federal
mandate, stopped counting Swine Flu cases in America. Yet they continued to
stir up fear about the “pandemic,” without having any real measure of its
impact. Wasn’t that another investigation of yours that was shut down? Wasn’t
there more to find out?
The implications of
the story were even worse than that. We discovered through our FOI efforts that
before the CDC mysteriously stopped counting Swine Flu cases, they had learned
that almost none of the cases they had counted as Swine Flu was, in fact, Swine
Flu or any sort of flu at all! The interest in the story from one executive was
very enthusiastic. He said it was “the most original story” he’d seen on the
whole Swine Flu epidemic. But others pushed to stop it and, in the end, no
broadcast wanted to touch it. We aired numerous stories pumping up the idea of
an epidemic, but not the one that would shed original, new light on all the
hype. It was fair, accurate, legally approved and a heck of a story. With the
CDC keeping the true Swine Flu stats secret, it meant that many in the public
took and gave their children an experimental vaccine that may not have been
necessary.
You’ve revealed
serious problems caused by vaccines. Have you run into opposition as a result
of covering these stories?
This is a long
discussion but yes, it is one of the most well funded, well orchestrated
efforts I’ve ever seen on a story. Many reporters, if not all, who have tried
to factually cover this topic have experienced the same opposition as have
researchers who dared to uncover vaccine side effects. Those who don’t want the
stories explored want to censor the information from the public entirely, lest
the public draw the “wrong” conclusions about the facts. The media has largely
bought into the conflicted government, political and medical complex propaganda
on the topic that marginalizes researchers, journalists and parents who dare to
speak to the scientific facts they’ve uncovered or to their own experiences.
It’s a giant scandal of its own.
In an interview
with Real Clear Politics, you suggested that the website, Media Matters, has
been targeting and attacking you. Why have they gone after you? Because of your
work on the Fast&Furious story? Do these people just reflexively react
whenever a reporter writes something that casts a negative light on the Obama
White House?
I didn’t interview
with Real Clear Politics but maybe they quoted my interview with CNN.
MediaMatters is well known to be a left wing propaganda group that acts as a
pro-Obama surrogate to attack journalists that threaten the agenda. It works in
concert with federal officials who withhold public information from the press
and the public but then share it with MediaMatters so that the “talking points”
of the day can be controlled and manipulated. (One example: http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/18/emails-reveal-justice-dept-regularly-enlists-media-matters-to-spin-press/) The group works with other surrogates such
as Talking Points Memo to controversialize and harass reporters to intimidate
them and try to stop their damaging coverage. None of that is surprising or
unexpected. They are simply using a media campaign to try to squelch the
journalists who they believe could damage the interests of those they serve.
The only strange part of the equation is that the “mainstream” press at times
almost treats these paid opinion bloggers as if they are objective media
watchdogs. I don’t see these news organizations respond to the right wing
counterparts with the same deference. They news media typically doesn’t quote
conservative media ‘watchdogs’ or question journalists about the conservative
watchdogs’ criticisms and observations. Just the liberal ‘watchdogs.’
At this moment in
time, because you’re not employed by a major news network, are you viewed by
the media establishment as a loose cannon? Are you being painted as an
outsider, a weirdo, a chronic dissenter with an axe to grind?
All of the above, I
suppose, but I don’t pay attention that. It’s expected. I have heard from many
colleagues at various networks who are happy that I’m in a position to speak
freely of things that they, too have experienced and observed but cannot say
publicly.
My comment on
Attkisson’s answers: Her discussion of the endlessly corrupt CDC is remarkable.
The most hyped “epidemic” in recent history, Swine Flu, had absolutely no basis
in fact. It was one more effort to promote vaccines and scare the public. And
the harassment of mainstream reporters who question the sacred conventional
wisdom about vaccines is another piece of the story.
Jon Rappoport
The
author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX,
and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX,
Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of
California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose
of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer
Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing
articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin
Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon
has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and
creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free
emails at NoMoreFakeNews.com.
