Emails to government officials
saying a terrorist group had claimed responsibility were written about by two
news agencies, but with very different perspectives.
Fox
and NBC both reported on the emails, which said that a group named Ansar
Al-Sharia had claimed responsibility for the attack on the American embassy in
Libya, in which four Americans died.
The
NBC report had the headline, “U.S. officials: Benghazi emails reveal little new
about attack response.” The first paragraph explains about the emails, while
the rest of the article appears to be a thinly veiled attempt to make the
reader doubt that this intelligence could be relied upon.
The
Fox headline read, “Lawmakers press administration for Libya answers after
email release.” To their credit, the article did state that the group later
denied the claims, but bias shows up here as well. The article didn’t spend
much time on the emails, but instead spoke more about how the administration’s
initial explanation didn’t match up with later intelligence.
Overall,
both sides appear to be trying to persuade the reader to believe something,
instead of just reporting the news.
