Sunday Morning Comin' Down

It was a Benghaaaazi-fest (with breadcrumb filler) of which this was the most Hanna-Barbera (h/t Crooks and Liars):

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Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume on Sunday lashed out in anger after former Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) mocked conservatives' obsession with Benghazi by comparing to conspiracy theories like aliens at Area 51 and the murder of Vince Foster.

During a panel segment on Fox News Sunday, Harman pointed out that recently-released emails about how the Obama administration prepared talking points after the Benghazi attack did not prove that there was a conspiracy to deceive the public.

"We didn't have actionable intelligence about 9/11," host Chris Wallace argued. "But that doesn't mean it didn't happen."

"No, it doesn't mean it didn't happen, and I would call that an intelligence failure," Harman agreed. "This was an intelligence failure, but it wasn't a conspiracy."

"And there aren't aliens in Area 51, and Vice Foster wasn't murdered," she added in frustration. "And it's time to move on, and focus on the real problems in Libya."

"You're right, there wasn't a conspiracy in the United States to mount the Benghazi attack," Hume shot back, raising his voice. "The question was, in the aftermath of the attack, when the administration sent its U.N. ambassador out to explain it to everybody -- and she did so falsely -- that there wasn't a conspiracy to create the false talking points she used!"
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The idea that the Roger Ailes network ... the  Karl Rove network ... the Dick Fucking Cheney Torture network... the network that is still pretty sure that WMD will show up in Iraq any day now ... the network away from which your Crazy Uncle Liberty dare not look for more than a few seconds for fear of catching a glimpse of Scary Reality ... actually gives a shit about lies or White House conspiracies or Americans getting killed in dangerous, faraway places for tragic reasons is so patently ridiculous it defies categorization.

But thanks to the Roger Ailes network and all of Roger Ailes' co-conspirators in Congress, Benghaaaazi will be your media's default setting for the next who-knows-how-long.  So settle in for Whitewater 2.0 to come screaming at you at 120 decibels from every Fox News screen you run across at the garage or barber shop, and out of every email attachment from Crazy Uncle Liberty.

Like this one:

Also Barack Obama can tell a joke.

But the real show was the show behind the show:

‘Meet the Press’ crisis as David Gregory’s producer quits

David Gregory’s tenure at “Meet the Press” has suffered another blow after the show’s long-standing producer, Chris Donovan, quit after 12 years and defected to work for ABC rival George Stephanopoulos at “This Week.”

Donovan, who started at ABC last week, was fed up with embattled Gregory and the direction of “Meet the Press,” sources tell Page Six, which has sunk to third place in the ratings, behind CBS’ “Face the Nation” and ABC’s “This Week.”

One source said, “There is a tense atmosphere at ‘Meet the Press.’ Gregory is dismissive of the staff, and is often hard to reach or approach.

“He is famously the only host on Sunday morning TV who won’t pick up the phone to seal the deal to get a big guest. There’s nobody else on TV, and certainly on Sunday mornings, who thinks they are too important to do that. It is tough on the producers.”

Another source insisted that well-respected Donovan left for ABC for an opportunity to work as a senior producer across George’s shows “This Week” and “GMA,” plus news specials.

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Also NBC announces this demotion:

NBC News Names Chris Jansing Sr. White House Correspondent

NBC News said Chris Jansing would leave her current post at MSNBC and return to NBC News full-time as the news unit’s senior White House correspondent. Peter Alexander, the current White House correspondent, has been named national correspondent for NBC News.

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“In addition to enhancing our coverage, we hope that this new structure will also allow Chuck Todd to dedicate more of his time to the signature razor-sharp analysis and expertise that our audiences can’t get enough of,” said Deborah Turness, president of NBC News, in a prepared statement. “Chris and Peter, along with Kristen Welker, give us a powerful ensemble covering the White House as we approach the mid-terms and the 2016 presidential elections.”

Meet the New Dross.
Same as the Old Dross.

UPDATE:  Brother Charles Pierce runs the diving bell down into the sludgy depths of "This Week... with .Former Fox News Employees" to see if there's anything alive down there.

There's not:

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Old friend Martha Raddatz then did a solid report about how embassy security was beefed up after the Benghazi attacks. Not that anyone who will be feasting on the nothingburgers will care. "The critical issue," George and Martha (and why didn't I ever notice that before?), will be that Susan Rice something-something-contempt-something-mumble-something. Until at least the second week of November. Cokie Roberts has that part sussed.

ROBERTS: -- reporting on Benghazi. It's like alternative universes. You know, you have -- you have one group of people saying, look there was nothing -- there was -- we weren't doing anything here and another group of people saying it was all evil. The truth is the White House should have released this email. That was a big either mistake or venality. And it's also true that everybody does talking points before Sunday programs and the talking points are about politics and limiting political damage.

Dear Jesus, spare us from centrists like this. One group of people has been utterly insane on the topic since the night the attacks happened. The other group of people may or may not have bungled what they said on The Sunday Showz. Experts divided on state of world. And, as though things hadn't become ugly enough, we were treated to currently career-free politician Rick Santorum, the fellow who believes the Iranians will nuke us in order to bring on the return of the 12th Imam, and have I mentioned recently what a colossal dick Rick Santorum is?

RICK SANTORUM, FORMER SENATOR: I can tell you that there's a firestorm out there across America among a lot of -- a lot of Republicans who believe that we have not been diligent in taking this issue on and this email is going to confirm all of that.

"A firestorm across America"? Three rubes in Council Bluffs with their hair on fire. Maybe. Has anyone broken it to this guy yet that he wasn't elected in 2012 and that, in fact, the last time he was a finalist in an election, he lost (as an incumbent) by a couple of touchdowns?

(ABC ideological quota hire Laura Ingraham chipped in what the network's pays her for. At one point, she compared the barbaric botched execution in Oklahoma to abortion. Nice hire, ABC.)

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