ATF: Did the LA Times Get it Wrong?

LA Times Washington writer Richard Serrano has written a piece on the ATF Gunrunner scandal. It is highly accusatory of the Department of Justice.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-na-guns-scandal-20110719,0,1205155,print.story

In response, Media Matters for America has taken Serrano to task for using the phrase, "smoking gun" to describe DOJ's alleged involvement in covering up the scandal.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201107190010

First of all, Media Matters is a site co-founded by left-wing activist David Brock (a former conservative activist and writer who changed his life philosophy in mid-life). Former Bill Clinton chief-of-staff John Podesta is also involved in Media Matters.

So let us just say that Media Matters is a de facto arm of the Democratic Party. There is no objectivity when it comes to Media Matters. It is totally partisan. It is doubtful that they would have rushed to the defense of the Justice Department in the Bush administration. Similarly, it is not hard to figure out why they would want to downplay the ATF Fast and Furious scandal that threatens to involve Eric Holder and perhaps even President Obama.

Many would say the same about the LA Times, one of the more liberal major newspapers in the country. Yet, one of their writers has written an article highly critical of the Justice Department in this scandal involving ATF.

Now comes Media Matters blasting the article over the phrase "smoking gun" and what specifically it refers to. The question is whether the Serrano article carelessly used the phrase or whether it is deliberately inaccurate. It seems to me that the debate over the phrase "smoking gun" is a bit overblown and the central accusation remains that the DOJ tried to limit what ATF Acting Director Ken Melson could say to Congress.

What is central to this discussion is whether these statements (from the Serrano article) are true:

"Melson said the Justice Department repeatedly thwarted his attempts to tell investigators about the failures of Fast and Furious, which was run out of the ATF's Phoenix field office. When the ATF reassigned managers in Phoenix, he said, "the department resisted" his offer to tell Congress about the changes. Melson said he was told not to issue any news releases about Fast and Furious and was instructed not to brief rank-and-file ATF agents about the growing scandal.



When Grassley sought to meet with Melson this year, the Justice Department blocked that interview too, Melson said. "This is really just poking [Grassley] in the eye," Melson said he told Justice Department officials. "He's going to get it through the back door anyway, so why are we aggravating this situation?"


It is clear that the administration, DOJ and the liberal media want this scandal to end at ATF and not involve DOJ. The full truth must come out, if, for no other reason, two Border Patrol  agents have been killed with weapons involved in the case. Ultimately, Congress needs to know of any internal DOJ documents that show DOJ complicity and an effort to keep people like Melson from telling the true story to Congressional investigators.