Sharyl Attkisson Resigns from CBS for Future in Conservative Punditry
Long-time investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson, who has repeatedly suggested that dark government forces secretly infiltrated her home and work computers in order to make them act weird, is finally resigning from CBS News. Attkisson tweeted her resignation on Monday afternoon, just as Politico reported that her contentious contract negotiations fell apart over Attkisson’s belief that CBS suffered from a “liberal bias”:
Attkisson, who has been with CBS News for two decades, had grown frustrated with what she saw as the network’s liberal bias, an outsized influence by the network’s corporate partners and a lack of dedication to investigative reporting, several sources said. She increasingly felt like her work was no longer supported and that it was a struggle to get her reporting on air.
For the past five years, Attkisson has focused intensely on stories about the perceived corruption of the Obama administration, including the Fast and Furious gun-running investigation and the September 2012 attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Still, she remained unhappy with CBS for not giving her adequate air-time or devoting enough resources to investigative reporting. Given 60 Minutes’ flawed Benghazi report, the latter charge isn’t necessarily inaccurate.
Lately, however, her moments in the spotlight have centered on the ongoing investigation into who was making her computers turn on and off by themselves. She revealed that development not on her own network but, instead, Bill O’Reilly’s prime-time Fox News show.
With her newfound freedom, Attkisson plans to write a book about her journalism experience, titled Stonewalled: One Reporter’s Fight for Truth in Obama’s Washington.
To contact the author of this post, email trotter@gawker.com