Sharyl Attkisson Resigns From CBS News Citing Editorial Suppression of Obama-Administration Investigations
On March 10, 2014, veteran CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson resigned after 21 years, telling multiple outlets that network management had increasingly spiked or delayed her reporting on the Obama administration — including Benghazi, Fast and Furious, and Healthcare.gov — and that she had come to see the suppression as retaliation for the political sensitivity of her work.
Attkisson had won five Emmys and an Edward R. Murrow Award while at CBS News. In late 2013 and early 2014, Politico, the New York Times, and New York magazine reported that Attkisson and CBS management were locked in an escalating dispute over her Obama-administration coverage, with Attkisson telling colleagues her Benghazi and Healthcare.gov stories were being blocked or watered down. CBS News announced her resignation on March 10, 2014. She subsequently described the editorial pressure at length in her 2014 book 'Stonewalled' and in congressional testimony, framing the resignation as a consequence of her refusal to soften investigative reporting adverse to the administration. Multiple mainstream outlets have described her departure as one of the highest-profile examples of a network correspondent leaving over alleged editorial suppression of political reporting.