ATF Memo On Operation That Allowed Weapons Shipments To Mexican Drug Cartels: Fortunately, Coverage By Mainstream Media, “Seems To Have Fizzled”
March 6th, 2011Via: CBS News:
As CBS News investigates “gun walking” allegations — that ATF let thousands assault rifles and other weapons get into the hands of criminal suspects — ATF bosses have remained largely silent.
We’ve had ongoing requests for information and on camera interviews with both ATF and the Department of Justice since prior to our first report which aired Feb. 22.
A similar lack of response has been reported by Senator Charles Grassley, who has asked for documents and briefings from ATF.
Now, we learn that after our Feb. 22 report, ATF’s Chief Public Affairs officer sent an all-call internal memo to ATF Public Information Officers in an effort to “lessen the coverage of such stories in the news cycle by replacing them with good stories about ATF.”
The memo asks ATF PIO’s to “Please make every effort in the next two weeks to maximize coverage of ATF operations/enforcement actions/arrests at the local and regional level” in hopes it would drown out the “negative coverage by CBS News.”
At the time, the memo noted “Fortunately, the CBS story has not sparked any follow up coverage by mainstream media and seems to have fizzled.”
Related: ATF Let Hundreds of U.S. Weapons Fall into Hands of Suspected Mexican Gunrunners
