What’s the Headline?

A friend of mine recently attended a high-level meeting at a major national newspaper and was able to record a conversation between one of the editors and a reporter. Because of the sensitivity of what is about to be revealed, my source must remain anonymous. This is a transcript of the secretly recorded the meeting between an editor of that major national newspaper and a reporter.

Reporter: Well, the story the administration told about the murder of the American Ambassador Stevens to Libya has fallen apart.

Editor: What do you mean?

Reporter: Well, the administration first claimed that it was a trailer that ran on YouTube for an anti-Islamic film that caused a spontaneous reaction and the ambassador was killed in the chaos.

Editor: Yes, but isn’t that the truth?

Reporter: Not exactly, as it turns out the ambassador had written in his journal that he was worried for his safety and the attack on the Consulate appears to have been well planned in advance. Apparently the administration was totally unprepared for it.

Editor: You mean that it was not the film trailer on YouTube that led to a spontaneous outburst of rage, but a coordinated terrorist attack on one of our facilities, and Ambassador Stevens along with 3 other Americans were killed?

Reporter: Yes, and additionally, it turns out that the Navy Seals who died were not even on his security team, but tried to aid him when he was attacked. President Obama and Secretary Clinton are still apologizing for the film trailer and they still insist that the film is to blame, even though the Libyan government claims that it warned the administration that an attack might be imminent because of the anniversary of September 11. They would not even use the word terrorist to describe the attack.

Editor: Did they call it workplace violence?

Reporter: Not this time.

Editor: Well, this certainly makes the administration look incompetent and untruthful.

Reporter: Well, what do we go with?

Editor: It seems to me you have been with this paper long enough to know how we do things here.

Reporter: I don’t understand. What should the headline say?

Editor: What a bad week it was for Romney, of course.