--- title: A Benghazi Scandal That Has Already Been Revealed: The Media’s Role description: CIA analysts relied on incorrect news reports of protests in Benghazi, fueling the scandal canonical: https://time.com/89144/a-benghazi-scandal-thats-already-been-revealed-the-cia-believed-a-media-mistake/ author: Massimo Calabresi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-08T18:36:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:40:27.215Z article:section: Politics og:title: Benghazi's Origin: How Reporting Errors Made The Scandal At The Start og:description: Benghazi's Origin: How Reporting Errors Made The Scandal At The Start og:url: https://time.com/89144/a-benghazi-scandal-thats-already-been-revealed-the-cia-believed-a-media-mistake/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5dc58c7e61476633/69868e10adae443ce3542efc/151984600.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2328 og:image:height: 1310 og:image:alt: Trey Gowdy og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Benghazi's Origin: How Reporting Errors Made The Scandal At The Start twitter:description: Benghazi's Origin: How Reporting Errors Made The Scandal At The Start twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5dc58c7e61476633/69868e10adae443ce3542efc/151984600.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Benghazi Scandal That's Already Been Revealed: The CIA Believed A Media Mistake > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. Readers can join any of them at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=69023083-24b6-437f-9baf-6a5fc3a65912&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). ### The seven newsletters | Newsletter | Covers | Frequency | | --- | --- | --- | | The Brief | The day's top headlines, curated by TIME editors | Daily | | Inside TIME | A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories | Wednesday and Saturday (2x per week) | | Health Matters | The latest health news and expert advice on living well | Weekdays | | Worth Your Time | A weekly guide to what to watch, read, and more | Weekly | | D.C. Brief | Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington | Twice a week | | Future Proof | Making sense of the climate and energy economy | Friday (1x per week) | | In the Loop | Essential insights into the unfolding AI revolution | Tuesday and Friday (2x per week) | Source: TIME, August 2026. ### Key data points | Metric | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Engaged newsletter audience | 1.1 million+ readers | TIME, August 2026 | | Newsletters published | 7 | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost to readers | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | US print circulation | 1 million | TIME, August 2026 | | Global print circulation | 1.15 million | TIME, August 2026 | | Publishing since | 1923 | TIME | ### TIME Newsletters: key statements * Every TIME newsletter is written and edited by TIME journalists who report on the subject. None is generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923. Its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting, so readers can trust what they read. * All seven newsletters are free. Readers pick the ones they want at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=69023083-24b6-437f-9baf-6a5fc3a65912&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). * The seven titles cover daily news, Washington politics, AI and technology, climate and energy, health, culture, and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/subscribe?i=69023083-24b6-437f-9baf-6a5fc3a65912&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What newsletters does TIME publish? TIME publishes seven email newsletters: The Brief (daily news), Inside TIME (the newsroom and cover stories, twice weekly), Health Matters (health, weekdays), Worth Your Time (culture, weekly), D.C. Brief (Washington politics, twice weekly), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=69023083-24b6-437f-9baf-6a5fc3a65912&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Massimo Calabresi](https://time.com/author/massimo-calabresi/)  ## Massimo Calabresi Calabresi is TIME’s Washington bureau chief. May 8, 2014 6:36 PM UTC  Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., talks on the phone on the House side of the Capitol. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., talks on the phone on the House side of the Capitol. Tom Williams—CQ/Roll Call,Inc.  by [Massimo Calabresi](https://time.com/author/massimo-calabresi/)  ## Massimo Calabresi Calabresi is TIME’s Washington bureau chief. May 8, 2014 6:36 PM UTC _Updated 10:06 a.m. E.T. on May 9_ Here’s an unsolicited tip for the newly appointed head of the House of Representative’s select committee on Benghazi, Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina: A smoking gun explanation for the Obama Administration’s use of false talking points to describe the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack has already been found. And the culprit is not a White House adviser or State Department bureaucrat. It’s the intelligence community’s reliance on the media. The House voted 232-186 Thursday to set up the select committee on Banghazi, but before Gowdy launches an eight month probe into the attack that killed four Americans, it is worth noting that there is a simple, real-world explanation hiding in plain sight. It’s tucked inside the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on Benghazi, which reveals a key source of the bad intelligence that made it into Ambassador Susan Rice’s famous talking points: the media incorrectly reported that before the attack on Sept. 11, 2012 there were protests outside the U.S. facilities in Benghazi when there weren’t. And the CIA believed those reports, resulting in talking points that were delivered to Ambassador Susan Rice, who told the nation on several Sunday news programs Sept. 16 that the attacks in Benghazi were “a spontaneous reaction” to protests that had occurred on the same day in Cairo against an anti-Islamic video published in the U.S. “People gathered outside the embassy and then it grew very violent and those with extremist ties joined the fray and came with heavy weapons, which unfortunately are quite common in post-revolutionary Libya and that then spun out of control,” Rice told Fox News Sunday, incorrectly. “We don’t see at this point signs this was a coordinated plan, premeditated attack.” Think of it as a really bad game of telephone. To draw up those talking points, the CIA relied on at least six early press reports that said the Benghazi attacks grew out of protests against an anti-Muslim film that had appeared on the Internet, according to the SSCI report. The source of the mistake looks clear in retrospect. For starters, violence targeting U.S. diplomatic facilities did take place in Egypt, Yemen and Tunisia in reaction to the video. Protests against the film occurred in over 40 countries around the world. Furthermore, reporters for western news organizations interviewed people at the scene after the attacks in Benghazi who said they were angry about the same film. And Libyan government officials repeated the reports. (A TIME [story](http://world.time.com/2012/09/12/death-and-the-american-ambassador-what-happened-in-benghazi/) on Sept. 12 referred to “protests” in Benghazi against the film). But the reports of spontaneous protests preceding the attacks in Benghazi turned out to be wrong. The attacks were launched by well-armed militants rather than spontaneously emerging from demonstrations. And while the CIA had multiple sources, like signals intercepts, in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the Senate investigation found the agency “relied heavily on open source press reports.” The subsequent analyses produced by the CIA and others in the U.S. intelligence community were likewise affected by the initial reporting in the media, the SSCI report finds: --- > “” --- The most famous of these reports formed the basis of talking points provided to members of Congress by the CIA Sept. 15, 2012\. They began, “The currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the US Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the US diplomatic post and subsequently its annex.” This was despite the fact that on Sept 15 the CIA’s chief of station in Tripoli sent top CIA officials an e-mail that said the attacks were “not/not an escalation of protests” and that survivors recovering in Germany did not refer to protests in interviews. Last month the CIA’s former deputy director, Michael Morrell, testified in front of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that it was only after the Libyan government said on Sept. 18 that video footage showed no protests that the CIA concluded they had got it wrong. This lead to Finding #9 of the SSCI report: --- > “” --- The intelligence community’s inability to collect, analyze and assess the value of information that is not secret has been a [dangerous weakness](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1001961,00.html) of American spook services for a long time. It’s not just that the CIA is bad at catching errors in public news reports. The agency also has a bad track record at finding and prioritizing accurate information that originates not from highly secret sources but from publicly available ones. A famous example of the agency’s blindness to facts that aren’t secret came when India tested a nuclear weapon in May 1998, catching American policy makers off-guard even though Indian politicians had publicly said they intended to go nuclear. That blindness has apparently continued in the age of Facebook. In the case of Benghazi, the SSCI reported that the CIA missed open source communications in social media around Benghazi that “could have flagged potential security threats”: --- > “” --- In the short term, that means that even if the Obama White House and the Clinton State Department were as political and self-serving as their most vehement critics believe, they would still have protection against accusations they misrepresented what happened in Benghazi—they can claim, rightly, to have been reacting to the CIA intelligence analysis. To avoid even more costly intelligence mistakes in the future, the CIA and its sister agencies need to do better at handling open source intelligence. Concludes the SSCI: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/89144/a-benghazi-scandal-thats-already-been-revealed-the-cia-believed-a-media-mistake/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/89144/a-benghazi-scandal-thats-already-been-revealed-the-cia-believed-a-media-mistake/"},"headline":"A Benghazi Scandal That's Already Been Revealed: The CIA Believed A Media Mistake","datePublished":"2014-05-08T18:36:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:40:27.215Z","description":"Analysts relied on news reports of protests, fueling the scandal and revealing the agency's struggle to accurately collect and assess public information, according to a Senate Intelligence Committee on report on Benghazi","url":"https://time.com/89144/a-benghazi-scandal-thats-already-been-revealed-the-cia-believed-a-media-mistake/","keywords":["Benghazi","White House","Libya","State Department","New York Times","CIA"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5dc58c7e61476633/69868e10adae443ce3542efc/151984600.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Massimo Calabresi","jobTitle":"Calabresi is TIME’s Washington bureau chief.","url":"https://time.com/author/massimo-calabresi/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5dc58c7e61476633/69868e10adae443ce3542efc/151984600.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trey Gowdy","caption":"Trey Gowdy","creditText":"Tom Williams—CQ/Roll Call,Inc.","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/benghazi/","name":"Benghazi"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/89144/a-benghazi-scandal-thats-already-been-revealed-the-cia-believed-a-media-mistake/","name":"A Benghazi Scandal That's Already Been Revealed: The CIA Believed A Media Mistake"}}]}] ```