WRAL/CBC Official Opinion: ‘Nothing to see here’ on Cooper Pipeline Scandal

RALEIGH – The leaders of the parent company of WRAL, Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC) reliably pen official CBC opinion editorials that make sense of the blatant bias at the company’s many ostensibly objective news departments. They read like an extra potent list of Democratic talking points that border on the ridiculous (comparing N.C. Republican legislative leaders to North Korean despot Kim Jong Un) or fantastical (more government healthcare will be good for our economy and jobs!), but always fall right in line with the anti-Republican agenda at CBC.

In keeping with this, when it comes to the under-reported and corruption scandal involing Roy Cooper, a pipeline permit, and a $58 million slush fund, the latest official opinion of CBC is that there’s nothing to see here. While it seems redundant to publish a position the CBC networks have been working hard to spin for more than a year now, it comes as Cooper makes news for refusing interviews with the hired investigators. So, Cooper’s friends at CBC had to step in to carry some of his water.

From CBC/WRAL:

“[…] Ten months and nearly $60,000 in taxpayer funds paid to Eagle Intel Services of Wilmington to look into a $58 million mitigation agreement negotiated by Cooper’s office — it is hard not to come to the conclusion that it is more about partisan politics than any potential wrong-doing by the Cooper administration or the developers of the pipeline. Legislators, at the behest of the Republican leadership, took control of the potential mitigation fund. […]

Last week Cooper’s office disclosed a letter from state Sen. Harry Brown and state Rep. Dean Arp demanding members of Cooper’s staff agree to be interviewed, behind closed doors, by the Republican-hired investigators. Cooper’s office said staffers would testify in open, public meetings but not in private, closed-door sessions. […]”

Actually, with all of the pieces of information that have come out via this investigation, it’s hard not expect answers and accountability for something that, at the very least, smells very fishy. Would Republicans like to beat Cooper over the head with this pipeline scandal? Of course, this is politics, after all, but it is hardly a ‘pipe dream’ to think Cooper’s got dirt on his hands as CBC wants you to believe.

For one thing, if this were all a big piece of political theater for Republicans to drag Cooper through the mud (kind of like what’s happening on Capitol Hill; these Democrats project a lot), then wouldn’t Republicans be more interested in public, press-filled hearings than simple interviews behind closed doors?

The charge that Republicans interest in the origins of this scandal is only political belies the seriousness of the apparent corruption and the people’s right to get to the bottom of it. The notion that it is more dog and pony show than serious investigation makes zero sense within the context of Republicans’ requests for private interviews with Cooper and staff.

We all know public hearings yield sound bites and little else. Republican lawmakers, after being stonewalled time and again, with little to no added pressure from media, seem most interested in learning the truth.

You know, the details Cooper has been keeping tight-lipped about regarding exactly how and who arranged for $58 million from the pipeline companies to funnel into an account controlled by Cooper’s office only and without the knowledge of the General Assembly, and why the permit for the pipeline approval all the sudden got approved when the slush fund was agreed to?

Those are a sense of the questions Cooper and his staff don’t want to face from seasoned interrogators that can’t be appeased with political spin. It’s why CBC is out running protection for Cooper, and why Republicans should keep demanding answers. As such, we look forward to those public hearings.