It becomes useful to hardcore partisans including those in the press to “controversialize” what should be a noncontroversial, nonpartisan issue. No one should be arguing that the VA Scandal is not a scandal.
But Obama needs it to not be a scandal — and thus, his administration pumped out a report claiming that they couldn’t tell who actually died on the waiting list, so that conservatives claiming that people died were liars.
The media ate this report up, of course, and ignored later proof that the report had been ordered to be written that way by Obama flacks.
This then is what I think Sharyl Attkisson meant by “controversializing” an issue. Partisanizing it, making it seem as if there is a Progressive Side and a Conservative Side and the Conservatives are of course liars and even if they’re not, it’s all just a big silly political food-fight anyway, and only an extreme partisan would take sides in a big silly political food-fight.
Therefore, anyone reporting on the VA scandal must himself be an extreme partisan. After all, if it’s just a big political food-fight, who else but partisans would weigh in?
Thus does the media turn all stories about Democrat malfeasance into mere political name-calling squabbles.