A first for YouTube is marred by a possible political scandal, The House Oversight Committee’s hearing on Wednesday concerning the September attacks in Benghazi, Libya will be the first from the committee to be streamed live via the online service.
It was only last month that the Lawmakers allowed the House and Senate to live-stream their hearings via YouTube. The two branches were streaming before, but they were paying Ustream for the service. CSPAN streams such events as well, but many felt it was unfair that only one company was doing so.
The possible scandal has been making headlines for months, and today will be the first day of testimonies from members of staff. Gregory Hicks is one such testimony that will be closely monitored by the press. The former deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya, is expected at this point to claim they he and other members of the staff attempted to get military support for the Benghazi compound prior to the attack. This would indicate that both The White House and the State Department failed to appropriately respond to the request, then lied about the attack’s spontaneity, instead blaming the attack on a YouTube video that angered the local population and could not be predicted. You can watch the Benghazi hearings starting at 11:30am ET on the video above or the website below.
more info: oversight.house.gov
