Former CBS News investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson told
Newsmax TV on Tuesday that her $35 million lawsuit against the federal government won't stop this administration's bullying and intimidation of journalists, but it will drag the unsavory practices into the light for all to see.
Attkisson, who filed suit in Washington, D.C., alleging that the Obama Justice Department hacked into her computer
in retaliation for her aggressive reporting, told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner that she is going to court to get "facts and information" deliberately withheld by the government.
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"The purpose of the lawsuit isn't to stop harassment," said Attkisson, who claims that the spying took place in 2011-2013 as she investigated scandals surrounding Benghazi, Fast and Furious, and Obamacare,— and that independent forensic investigations of her computer uncovered sophisticated break-ins.
"They'll continue to do whatever they do," she said of the government, which has denied the hacking.
Attkisson said she wants to "shed light on what happened, so that when some computers are illegally intruded upon — especially a journalist whose work and whose sources are compromised — it should be [considered] a very serious things, no matter where you stand."
Finally, she said, a lawsuit that doesn't end harassment of journalists might still make it harder, and make officials think twice before attempting surveillance of other reporters.
Attkisson, who resigned from CBS charging the network stymied her work out of a
liberal political bias, said that she has no doubt there are people in the administration — and among Obama's allies on the left — who continue to work to discredit her.
She singled out Media Matters, the liberal journalistic watchdog group, as a de-facto outlet for the administration and former CBS colleagues sympathetic to Democrats — and critical of her.
"They're not a media watchdog group in the sense of some neutral organization out to get the facts," said Attkisson. "They're an agenda group, or propaganda group."
She said the lawsuit was not the product of any proverbial last straw.
"It evolved slowly," said Attkisson, explaining that, "I had people stepping forward when they heard about my situation and offered to help and start advising me on what options were available and what we could do based on the evidence that we were gathering.
"So I followed the advice that the lawyer who offered to help me with this case — a terrific lawyer who was fearless and not intimidated," she said. "And this is the course of action that he thought best due to the evidence of the circumstances, especially to get more of the truth that the government hasn't been forthcoming with."
Now working as an independent online journalist, the author of
"Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington", said thais administration's officials are still "doing all they can to shape the news and to stop negative reporting."
"And I don't think that's going to change, and I don't think it's unique to them," she said, "although they may be more aggressive, by pretty much every account, including New York Times, USA Today and others."