Lara Logan of “60 Minutes” Asked to Take a Leave of Absence Following Discredited Beghazi Report

Executives at CBS have asked Lara Logan, the Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent at the show “60 Minutes”, to take a leave of absence following her discredited report on the September 11 Benghazi attack. According to Jeff Fager, the CBS News Chairman and the show’s executive producer, he didn’t do his due diligence in verifying the facts of the special report. Really? The revelations in the report were sensational enough that it had to have been known the story would draw intense scrutiny from outside media sources.

The rare steps by CBS were applauded by Media Matters, the liberal media monitoring group that was among the first to criticize Logan’s conclusions about Benghazi.

“From the start of this controversy, Media Matters has demanded that CBS review the flawed ’60 Minutes’ report and take appropriate action. Today, the network has done that,” the group’s chairman, David Brock, said in a statement. “We hope this serves as a lesson learned to CBS about the danger of misinformation.”

Perhaps asking Mrs. Logan and Max McClellan, her producer, to take a leave of absence is a way to plausibly appear to take action while not having to truly discipline anyone. There is no word on whether the leave is paid or unpaid. If the leave is paid, it would effectively constitute giving them vacation time as a sanction.

Either way, the fallout continues from the report that featured an eye witness in the form of security officer Dylan Davies who reached the embassy during the attack and made it to the hospital where he saw the deceased US Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Among other things, Davies has been shown to have confirmed to both the FBI and the State Department that he never reached the Benghazi compound.

On The Web:
‘Leave of Absence’ for Lara Logan After Flawed Benghazi Report
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/27/business/media/leave-of-absence-for-lara-logan-after-flawed-benghazi-report.html?pagewanted=all
CBS News’ Lara Logan Taking Leave Of Absence Over Discredited ’60 Minutes’ Benghazi Report
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/26/lara-logan-60-minutes-leave_n_4344883.html