Lara Logan and producer carry the can for bungled CBS Benghazi story
Lara Logan , the reporter behind the bungled story on Benghazi, which led to an unprecedented on-air apology from 60 Minutes, America’s No 1 news documentary, has been asked to take a leave of absence following the flawed report on the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission there.
Lara Logan: Leave of absence
The decision was revealed in a memo from the chairman of CBS News, Jeff Fager. Logan's producer, Max McClellan, was also put on leave, according to the memo, which was addressed to CBS News employees.
A copy of the memo was obtained by Reuters. Fager is also executive producer of "60 Minutes."
"60 Minutes ... fell short by broadcasting a now discredited account of an important story, and did not take full advantage of the reporting abilities of CBS News that might have prevented it from happening," the memo said.
The "60 Minutes" Benghazi report was based on a security official who claimed he was at the scene during the assault, in which four Americans were killed, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.
The programme corrected the report after it came to light that the security official had given conflicting testimony to the FBI.
Lara Logan relied on security official Dylan Davies who wrote a book under the pseudonym Morgan Jones about the Benghazi attack. He claimed he fought off an assailant during the incident and saw Stevens' body.
Davies was not at the compound during the attack, according to CBS News executive director of standards and practices Al Ortiz.
Logan said later it was a mistake to put Davies on the air. "The most important thing to every person at '60 Minutes' is the truth, and today the truth is we made a mistake," she said on "CBS This Morning" on Nov. 8.
The Davies book, "The Embassy House" was published by Simon & Schuster, the publishing division owned by CBS. It has pulled the book from shelves.
In an email to staff, obtained by TVNewser, CBS News chairman Jeff Fager writes, “I have asked Lara Logan, who has distinguished herself and has put herself in harm’s way many times in the course of covering stories for us, to take a leave of absence, which she has agreed to do. I have asked the same of producer Max McClellan, who also has a distinguished career at CBS News.”
Fager, who is also the executive producer of “60 Minutes” is taking some of the blame for the report. “I am responsible for what gets on the air. I pride myself in catching almost everything, but this deception got through and it shouldn’t have.”
“This was a regrettable mistake. But there are many fine professionals at 60 Minutes who produce some of the very best of broadcast journalism, covering the important and interesting stories of our times, and they will continue to do so each and every Sunday.”