Saturday, November 09, 2013

60 Minutes retracts Benghazi story, apologizes.


Courtesy of the New York Times:  

The correspondent for a disputed “60 Minutes'’ segment about the attack last year on the United States Special Mission in Benghazi, Libya, apologized on the air Friday morning. The reporter, Lara Logan, said it was a “mistake'’ to put on a security officer whose credibility has since been undermined by his diverging accounts of his actions that night. 

Ms. Logan said on “CBS This Morning'’ that the news division was misled by the officer, Dylan Davies, adding, “We will apologize to our viewers, and we will correct the record on our broadcast on Sunday night.” 

Mr. Davies appeared on the program, broadcast Oct. 27, and wrote a book about his experiences, "The Embassy House,” under the pseudonym Morgan Jones. 

On Friday afternoon, the publisher of “The Embassy House,” Threshold Editions, an imprint of Simon & Schuster that specializes in conservative nonfiction, said in a statement that it would stop selling the book. 

The apology by Ms. Logan followed the disclosure by The New York Times Thursday evening that Mr. Davies had provided the F.B.I. an account that contradicted the version of events he provided “60 Minutes.'’ On the show, and in the book, Mr. Davies presented a vivid, on-scene description of the attack, including his own role as a participant in the action. 

But Mr. Davies told the F.B.I. that he was not on the scene until the next morning, according to two senior government officials who were briefed on the investigation of the attack. That account, the officials said, is consistent with an incident report produced by the Blue Mountain security business, which had been hired to protect United States interests in Benghazi and which employed Mr. Davies.

Well hell, THAT'S good news!

CBS News may have followed the lead of Fox News, but at least they have enough integrity to retract a bad story and apologize for providing false information. 

Somehow I don't see that ever happening over at Fox.

Let's see the Republicans continue to make a mountain out of this Benghazi molehill now. At least one of them, Lindsay Graham, certainly shut his mouth in a hurry.

30 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:45 AM

    Yeah, WTF CBS?

    Former '60 Minutes' Producer: Discredited Benghazi Story Was Done To Appeal To Conservatives



    A former "60 Minutes" producer who was fired over a 2004 story about then-President George W. Bush's service in the Air National Guard said Friday that CBS' now retracted story detailing the attack in Benghazi, Libya was done to appeal to conservatives.

    "My concern is that the story was done very pointedly to appeal to a more conservative audience's beliefs about what happened at Benghazi," Mary Mapes told Media Matters. "They appear to have done that story to appeal specifically to a politically conservative audience that is obsessed with Benghazi and believes that Benghazi was much more than a tragedy."

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/former-60-minutes-producer-discredited-benghazi-story-was-done-to-appeal-to-conservatives

    Bogus Benghazi Tale Falls Apart as CBS News Apologizes and Retracts 60 Minutes Story

    ...When are the corporate media going to learn when it comes to Benghazi? There is nothing to it. It is a right wing conspiracy theory that is used to smear the president and stop Hillary Clinton in 2016.

    CBS News also never disclosed that Davies’ book is being published by a subsidiary of CBS. If 60 Minutes would have done even the most basic of investigations into their source’s ethical background, they would have found a liar who has changed his story numerous times. Like every other Benghazi story, Davies’ account lacked evidence and didn’t have a leg to stand on.

    All of this should have given CBS News reason for pause, but it didn’t. It is one thing to get a story wrong, but it is quite another to look the other way and air and odious partisan story that is full of holes from the beginning.

    CBS News deserves credit for one thing. Unlike ABC News, they apologized and retracted their story. The nation is still waiting for Jon Karl and ABC to apologize and retract their story about the Benghazi emails.

    Another right wing attempt to smear President Obama and Hillary Clinton has crashed and burned, and it took the credibility of 60 Minutes down with them too.

    http://www.politicususa.com/2013/11/08/bogus-benghazi-tale-falls-cbs-news-apologizes-retracts-60-minutes-story.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:46 AM

      Now the RW trolls spew " libtard media in full protect Hillary mode"...!
      It never ends for them does it?
      They are just complete and utter assholes/idiots!

      Delete
  2. Anonymous6:51 AM

    Former 60 Minutes Producer Mapes: Benghazi Story Aimed At "Obsessed" Right-Wing Audience

    Former 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes, who was fired for her role in a controversial 2004 story about President Bush's service in the Air National Guard, accused CBS News of pandering to a right-wing audience with her former program's recent Benghazi report, for which the network has been criticized and forced to retract.

    "My concern is that the story was done very pointedly to appeal to a more conservative audience's beliefs about what happened at Benghazi," Mapes said by telephone from her Texas home. "They appear to have done that story to appeal specifically to a politically conservative audience that is obsessed with Benghazi and believes that Benghazi was much more than a tragedy."

    At issue is the report from correspondent Lara Logan and producer Max McClellan, which spotlighted former defense contract worker Dylan Davies. In the report, and Davies' new book, he claims he witnessed the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic facility. The 60 Minutes report was championed by Republican politicians and the right-wing media.

    But since the story aired, other media outlets have revealed that Davies had told his employer and the FBI that he never made it to the compound on the night of the assault that killed four Americans.

    Given that new information, CBS has launched an investigation into the story, while Logan appeared on CBS This Morning today and admitted the reporting was wrong and a mistake. She said 60 Minutes would be correcting the record on Sunday's broadcast.

    http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/11/08/former-60-minutes-producer-mapes-benghazi-story/196811

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  3. Anonymous6:52 AM

    As you may be aware, the recent Benghazi! story on 60 Minutes is unraveling so completely that the reporter who developed it is allowing as how she mistakenly relied on a “witness” who turned out to be anything but.

    But how exactly did this happen? Well, Digby says pretty much everything there is to say about the missed opportunities to ask obvious questions, and the compromised relationship between CBS and its dubious, book-promoting “source.” And she even identifies a motive: the reporter, Lara Logan, has long expressed righteous anger that the killing of Ambassador Chris Stevens hasn’t been avenged. So Logan had a personal agenda that nicely merged with her personal interest in getting a big “scoop.”

    In the way that these things tend to happen, Lara Logan brought the supply and Lindsey Graham brought the demand and a bill of goods were sold. Graham and other Republicans, of course, can now simply argue the dubious report “raised questions,” and that’s all they need for more wallowing in the “story.” An apology from their supplier isn’t enough.

    http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_11/supply_meets_demand_on_benghaz047725.php

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  4. angela6:54 AM

    The sick part of this is that Media Matters, The NYT and WP had the information about how Davies lied to the FBI. How hard would it have been for CBS to talk to their informants at the FBI? They wanted to jump on the bagger Benghazi bullshit wagon and didn't even check their source out. Logan should be fired as should her producers. She's a GOP tool anyway.
    But no one will get canned because old republicans own and run CBS and all they want is to destroy the Obama administration. Of course, they constantly fail---like dumb children trying to set someone up.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Anonymous9:33 AM

      Duh! They are being PAID to jump on the bagger wagon! Like Palin is they are being paid by kockbros!
      All of our msm is bought. except NPR.
      And they are so afraid Congress will de-fund them they don't report all, as they should. Bloggers, only bloggers report the truth now a days!

      Delete
  5. I find it more than suspect and also enraging that the Bushies and the rightwing couldn't be bothered to properly investigate 9/11/01 - even the NTSB didn't do an investigation on the plane crashes when they investigate EVERY SINGLE plane crash in the USA - when Americans were crying out for information. Congress had to be shamed into putting a commission together long after the event, yet the same folks want to investigate the shit out of Benghazi which is a fraction of the scale of 9/11. It just shows the stunning lack of self-reflection these people have. Their Obama hatred blinds them to a sense of proportion of events - if Obama is involved, it is a scandal of great magnitude to them. Jesus, I hate these people. They are what is wrong with this country and Fox news should be held responsible for creating this toxic hatred.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Anonymous9:39 AM

      Unknown6:56 AM
      So true! We should start a twitter campaign with #Benghazi and then put #Investigat911 or something like that.
      You are so right, EVERY plane crash is fully investigated yet the 911 commission never address the WTC 7 burning down?
      " if Obama is involved, it is a scandal of great magnitude to them. Jesus, I hate these people."
      We all know who is the "Pied piper"(diaper) of this hatred...Sarah fucking palin.
      She and she alone started this fucking shit with her "he's not like us" crap. She brought every fucking racist a$$hole out of the woodwork god dam her fucktard soul!
      May she burn in fucking hell.

      Delete
  6. I find it more than suspect and also enraging that the Bushies and the rightwing couldn't be bothered to properly investigate 9/11/01 - even the NTSB didn't do an investigation on the plane crashes when they investigate EVERY SINGLE plane crash in the USA - when Americans were crying out for information. Congress had to be shamed into putting a commission together long after the event, yet the same folks want to investigate the shit out of Benghazi which is a fraction of the scale of 9/11. It just shows the stunning lack of self-reflection these people have. Their Obama hatred blinds them to a sense of proportion of events - if Obama is involved, it is a scandal of great magnitude to them. Jesus, I hate these people. They are what is wrong with this country and Fox news should be held responsible for creating this toxic hatred.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fox news has license to lie. A judge said so.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous6:57 AM

    Lindsey Graham: "I have been saying for months someone is lying about #Benghazi. Today, I can reveal that it's me"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Poor dear has her crinolines in a twist so often these days.

      Delete
    2. Anita Winecooler5:25 PM

      Miss Lindsey is suffering from the vapors! Someone pass her a fan and help her onto her fainting lounge!

      Delete
  8. Anonymous7:00 AM

    It remains to be seen whether this latest debunked scandal will satiate conservatives who latch on to anything that they claim proves there was a secret cover-up from the Obama administration the night of the attack. It also remains to be seen whether the incident will inspire Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) to withdraw the holds he currently has on all Obama nominees, pending meetings with more Benghazi survivors, given that his threat was a direct response to the 60 Minutes report.

    http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/11/08/2915011/cbs-reporter-apologizes-viewers-false-reporting-benghazi/

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    1. Anonymous2:13 PM

      I think that Lindsay Graham should apologize to President Obama and to former Sec'y of State Hillary Clinton on the floor of the Senate. And he should drop his hold on the appointments. A lot of these GOP guys didn't attend any of the briefings held by the White House and the State Department in the immediate aftermath of the Benghazi attack. And not one of them, in office under George W. Bush, ever even raised an eyebrow when consulates and embassies were regularly attacked in the wake of our wrongful invasion of Iraq.
      Beaglemom

      Delete
  9. Anonymous7:07 AM

    Fox Ignores Implosion Of 60 Minutes Benghazi Report

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWxhZiujkv0

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous7:34 AM

    LOVE how this guy writes!

    ---
    It seems that Senator Aqua Buddha -- tm/The Blog, so don't steal it, pal. -- has been shitcanned by the ghost of Sun Myung Moon just in time to get hired by the ghost of Andrew Breitbart. This is a remarkably straight career path into the manure bin for the formerly rising young champion of the brogressive Left, especially those who don't want to be droned before they score with that cute barista. (Guess what? The champion of human freedom voted against ENDA yesterday because liberty!) I'm sure AB has something pithy to say on the subject that somebody said first, but it strikes us that he's probably going to show up on Morning Joe, where his kind of journalism is a ticket to the big table.

    And then there's 60 Minutes.

    Oy. Also, vey.

    I held off for a while on this because history tells us that jumping ugly early can have very unfortunate results on stories like this but, Jesus H. Christ on tour with Iron Maiden, does it look like the show screwed the pooch on its big scoop regarding Benghazi, Benghazi!, BENGHAZI! Lara Logan is tap-dancing as fast as she can, but the fact remains that the guy that they hung their story on is turning out to be the Stephen Glass of counter-terrorism.

    O'DONNELL: But why would you stand by this report after Dylan Davies admitted lying to his own employer?

    LOGAN: Because he was very upfront about that from the beginning, that was always part of his story. The context of it, when he tells his story, is that his boss is someone he cared about enormously. He cared about his American counterparts in the mission that night, and when his boss told him not to go, he couldn't stay back. So, that was always part of the record for us. And, that part didn't come as any surprise.

    What in hell kind of answer is that? About what was this guy "upfront"? It sounds to me here as though Logan is defending her source's demonstrable lie. In what possible "context" could you believe him? This story fell apart in about 48 hours because its primary source was proven to be completely unreliable. And she's still talking about "his boss told him not to go, he couldn't stay back." The guy told his boss -- and, apparently, the FBI -- that he wasn't even there. In any "context," lying to the FBI is a big deal. At the very least, it should sink your credibility. At the very most, it can land you in the clink.

    Oh, and not to pile on, CBS, but shutting Dan Rather out of your coverage of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK, when Rather happens to be one of the dwindling group of reporters who actually witnessed the murder in broad daylight of a president of the United States, is an act of towering chickenshit. Shame on you twice.

    http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/rand-paul-hired-as-breitbart-columnist-110813

    Seems this little chickadee Logan has a huge issue with Obama and this little 'investigation' was compromised from the beginning. This was a hit job, pure and simple, on the administration and Obama, and this woman is KNOWN for promoting right wing outrage of the moment. And we KNOW what a huge hard-on the right has for Benghazi and all things Obama.

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    1. Anonymous8:31 AM

      The stupid biased bitch needs to be shit canned or CBS will loose 110% of it's very lame credibility. Maybe they don't care but there is already one Faux News and there does not need to be another.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous7:38 AM

    If CBS were to the follow the precedent it established in dealing with Dan Rather's missteps concerning his story about George W. Bush's time in the Texas Air National Guard, it would fire Lara Logan as well as the producer of her 60 Minutes segment. Of course it won't, since Logan takes positions popular with the right, such as that the U.S. isn't doing enough to fight terrorists. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/09/lara-logan-s-war-cry.html

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  12. Anonymous7:39 AM

    Lara Logan is a courtier hack from start to finish, and always has been. Her suckup to the military she "covered" is legendary.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous7:40 AM

    Sad that it probably doesn't matter anymore. The conservatives with less-than-normal brain cells will just think that THIS news is an Obama cover up.

    We've reached a point of 'their news' and 'our news' and it doesn't matter what is reported on or retracted, nobody listens to anything except that which spews news in support of their own beliefs.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous7:40 AM

    Someone is surprised when the corporate drones at Viacom TV, er, I mean CBS, act like, well, corporate drones? In case no one noticed, the publisher of the book is one of the "Viacom family of companies," which is why 60 Minutes did the story, to cross-pollinate the sales. You can check every single time they do something about someone who has a story to tell in a book, and you will find this connection. When you see them interview some musician, it's because he's signed to a record company that's "one of the family."

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous8:05 AM

    CBS News Chairman: 'As Big A Mistake As There Has Been' In Show's History

    This Is Why '60 Minutes' Stood By Its Botched Report

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/08/jeff-fager-benghazi-60-minutes_n_4242457.html

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    1. Anonymous8:32 AM

      Fire every stupid idiot who was on the show's production team. Nothing else will suffice to restore a smidgen of your credibility.

      Delete
    2. Anita Winecooler5:29 PM

      What 8:32 AM said. This is CBS for gripe's sake, it's not Fox where you EXPECT this level of "Duhhhh!"""

      Delete
  16. Anonymous8:37 AM

    No doubt she's heading straight for a future on the couch at Faux.

    http://www.bellazon.com/main/uploads/monthly_09_2008/post-18834-1220842638.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous8:56 AM

    Tossing this in here to bring it to gryph's attention in hopes he'll blog it:

    http://www.patheos.com/blogs/frankschaeffer/2013/11/dumb-evangelicals-are-holding-the-us-hostage-the-story-the-media-wont-tell/

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Anonymous10:28 AM

      Very good. We need more of that!

      Delete
  18. Anita Winecooler5:35 PM

    LaraLogangate! When will Darryl Issa hold a congressional committee hearing on this OBVIOUS LIE she reported at the truth?
    Forget Benghaziiii, hold CBS, Lara and every copy editor, producer, cameraman, floor mopper and bulb changer at CBS accountable.

    While they're at it, invite Miss Lindsey for the same treatment. Thanks for the FOX clip. Looks like Bimba Hasslewhatshername found her niche'. She's just SWELL delivering her lines.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous7:43 PM

    OMG!

    In Iowa, Sarah Palin compares federal debt to slavery

    http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2013/11/09/in-iowa-sarah-palin-compares-federal-debt-to-slavery/article


    “When that money comes due – and this isn’t racist, but it’ll be like slavery when that note is due. We are going to beholden to the foreign master.” - Sarah Palin

    ReplyDelete

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