Saturday, November 02, 2013

The 60 Minutes "expose" on Benghazi may destroy the last of CBS's journalistic credibility.

Courtesy of Media Matters:  

The Benghazi "witness" featured in a CBS 60 Minutes report that galvanized new discussion of the administration's response to the attack previously said he never got near the diplomatic compound on the night of the attack, according to a report from The Washington Post. 

The revelation comes just days after Fox News reported that they had previously been using the same man as a source, but broke contact after he asked the network for money. Two days after the CBS report aired, Threshold Editions, an imprint of Simon and Schuster that "specializes in conservative non-fiction," published the supposed witness' book, The Embassy House: The Explosive Eyewitness Account of the Libyan Embassy Siege by the Soldier Who Was There. According to the Post, the book "largely comports with the 60 Minutes account." 

Together, these details paint a damning picture of the credibility of the supposed eyewitness -- and that of the CBS report which promoted his story. 

During the October 27 report, which was based on a year-long investigation by correspondent Lara Logan and producer Max McCellan, Logan described the man, identified as "Morgan Jones, a pseuodonym he's using for his own safety," as "a security officer who witnessed the attack." She explained that during the attack, "Jones scaled the twelve-foot high wall of the compound that was still overrun with al Qaeda fighters"; during an interview, he told her he had personally struck one of those terrorists in the face with his rifle butt. After the attack, "Jones" claimed in the report that he went to the Benghazi hospital and saw Ambassador Chris Stevens' body. 

"Jones" also told CBS' audience that he had been worried about the compound coming under attack, and that Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, who died in the assault, had shared similar concerns with him. 

But according to the Post, "Jones," whose real name was confirmed as Dylan Davies, revealed none of those details in the incident report to his security contractor employer that he wrote following the attack. Instead, he wrote that he never got near the compound that night and learned of Stevens' death from a colleague. From the Post: 

In Davies's 21 / 2-page incident report to Blue Mountain, the Britain-based contractor hired by the State Department to handle perimeter security at the compound, he wrote that he spent most of that night at his Benghazi beach-side villa. Although he attempted to get to the compound, he wrote in the report, "we could not get anywhere near .  . . as roadblocks had been set up." He learned of Stevens's death, Davies wrote, when a Libyan colleague who had been at the hospital came to the villa to show him a cellphone picture of the ambassador's blackened corpse. Davies wrote that he visited the still-smoking compound the next day to view and photograph the destruction.

Okay can we finally be done with this Benghazi thing now?

I mean even the most ardent Right Wingers must be smelling the decaying of the dead horse's corpse by now, don't you think?

26 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:56 AM

    I doubt that those who wish to believe the worst about Benghazi will ever change their minds. My mother-in-law is the perfect example.
    And then, there's the c4p-ponder today, who opines that the LAX shooting was a fraud, a government conspired hoax; and that nobody died or was shot.
    no, there will always be idiots out there.
    and, also, too; if you google Sarah Palin on the google-news search, there are NO articles about her for at least two weeks. Where are you Sarah? the word Benghazi has been spoken, and you haven't jumped into the fray!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:42 AM

      I saw that pee-ponder too. Mark1955 thinks this is all a part of Obama's plan to get rid of the Tea Party. You know, along with Sandy Hook and all the other crazy crimes, usually perpetrated by people with mental health issues.

      He also wants everybody to fight a new proposition allowing TSA agents to be armed.

      I thought they wanted EVERYBODY armed? Teachers ok. TSA not ok.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:59 AM

      Well, it figures that they wouldn't the TSA, a group they have been demonizing, armed. Next will be women, minorities,a dn non-Christains (the TPers get to define that, of course.) Oh, and non-patriots, liberals, and anyone wlse who might be a threat to their idiotic ideas.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous1:08 PM

      from Twitter: Oops, CBS '60 Minutes' #Benghazi Source Is A Liar http://bit.ly/16vM6dh

      Delete
  2. Anonymous7:16 AM

    Well 60 Minutes does plug books from publishers owned by their same parent organization. And they do seem to have gotten sloppier and more biased in their reporting.

    Also FYI -- there is an ever expanding movement called ReThink 911 (see their web site) that bring together the more scholarly groups that present scientific facts (engineering, physics, aviation) about how the official story of 911 contradicts science. Their stance is that the burden to prove their theory/story is on the GOVT since so many things don't make sense when scientifically examined. Some very respected people in that movement have had scholarly peer reviewed scientific papers published about the inconsistencies about the official 911 story and scientific facts -- these have gotten lots of play in Europe (esp UK & Scandinavia) and Australia especially. But crickets in the US from the MSM. These ReThink911 professionals have noted that 60 Minutes has done several hours of interviews on the inconsistencies but will not air the stories. Corporate pressure perhaps & probably still gun shy after the Jeffrey Wiegand incident with smoking. But then they air this crap on Benghazi. Go figure.

    The ReThink911 group might be worth a post. They currently have a big visible billboard campaign in NYC and across the globe that is getting very very minimal coverage in the US.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for posting this. The whole Building 7 collapse has always bothered me. I don't think that we were told the whole story.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous8:45 AM

      I never believed the "911 was a hoax" theories, but I've suspected Dumbya and Dickhead had knowledge that bin Laden was going to strike that day.

      Delete
    3. I too, Serpent's Heart. We may never know the depths of the venality of Bush and Cheney.

      Delete
    4. Sally in MI11:01 AM

      Espdcially when I read the report that Bish and Cheney had already planned to attack Saddam well before 9-11. They either helped plot it, or looked at it as a big old gift. And Building 7? Wasn't that where a lot of intel was kept? AI suspect old 'noun verb 9-11' knows more than he's telling as well.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous2:59 PM

      I like to read all about the 911 conspiracy theories. It occupied a lot of my time after 2001 until Sarah Palin and her pregnant teenage daughter came along to take its place.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous8:24 PM

      There were a lot of non-sense stories about holograms, etc planted to bring ridicule to any stories that had validity like the WTC Building 7 collapse which was never even investigated by the 9-11 Commission, and was not even mentioned one time in the whole report. Considering the agencies and data that were housed there, including SEC records, it doesn't take a hard-core conspiracy theorist to consider that there are many questions to be considered other than assuming Bldg was simply collateral damage, instead of being considered a "target" that came down along with the twin towers, even though it wasn't hit be a jet. By the way it was 47 stories itself, and would've been the largest steel building ever to collapse in a fire if the north and south tower both hadn't fell earlier that day. You'll have to wade through a lot of bunk to get through to the immutable facts if you know nothing at this point. But do your own research with an open mind, and trust nobody's opinion until there is science and physics to back up statements, and see where it leads. I have done exactly that for 12 years, and at one point in time, it was easy to identify the disinfo agents pushing BS theories and refuting real physics. But if I were starting today, it would be an absolute cluster-fuck to try to cut through the noise. Good luck all.

      Delete
  3. fromthediagonal7:44 AM

    Naw, like all committed conspiracy enthusiasts, they will just keep beating the carcass.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous7:54 AM

    Once again the Wasilla / Scottsdale village idiot was WRONG!

    ReplyDelete
  5. LOL 7:16!

    (I've had my fill of snake oil, thanks.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:58 AM

      I suppose of they throw in 'scientific,' enough, it warrants credibility.

      Delete
  6. hedgewytch8:30 AM

    What in the world happened to 60 minutes? Morley Shaffer, Ed Bradley and the rest of the original crew must be ashamed.

    60 minutes has become yet another info-tainment program designed to give your propaganda to fit a pre-assigned agenda and sell you something.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:22 AM

      Remember what happened to Dan Rather?

      http://piersmorgan.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/01/dan-rather-on-the-george-w-bush-memos-we-reported-a-true-story-thats-the-reason-im-no-longer-at-cbs-news/

      Meantime the former cokehead drunkard presidunce fingerpaints in his retirement.

      FUCK BUSH/CHENEY

      Delete
    2. Anonymous2:18 PM

      I stopped watching 60 Minutes quite awhile ago. Didn't believe some of their stuff and it has proven to be correct - more than a few times!

      Delete
    3. Anonymous5:58 PM

      I'm 56 years old and never missed 60 Minutes for years. The Dan Rather debacle sealed it.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous9:22 PM

      Right on the story but wrong on the evidence to back it up.
      Rove 1 Rather 0

      Delete
  7. Anonymous8:37 AM

    Pictures of Ambassador Steven's body were posted online. His body was not blackened.

    ~Radley

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:32 AM

      I just looked up photos, and you are correct. I also just read an article that claimed that Mr. Stevens was dead at the compound, but I heard he died at the hospital after he was taken there by friendly Libyans, who grieved for the loss of Mr. Stevens

      Delete
  8. Anonymous9:45 AM

    Paid to guard the embassy but was at his beachside villa instead? Nice.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sally in MI11:04 AM

    I didn't see this, and only read about it afterward on some RW site where the posters were sure that NOW Obama would have to resign in disgrace, and that Hillary could never run for POTUS. I couldn't figure out why it wasn;t getting any play anywhere else, and suspected the whole thing was more BS. And it is. Of course. But the RW will be screaming "BENGHAZII!!" forever because their masters tell them too. A bunch of lazy, willing followers. Hey, cons, the web can be your friend.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous2:48 PM

    That's it! I'm done with "60 Minutes"! Why doesn't "60 Minutes" just do a story about Sarah Palin delivering Tri-G after taking two flights from Texas with a layover in Seattle and then on to a hospital that wouldn't even deliver twins? It would be about as believable as that BS story Lara Logan just did about Benghazi!

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  11. Anita Winecooler6:10 PM

    This guy's story has more holes in it than Swiss Cheese and 60 minutes had about as much credibility as Sarah Palin's books, facebook feeds and the bullshit she regurgitates from Fox News.
    It's a shame what happened to 60 minutes. I remember when it first went on the air, the format was relatively new, the reporting was top Notch, and Andy Rooney's observations were always entertaining.

    ReplyDelete

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