‘60 Minutes’ anchor Lara Logan apologizes for Benghazi reporting 'mistake'
CBS News backtracking after report surfaces that one of their sources, security contractor Dylan Davies, had previously told FBI he wasn't even at the site of the Libyan attack.
Comments (43)BY DON KAPLAN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
PUBLISHED: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2013, 10:19 AM
UPDATED: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2013, 12:44 PM
CBS
Lara Logan admitted on Friday morning that she and ‘60 Minutes’ had made a ‘mistake’ in their reporting on the Benghazi attack.
CBS News officials who had staunchly defended a controversial Oct. 27 "60 Minutes" report about Benghazi attacks anchored by Lara Logan, are wiping egg off their faces Friday morning. The network is beating a humiliating retreat from the story after Logan admitted on air that she and the news magazine had made a "mistake" in their reporting.
She apologized to viewers and said "60 Minutes" will issue a correction about the reliability of one their key sources security contractor Dylan Davies, this Sunday.
MUSTAFA EL-SHRIDI/EPA
At the heart of the scandal is the security contractor Dylan Davies, who gave CBS News a gripping first person account of the carnage — only had earlier told the FBI that he wasn’t even there.
"We were wrong to put him on air," she told her colleague Nora O'Donnell on Friday's edition of "CBS News This Morning," Logan said. "We will apologize to our viewers, and we will correct the record on our broadcast on Sunday night.”
Davies, who had given Logan a white-knuckled, detailed account of his actions during the 2012 attack, had previously told the FBI that he hadn't even gone to the site where the attack occurred.
ESAM OMRAN AL-FETORI/REUTERS
The U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, is seen in flames during the bloody Sept. 11, 2012, attack.
Details of his interview with the FBI surfaced Thursday night.
This was the second time Davies had been recorded as saying that he wasn't at the scene. He had already admitted it once to his employer at the time, but CBS and Logan had backed him saying that he had lied to his bosses to protect himself.
Revelations that he told the same story to the FBI has changed things considerably. Backing away from the report, "60 Minutes" said it is "reviewing" the new information to determine whether it had been misled.
In the report, Davies, identified by CBS under the pseudonym “Morgan Jones,” described racing to the Benghazi compound while the attack was underway, scaling a 12-foot wall and knocking out a terrorist with the butt butt of a rifle as he desperately tried in vain to rescue the embattled ambassador and his guards. He also claimed he had secretly visited a Benghazi hospital to see the Steven’s body.
He recounted the same, now-questionable tale in his new book, “The Embassy House,” published by two days after the “60 Minutes” report aired. Threshold Editions, which is part of the Simon and Schuster unit of CBS, is now considering yanking the book from shelves. CBS has already apologized for not disclosing that the book was published by a CBS-owned company.
Logan’s “60 Minutes” report added fuel to the to fallout from the 2012 terror attack in Libya that left four Americans dead, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, casting doubt on claims that the Obama administration’s claim that it sent all possible help into the situation to try to save Stevens and the others.
Since it aired almost two weeks ago, the "60 Minutes" story has been cited by congressional Republicans who have demanded to know why the Obama administration did not authorize a military rescue.
The apology comes a day after CBS issued a statement saying, "60 Minutes has learned of new information that undercuts the account told to us by Morgan Jones of his actions on the night of the attack on the Benghazi compound. We are currently looking into this serious matter to determine if he misled us, and if so, we will make a correction."
O’Donnell asked Logan how carefully “60 Minutes” had vetted Davies.
We verified him, confirmed who he was, that he was working for the State Department at the time, that he was in Benghazi at the special mission compound the night of the attack," Logan said. "He showed us -- he gave us access to communications he had with U.S. government officials."
Logan said CBS has tried to contact Davies but has not yet heard from him.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/60-minutes-logan-apologizes-benghazi-mistake-article-1.1510693#ixzz2kASAXE3m
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