On Sunday’s edition of CBS News’ 60 Minutes, reporter Lara Logan gave another apology for her incorrect Benghazi report from the previous week. However, many media critics found the apology much too short and criticized the fact that it came at the very end of the broadcast.
Logan had previously apologized for what she called a mistake on Friday’s CBS This Morning. In the original report, security contractor Dylan Davies gave 60 Minutes a story about his actions on Sept. 11, 2012, the day the U.S. Benghazi diplomatic mission was attacked by militants. It turned out that his recollections were different from the incident report he filed to his employer.
CBS News initially stood by its reporting, but when word came that Davies told the FBI the same story he told his employer, the network finally admitted that it got it wrong.
“The most important thing to every person is the truth and today the truth is we made a mistake,” Logan said on CBS This Morning. “That’s very disappointing for any journalist.”
Logan’s story on disabled veterans climbing mountains did not air last night. Instead, she gave a 90-second apology at the end of the episode, repeating what she said on the morning show. “It was a mistake to include him in our report. For that, we are very sorry,” she said, reports the New York Times.
As the apology aired, media critics took to Twitter to slam CBS for what they considered a half-hearted apology. As the Huffington Post notes, CBS still hasn’t answered many key questions, like why Davies was the primary source for the report. The report also failed to mention that Davies has written a book, which was published by a Simon and Schuster imprint. Simon and Schuster is owned by CBS.
Well, my prediction was accurate. A minimalist correction and apology from @60Minutes tonight. The very least they could admit to.
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) November 11, 2013
A show w/ reporting legacy of 60 Minutes should have turned its reporting muscle back on itself to explain to viewers what happened, and why
— Gabriel Sherman (@gabrielsherman) November 11, 2013
image: CBS