Finally A Benghazi Scandal With Legs--Sen Graham Coordinated With Lara Logan On Benghazi Smear Piece
Last edited Mon May 5, 2014, 08:22 PM - Edit history (1)
Ruh-roh - looks like Sen. Lindsey "DuBois" Graham may have coordinated illegally with the awful Lara Logan on her Benghazi smear piece. From Media Matters:
While the walls were collapsing around Lara Logan at CBS News last year in the wake of her bungled Benghazi report on 60 Minutes, and as more and more holes appeared in her poorly-sourced report about the terror attack, the foreign correspondent reached out to a Republican senator and fierce White House critic for advice and counsel.
The partisan move, in which Logan solicited help from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) -- who's been professionally committed to pushing the tale of a White House cover-up surrounding the September 11, 2012 terror attacks -- suggests Logan viewed both Benghazi and her spin control mission through a political prism.
Indeed, Logan even met several times with Graham while preparing the initial Benghazi story, according to a new report in New York magazine. The senator did not appear in the 60 Minutes report but when the report aired he immediately took to the television airwaves to tout it as a "death blow" to the Obama administration's telling of the Benghazi attacks and their response to it. In retrospect, this looks suspiciously like coordination: Graham helped shape the Benghazi story with an anti-White House angle and then forcefully cheerled it, even announcing he'd block every White House appointee until he got answers about Benghazi. Once trouble erupted, the senator was naturally there for Logan when she called for help.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/05/05/cbs-still-wont-come-clean-about-lara-logan-and/199164
http://nymag.com/news/features/lara-logan-cbs-news-2014-5/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/05/1297109/-Lindsey-Graham-Gave-Advice-and-Counsel-to-Lara-Logan-on-her-Debunked-60-Minutes-Benghazi-Report
Meanwhile, CBS is still dodging the question about partisan politics and how much of a driving force it might have been in Logan's report. The New York article notes that not only did Logan seek counsel from Graham, but that she had a history of producing "the kind of stories that kept 60 Minutes immune to criticism from the right."
Recall that one of the key conclusions from the panel review of the Bush story was that political bias did not play a role in how the controversial 2004 story was put together. For the Benghazi story, it's impossible to know if CBS was equally free of prejudice because there hasn't been an independent assessment of the reporting process.
Which brings us right back to the central question from 2013: What is CBS hiding about Lara Logan?
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/05/05/cbs-still-wont-come-clean-about-lara-logan-and/199164
UPDATE:
CBS News Asked Nexis To Delete Transcript Of Discredited Benghazi Report
http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/05/05/3434036/cbs-news-lexis-lara-logan-benghazi/