CBS journalist ordered to take leave over unverified Benghazi story
Internal review finds TV team should have done better job to verify witness claims
CBS ordered 60 Minutes correspondent Lara Logan and her producer to take a leave of absence following a critical internal review of their handling of the show's October story on the Benghazi raid, based on a supposed witness whose story could not be verified.
The review, by CBS News executive Al Ortiz, said the 60 Minutes team should have done a better job vetting the story that featured a security contractor who claimed he was at the US mission in Libya the night it was attacked last year. It emerged that he had previously told the FBI he was not there.
Questions were quickly raised about whether the man was lying - something 60 Minutes should have checked out better before airing the story, the report said.
The report also said Logan should not have done the story in the first place after making a speech in Chicago a year ago claiming that it was a lie that America's military had tamed al-Qaeda.
CBS News chairman Jeff Fager, who is also the 60 Minutes executive producer, said he had asked Logan and her producer, Max McClellan, to take a leave of absence of an undetermined length.
Fager said he prided himself on catching almost everything, "but this deception got through and it shouldn't have". There was no word about whether Fager will face any repercussions.