|
UPDATE WHY WON'T CBS NEWS ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW IT OBTAINED A SO-CALLED “EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW” WITH A TERRORIST
LARA LOGAN WASN’T THERE SO WHO WAS? (July 14th, 2008 9:00AM PST) BY ERS NEWS CBS News and Lara Logan hailed their “exclusive interview” with Afghan warlord and terrorist Gulbeddin Hekmatyar on June 16, 2008 on the CBS News.com website. The broadcast version of the story also aired on the CBS Evening News. The Enterprise Report was the first to disclose that what was originally claimed to be an interview done by Lara Logan was far from it. Lara Logan wasn’t in Afghanistan at the time and did not conduct the interview. CBS quickly retracted that story after we exposed that fact.
Later CBS News changed their story again, saying Logan had “submitted written questions and Hekmatyar responded on videotape.” CBS News won't disclose who conducted what they continue to claim was an “interview.” They also continue to refuse to provide any information about who the “stringer” was they claim conducted an interview on their behalf. The videotape of Hekmatyar’s statements looks like there are no questions being asked. Hekmatya’s on camera appearance seem like pre-scripted statements. CBS News continues to claim they conducted an interview.
We’ve seen many of these tapes over the years; from Osama Bin Laden and others like him. It’s news for sure when they send them out to the world via the own media operation, but we have never seen one of these terrorist propaganda tapes portrayed as an “interview”. ERSNews asked the source, CBS News a few questions. We were originally told that while Logan had not conducted the interview herself, a “stringer” had on behalf of CBS News and the tape was provided to them “exclusively.” ERSNews asked who was the stringer? Was this a local Afghan journalist or a freelancer from somewhere else? And how had the tape come into their possession and did they pay for it? The story itself says the tape was “smuggled out of his hiding place.” That also caught our attention, if the tape was made with the terrorist’s consent (and it seems it was) why would it have to be “smuggled out”?
Gulbeddin Hekmatyar STILL FROM VIDEOTAPE PROVIDED TO THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (March 2007)While CBS continues to refuse to answer our questions, ERSNews will continue to investigate and seek answers.
LLARA LOGAN CBS NEWS' NEW "CHIEF FOREIGN AFFAIRS" CORRESPONDENT AND HER NEWS DIVISION HAVE A PROBLEM WITH ACCURACY
SERIAL TRUTH STRETCHER? (June 26th, 2008 5:30PM PST) BY ERS NEWS Was Lara Logan, as CBS News claims in a press release put out June 25th, 2008 and touted by CBS News President Sean McManus “ … the only journalist from an American network in Baghdad when the U.S. military invaded the city.” Both Logan and CBS News claims she was. Problem is, she wasn’t. Lara Logan, the fast rising star at CBS News, who’s derring-do overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere in recent years has catapulted her to network news stardom may need to hire someone to fact check the claims being made about her by her bosses at CBS. We assume she actually watches and reads her own stories, bio and the press releases put out about her.
Although, we may be wrong about that, because on a recent appearance last week on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” she professed to not watching American TV News. Now Logan and her CBS' bosses have more fact checking to do. CBS News claims Logan was the only journalist working for an American network in Baghdad when U.S. forces rolled into the city and toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime in April 2003. But that claim is patently false. While Logan was in Baghdad at the time, having returned to the city only hours before US troops rolled in, she was far from the only American journalist there. At the time, April 4th, 2003, many American journalists, including several from American broadcast networks were also there. They included Richael Engel, now of NBC News, who was working for ABC News filing reports from the Iraqi capital.
In addition, NPR reporter Ann Garrells was in Baghdad filing reports. To hear Garrel’s NPR 2003 reports click here: As anyone who watches American TV News would know, Fox News reporter Greg Kelly was the only American reporter embedded with the U.S. Marines 3-ID division as they rolled into central Baghdad and took control of the Iraqi capitol on live TV.
Kelly, who still works for Fox News today, has described his front line Baghdad experience that day as somewhat “surreal.” Although we doubt it, he may wonder if he was there or not after reading CBS and Logan’s claims. ERS can assure him and the public it wasn’t all a dream. *Editor’s Note: As ERS was preparing to publish this story Thursday morning (June 26, 2008) the online media site “TVNewser” reported that a CBS spokesperson clarified the inaccurate statement saying "Lara was the only reporter for an American network who reported live from Firdos Square as the statue of Saddam fell."
Submit this story to: BREAKING NEWS UPDATE CBS NEWS RETRACTS LARA LOGAN (June 24th, 2008 5:50PM PST) BY ERS NEWS CBS News today retracted a previously reported claim that Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan, a rising star at the network, had conducted an "exclusive" interview with Afghan Warlord and wanted terrorist Gulbeddin Hekmatyar. The CBS News story which was broadcast on the CBS Evening News and posted online at CBSNews.com last week can be seen below in our initial report from this past Sunday. The action taken by CBS News late today (Tuesday - June 24, 2008) was in direct response to the ERSNews report published this past Sunday evening raising questions about the broadcast and the accompanying online reports. Our stories first revealed that Logan was not in Afghanistan, when CBS News claimed she conducted an "exclusive interview" for the network with the wanted terrorist. ERSNews submitted detailed questions to CBS News spokeswoman Jennifer Farley nearly a week ago concerning how the report was put together and how the tape of Hekmatyar was made and obtained by CBS News, The Enterprise Report has yet to be provided a response. Here at ERS its seems that the CBS may be trying to play a good game of spin and damage control. Nonetheless, we will just keep reporting the news accurately and let the truth chips fall where they may.
OPINION THE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH
HOW DOES ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST WANTED TERRORISTS “TELL” AND “TALK WITH” A REPORTER ABOUT SOMETHING WHEN SHE’S NOT EVEN THERE TO ASK THE QUESTIONS OR EVEN IN THE COUNTRY AND WASN’T INVOLVED? (June 22nd, 2008 10:00AM PST) BY ERS NEWS ERSNews recently read the following headline on the CBS news site and it caught our attention. The TV report did not ring true, an exclusive interview, but no reporter conducting it? In the web version of the story the line “talked with” Lara Logan jumped out as well. The interview was with Afghan warlord Gulbeddin Hekmatyar. Since 2001 he’s been killing American soldiers and many others in Afghanistan for decades.
What immediately caught our attention was the headline. Lara Logan, CBS’s Chief Foreign Correspondent, a former swimsuit model, turned journalist years ago, has made a name for herself in recent years with her derring-do overseas in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. On its face it seemed she had landed an exclusive sit down interview with this wanted terrorist, right? Well not quite...not even close.
Lara Logan was nowhere in the story, not in the interview and not in the story itself, either in the TV version, broadcast on the CBS Evening News or the web version posted on the networks CBSNews.com. What was uncommon is that two times in the web version it say’s Logan talked with the terrorist and implied she conducted or had some kind of direct hand in interviewing Hekmatyar herself. ERSNews contacted CBS News in New York and spoke with Evening News spokesman Jennifer Farley. ERSNews: "Did Logan conduct this interview? Was she in the country at the time? If she didn’t conduct the interview, who did? How was the videotape obtained?" Farley really didn’t know the answers and promised to get back to us by email. Later her reply was that Logan was not in Afghanistan at the time and that a she was not involved in the interview in any way. She emailed a written response to the questions
ERSNews followed up with several other questions about exactly how CBS News had obtained this tape and how the story was put together as an exclusive interview with Lara Logan. We are still waiting for the answers. CBS News should have disclosed the fact their Chief Foreign Correspondent was not involved in the actual interview in any way, shape, or form. Logan was simply fronting the story.
The headline and picture caption, which suggests Logan had a sit-down with this Afghan warlord who is on the run and being hunted by the U.S. Military, is not just misleading, it’s false. That’s not journalism, even if you were one of Glamour Magazine’s Women of the Year in 2007!
Submit this story to: |
9-11, AN INNOCENT MAN AND THE HERO AGENT IN PHOENIX WHO WASN'T.
| |