Is Lara Logan being smeared for her criticism of Iraq war coverage
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Is Lara Logan being smeared for her criticism of Iraq war coverage
Lara Logan used to cover Baghdad for CBS News at the peak of the fighting in Iraq, then became the network's chief foreign correspondent, and just a few days ago it was announced that she'll be coming to Washington with a new title as chief foreign affairs correspondent. She has clearly been an up-and-coming star on CBS, where she sometimes appears on the flagship show "60 Minutes." She's been described in profiles as resourceful, certainly ambitious and seemingly fearless.
She has also been passionate about something that's been sorely lacking: Trying to get stories about the reality on the ground in Iraq and more recently Afghanistan onto American TV, where citizens can see for themselves what is happening in the wars that we pay for with our tax dollars and the blood of our citizens. In 2007, she sent out an email begging for help because her CBS producers wouldn't air a graphic story, that included critical remarks about the U.S. occupation from Iraqi civilians, called "The Battle for Haifa Street."
Logan’s email, with the one-word subject line of ‘help’, was sent to friends and colleagues imploring them to lobby CBS to highlight that people are interested in seeing the piece. In it, Logan argues that the story is “not too gruesome to air, but rather too important to ignore… It should be seen. And people should know about this.”
In fact, the story never appeared on CBS as filmed, although it did appear on its Web site and some footage made it into other stories. But Logan has remained a critic of the way that the war is portrayed on the American media, and when she appeared on the popular "Daily Show" with Jon Stewart this month her outspoken words were hard to ignore.
Five years into the war in Iraq and nearly seven years into the war in Afghanistan, getting news of the conflicts onto television is harder than ever.
“If I were to watch the news that you hear here in the United States, I would just blow my brains out because it would drive me nuts,” Ms. Logan said.
Logan told the New York Times later that CBS's bureau in Baghdad had been drastically downsized:
Ms. Logan said she begged for months to be embedded with a group of Navy Seals, and when she came back with the story, a CBS producer said to her, “One guy in uniform looks like any other guy in a uniform.” In the follow-up phone interview, Ms. Logan said the producer no longer worked at CBS. And in both interviews, she emphasized that many journalists at CBS News are pushing for war coverage, specifically citing Jeff Fager, the executive producer of “60 Minutes.” CBS News won a Peabody Award last week for a “60 Minutes” report about a Marine charged in the killings at Haditha.
On “The Daily Show,” Ms. Logan echoed the comments of other journalists when she said that many Americans seem uninterested in the wars now.
A number of bloggers picked up Logan's comments on "The Daily Show" and to the Times, and the video was a huge hit on the Internet. She was on with Stewart last week and was featured in the Times article on Monday. Later this week, a story appeared about Logan -- not exactly your normal A-list celebrity -- in the pages of the National Enquirer, which of course had nothing to do with Logan's actual news coverage of Iraq or her pointed criticism of the U.S. media.
The story was strictly about allegations involving Logan's personal life. It was quickly picked up by some other outlets, some surprising, like the Huffington Post, and some not surprising at all. In fact, the story was splashed across the front page of this morning's New York Post, the tabloid that is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who is also owner of (among many things) the Fox News Channel, the leading producer of braindead pro-war journalism that is the exact opposite of Logan's groundbreaking work. You'd also be shocked, I'm sure, to learn that the Post article is linked on the highly popular, conservative leaning Drudge Report. I'm not going to link to the articles -- use "the Google" if you must -- but to give you a flavor of this important news story, the Post cover shows a smiling Logan over the large headline, "Sexty Minutes."
If you do read the stories, you'd be hard-pressed to see why these allegations are suddenly rushing out now. One traces back to a court matter filed back in January. The second part of the article is old news, too -- dating back at least to last year. As the Post notes in the one part of the article that I will mention, it's a saga that "first broke on the freerepublic.com in December."
The freerepublic.com? As in, the ultraconservative Web site where reporters and photojournalists who report truthfully from Iraq are frequently attacked or smeared. Indeed, it seems that attacks on Logan in the right-wing blogopshere are nothing new -- last year, conservative Michelle Malkin falsely charged that "Haifa Street" story contained footage provided by al-Qaeda.
But this is different -- the smearing of Lara Logan is bleeding into the mainstream, more widely read media, and it's getting personal. And of course it's easy to play devil's advocate, because gossip about certain types of TV personalities -- certainly the local news anchors in a market like mine, Philadelphia -- is standard newspaper fare, especially when the personalities are good-looking, as Logan surely is. But she's not an anchorwoman, just a network war correspondent whose not even based around here, and even if these stories about her personal foibles are true, and who knows about that, it's simply not Page 1 news.
But the timing here really stinks. Is this just another low-grade tabloid scandal -- or a message to journalists who dare to criticize big corporate media's growing blackout on news from Iraq?
Consider me highly suspicious.
Footnote: In the short time that it took me to write this post, a link to an article about the "scandal" from a site called Rightpundits was added to her Wikipedia entry -- it just never stops.
As a bonus, here's video of Logan's "Daily Show" appearance:
We agree on one thing Will. There does seem to be a blackout on news from Iraq.— ocjones
Did Meddling Larry Mendte also try to throw Lara under the bus to Basra?— shoeshineboy- Even Murdoch and Rove can't spin the truth from this war...the media only marginally covers loss of American lives and does not place any emphasis on the Iraqui casualities. This will go down with Vietnam and the Bay of Pigs as one of the greatest US political blunders in history.— natedog
- Even Murdoch and Rove can't spin the truth from this war...the media only marginally covers loss of American lives and does not place any emphasis on the Iraqui casualities. This will go down with Vietnam and the Bay of Pigs as one of the greatest US political blunders in history.— natedog
The most interesting (to me) news story of the day, which appeared on the first page of international news in the NY Times, was that the Pakistani Intelligence Service were behind the last attempt to kill the president of Afghanistan (an attempt that came close to success). I knew as I was reading it that it would not be on the NBC Nightly News (which I watch by long custom) nor on Olbermann's Countdown and I strongly suspect that it did not make any television news. It MIGHT appear in my local paper tomorrow as a one-paragraph story, since they are usually a day late and a paragraph short. Certainly Logan is right. But I have missed her coverage since I seldom watch any CBS news outside of 60 Minutes. When she appeared on The Daily Show I almost did not believe she was a real correspondent because of her movie-star looks. But I really came to like her attitude even more than her looks. Few are willing to speak up as she did.
Comment removed.- Reading this article, it suddenly struck me how long it's been since I used to watch Logan's stories from Iraq. I always was amazed at how such a petite person would seem fairly fearless in reporting hot stories there and was never intimidated by the hulking officers she used to interview. It also seemd they gave her at least a modicum of respect because of her guttiness. It then struck me that I can't remember any stories from Iraq since she left. In fact, the only real on the ground info one gets these days from Iraq is either when Charlie Rose interviews reporters returning from Iraq (an ever increasing event as many don't seem to have returned) or NPR does a quick interview. Otherwise it's a dead story, although Afghanistan seems be making at least a small comeback. I've always thought that most of those network wusses that never leave the safety of their studios, were probably quite jealous of her.— atp2007
- Typically insightful comment from sloboat— Talking point sleuth
- Comment removed.
- I guess liberal journalists are above criticism... Will The Shill is quick to post links to "smears" of Republicans, but censors them when they are about Democrat/liberal journalists. And what exactly is the difference to Will between "conservative" and "ultraconservative"? How do you decide to apply which label? Is there ever a "ultraliberal" in your book?— fafafooey
- Good point by Commander Swifty. As of late, Attytood has become an extension of Danny Gross' and Howie Gensler's Gossip. Stu Byko would be disappointed though. Not enough coverag of Harry Jay Katz from Will the Thrill— shoeshineboy
She is a great reporter, but she has ruined her reputation by feeling entitled to multiple affairs while in Iraq. She will be trashed every time her name is mentioned by those on the right, whether fair or not. Though others in the DC media establishment may have screwed their way to the top at least they were more discreet about it. Logan has made a major career path error and as a result of all this will never again get the respect she otherwise has earned. It makes one question her rational thought process.- Comment removed.
- "...Logan - another reporter crestfallen that we're now winning in Iraq...." This from the commenter who claimed, years ago, that things were going "swimmingly" in Iraq. Apparently, in retrospect, he now realizes that things were actually a complete disaster at the time - and that actually, in his terms, we were "losing." I guess that about sums up the validity of his perspective, eh?— Talking point sleuth
- Comment removed.
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