Risky Business

Jesus, this is really shocking stuff -- a grim reminder of just how dangerous the job of an international correspondent can be, particularly a female correspondent and particularly one who regularly and courageously puts herself in the middle of some of the most violent, calamitous situations on the planet in order to bring the news home to the masses:

"On Friday February 11, the day Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak stepped down, CBS correspondent Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a 60 MINUTES story when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration. It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy.

In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers. She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering.

There will be no further comment from CBS News and Correspondent Logan and her family respectfully request privacy at this time."

I've taken a couple of shots at Logan in the past, mostly because of statements she made which implied that journalists should defer to the those in positions of authority, but obviously what's happened to her is just sickening and unconscionable.

I wish her all the best.

Quote of the Day

"Michael Hastings, if you believe him, says that there were no ground rules laid out. And, I mean, that just doesn't really make a lot of sense to me. I mean, I know these people. They never let their guard down like that. To me, something doesn't add up here. I just -- I don't believe it... What I find is the most telling thing about what Michael Hastings said in your interview is that he talked about his manner as pretending to build an illusion of trust and, you know, he's laid out there what his game is. That is exactly the kind of damaging type of attitude that makes it difficult for reporters who are genuine about what they do, who don't -- I don't go around in my personal life pretending to be one thing and then being something else. I mean, I find it egregious that anyone would do that in their professional life... And to be fair to the military, if they believe that a piece is balanced, they will let you back."

-- CBS Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan on Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings during yesterday's Reliable Sources

Right. This from the woman whose network freely admits that it's covering Afghanistan less these days simply because its gorgeous star war correspondent (that would be Lara Logan) is on maternity leave. Yes, I'd certainly trust that kind of thinking and news judgment over a print reporter who's not being paid a bloody fortune and wasn't hired largely because little hearts dance over the heads of the execs in the CBS News adminisphere every time his face appears on television.

Oh, and Lara, the reason McChrystal and his people may have let their guard down is precisely because they've become so used to being slavishly blown by the establishment press. At this point, I have to imagine they naturally assume that nothing negative -- or newsworthy for that matter -- will ever be written or broadcast about them, so there's really no need to worry about censoring themselves anymore.

And who gave them that idea?

You did -- day after access-filled day.

Put it another way: Michael Hastings was asked to appear on Reliable Sources because he just broke a story of monumental importance and with almost incalculable impact. You were invited on because you're Lara Logan.

Everything Is Under Control

I'm as entertained as anyone by a clever conspiracy theory, but let's face it: Unless you have something more than a couple of admittedly peculiar coincidences to back up an outlandish claim, you're just talking out of your ass. That said, when one of those curiosities smacks you right in the face -- or threatens to arrest you for trying to take pictures of oil-slicked beaches -- you're naturally going to want to peel back the onion and see what, if anything, is at the center.

By now this video, shot yesterday by CBS News's Kelly Cobiella -- who's a good friend of mine as well as an all-around terrific reporter -- has made the rounds far and wide. It shows Kelly and her crew being stopped at sea by a Coast Guard boat and ordered to turn around under threat of arrest. CBS had chartered their own boat in an effort to get video of the impact of the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf -- specifically of one shore in South Pass, Louisiana that's now completely blackened with oil. What's disturbing is that on board that Coast Guard boat -- apparently working in conjunction with with the Guard -- are several BP contractors. After stopping the CBS crew, one member of the Coast Guard tells Kelly, "This is BP's rules -- it's not ours."

In other words, if you believe what we seem to be seeing and hearing, BP is giving orders to the United States Coast Guard and apparently has the authority to commandeer our armed forces to keep the press away from public property.

Isn't the first rule of a conspiracy that you don't willingly let anyone know about it?

War Child

And the hits just keep on coming.

(The Huffington Post: Lara Logan Pregnant with Married Contractor's Baby/7.8.08)

Logan's Shun

Immediately after being fired from my job at CNN, I wrote an extended piece decrying the direction that American television news has taken in the last several years (Say What You Will/2.18.08). The one paragraph in that column that best summed up the deplorable state of modern broadcast journalism -- and therefore went on to be quoted quite a few times as the piece made its way around the internet -- was this:

"During my last couple of years as a television news producer, I watched the networks try to recover from a six year failure to bring truth to power (the political party in power being irrelevant incidentally; the job of the press is to maintain an adversarial relationship with the government at all times) and what's worse, to pretend that they had a backbone all along. I watched my bosses literally stand in the middle of the newsroom and ask, "What can we do to not lead with Iraq?" -- the reason being that Iraq, although an important story, wasn't always a surefire ratings draw. I was asked to complete self-evaluations which pressed me to describe the ways in which I'd "increased shareholder value." (For the record, if you're a rank-and-file member of a newsroom, you should never under any circumstances even hear the word "shareholders," let alone be reminded that you're beholden to them.) I watched the media in general do anything within reason to scare the hell out of the American public -- to convince people that they were about to be infected by the bird flu, poisoned by the food supply, or eaten by sharks. I marveled at our elevation of the death of Anna Nicole Smith to near-mythic status and our willingness to let the airwaves be taken hostage by every permutation of opportunistic degenerate from a crying judge to a Hollywood hanger-on with an emo haircut. I watched qualified, passionate people worked nearly to death while mindless talking heads were coddled. I listened to Lou Dobbs play the loud-mouthed fascist demagogue, Nancy Grace fake ratings-baiting indignation, and Glenn Beck essentially do nightly stand-up -- and that's not even taking into account the 24/7 Vaudeville act over at Fox News. I watched The Daily Show laugh not at our mistakes but at our intentional absurdity."

Now keep all that in mind as you watch this interview -- somewhat startling in its candor -- with CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan. It's from, ironically, The Daily Show.