“60 Minutes” correspondent Lara Logan and producer Max McClellan are taking leaves of absence from the show, according to multiple reports.
CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager, who also serves as executive producer of “60 Minutes,” informed staff of the news following an internal investigation into a report that aired a month ago about the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, according to a memo obtained by The Huffington Post.
Fager asked the two journalists to take leaves of absence, and they agreed.
The TV network, Fager said, has rebuilt itself in a way that has improved reporting.
“Ironically 60 Minutes, which has been a model for those changes, fell short by broadcasting a now discredited account of an important story, and did not take full advantage of the reporting abilities of CBS News that might have prevented it from happening,” Fager wrote in the memo.
{mosads}Earlier this month, Logan apologized for the report, which aired at the end of October. She interviewed a man named Dylan Davis, also known as Morgan Jones, who claimed he was at the U.S. compound the night of the terrorist attack.
The account Davies gave during the segment, however, differed from what he had told the FBI just a few days after the attack.
According to Fager’s memo, the internal review found “60 Minutes” did not know what Davies had reported to the FBI or the State Department. Fager said a “red flag” should have been raised when Davies told his editorial team that he had lied to his employer about his whereabouts the night of the attack.
After the original report aired, Republican lawmakers used it to pressure the White House to provide them with access to witnesses to the attack.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) threatened to block Obama’s nominees until members of Congress are given access to these people.
His threat, however, would be less effective now that the Senate enacted rules last week limiting the power of the filibuster.