Why Did CBS Run Lara Logan's Haifa Report Online Only?
CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan sent an e-mail around last week with a subject header that simply read "Help."
According to a comprehensive piece on MediaChannel.org, Logan wrote to friends and colleagues that she had reported on what she considered to be an important story about real life in Baghdad, but CBS would only run the footage online. The video shows a daily–and deadly– battle that is occurring on a street near the CBS offices in Baghdad. The video footage includes interviews with local Iraqis who say the U.S presence is not helping the political situation–and only making the day-to-day lives of the people worse.
Logan said the piece was " a story that is ignored even though it istaking [sic] place everysingle [sic] day in Baghdad."
The segment called Battle for Haifa Street appeared online on January 18 and a second segment, The Battle for Haifa Street Continues, appeared on January 24. They are not prominently placed on the CBSNews website.
According to a spokesperson for CBS News, the executive producer made the decision that some of the video was "too graphic for an evening news audience." She also said that the network currently had no intention to broadcast the footage–edited or otherwise–but added, "you never know what could happen."
As to whether or not CBS brass was unhappy with Logan for sending out an e-mail about the situation, the spokesperson said "I think anything that happens internally should stay internal."
A call to Lara Logan for comment has not yet been returned.
By Caroline Palmer
WM BENSON commented:
WHAT IS LARA LOGAN'S EMAIL ADD.? I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR HER,PLSE.
WM. BENSON
benson commented:
it''s quite obvious to me that lara logan has more ''balls'' than any of the top brass at cbs news.
i saw her on letterman and her courage permeated the discussion. the world needs a thousand more just like her.
plse give me her email add., i''d love to ask her some questions,plse.
wm. benson
JP commented:
The story is not worthy of the attention it is getting. Journalistically it is weak, and relies on gruesome bodies and gunfire to make an impact. But we should be sking ourselves how this report moves the debate forward or enlightens in any way. It does not. We have seen these kinds of firefights reported from warzones accross the world. This is nothing new. Logan is simply a weak journalist thrust into a position that she does not have the intellectual weight or insight to do justice to. So she travels to war zones, whoopee that is what foreign correspondents do! I say stay home. She is not adding anything insightful or convincing to the Iraqi coverage. This is nothing more than self-promotional