Journalist Lara Logan, and Max McCellan, her longtime producer, are taking a leave of absence from CBS following the fallout that the news magazine used a discredited source in their October 27 report while discussing the attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi Libya, CNN reported.
"CBS suggested that the leaves of absence were punitive measures for the shortcomings in the Benghazi report," news report said.
"The '60 Minutes' journalistic review is concluded, and we are implementing ongoing changes based on its results," a CBS News spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
Logan's leave of absence stems from the botched Benghazi report in which a security contractor, Dylan Davies, lied in the television interview with Logan about what happened on September 11, 2012, where four Americans were killed by a terrorist assault at the compound.
Davies' account "contradicted what he had previously told the FBI, the State Department and his own employer. CBS executives have said that they did not know the details of the government interviews of Davies but did know that he had told his employer a different story," CNN reported.
Al Ortiz, the head of standards and practices for CBS, said that "this crucial point -- his admission that he had not told his employer the truth about his own actions -- should have been a red flag in the editorial vetting process,." Ortiz went on to fault the entire "60 Minutes" staff for airing the interview.
CBS also took exception said to "Logan's assertions that Al Qaeda carried out the attack and controlled the hospital were not adequately attributed in her report. The report also made mention of Logan's controversial speech in October, 2012."
"Logan made a speech in which she took a strong public position arguing that the US Government was misrepresenting the threat from Al Qaeda, and urging actions that the US should take in response to the Benghazi attack. From a CBS News Standards perspective, there is a conflict in taking a public position on the government's handling of Benghazi and Al Qaeda, while continuing to report on the story," according to the report.
"There is a lot to learn from this mistake for the entire organization. We have rebuilt CBS News in a way that has dramatically improved our reporting abilities. 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," said a contrite Jeff Fager, who serves as the Chairman of CBS News and Executive Producer of "60 Minutes."
