Kudos to Lara Logan

 

Lara Logan’s outspoken comments in recent days regarding the biased media and the death of journalism came and went quicker than a lightning bolt. Yet this flash of light lingered long enough to spark a fire. Her comments were read across conservative radio, highlighted in the Washington Examiner, and talked about on Fox News. When I heard that she spoke out, claiming to commit journalistic suicide, my ears perked up. She called the left-wing media propagandists.

“Former CBS News foreign correspondent Lara Logan said, “responsibility for fake news” begins with journalists as she berated the “liberal” media in a recent interview. “The media everywhere is mostly liberal,” Logan said during a podcast with retired Navy SEAL Mike Ritland on Friday. Logan, who said the interview was “professional suicide for me,” also blamed the media for not pursuing objectivity anymore, arguing journalists have evolved into “political activists.

I have been a fan of Ms. Logan for some time. Her journalistic passion for truth was evident in an outstanding investigation which aired on 60 Minutes, October 14, 2015, called The Hidden Holocaust.

The story unfolds with an Italian priest named Father Desbois, who uncovered a mass grave of buried Jewish bodies in Ukraine, deliberately covered up, unmarked forgotten earth, lying silent since The Cold War. This priest followed and recorded lead after lead, interview after interview, and when he found the truth, revealed it to the world. Lara Logan brought this previously untold story to the forefront when no one else did. As she talked to the priest, they paralleled this genocide to the Christians being slaughtered by ISIS in the Middle East and across the world. He received a distinguished human rights award for his work, presented to him by Lara Logan.

I Googled Lara Logan’s name and found mud. Only one link came up and that was her recent interview. The rest were about her earlier dismissal from CBS in 2013, regarding factual errors revealed in a story she presented on Benghazi, also on ’60 Minutes’. She said she was misled on some of the facts and profusely apologized for the error, yet was still fired. Imagine that? She made a mistake in reporting a story and was fired. Obama still reined and anyone that questioned the handling of Benghazi was quickly put in their place.

Logan hails from South Africa, but her young career spans the globe. Her resume is nothing to sneeze at, filing reports on the sexual assaults going on during the Mubarak uprisings in Egypt while in the middle of the protests, and criticizing the Obama administration more than once regarding foreign policy decisions, where she saw the fallout first hand. Logan has lived and worked in the thick of war, telling Sean Hannity last night, that one convoy that both she and Heraldo Rivera were in, was attacked. Lara made a decision to scale back the extent of the danger zones that she covered when she became a mother.

“In October 2012, Logan delivered a speech before the annual luncheon of the Better Government Association in which she sharply criticized the Obama Administration’s statements about the War in Afghanistan and other conflicts in the Arab world. In particular, Logan criticized the Obama Administration’s claims that the Taliban was weakening in Afghanistan, calling such claims “a major lie” made in preparation for ending the U.S. military role in that country. “

Logan was hired back on ’60 Minutes’ and continued to document from the trenches, those dark places where men and angels fear to tread. Her reporting is engaging, sensitive, and riveting. I hope the talented Lara Logan, who to me is a champion for truth, is picked up by a media outlet that appreciates this kind of old-school journalism: boots on the ground, face-to-face, no matter how challenging, no matter the topic, digging for truth, a voice for our day and time willing to risk a job, to call out the unprofessional and biased press that we are witnessing today.

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  1. Phil Turmel Inactive
    Phil Turmel
    @PhilTurmel

    It’s Lara Logan, not Laura.

    • #1
  2. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    Great post. Thank you. I hope Lara Logan is honored for her excellent work.

    • #2
  3. The Scarecrow Thatcher
    The Scarecrow
    @TheScarecrow

    Phil Turmel (View Comment):

    It’s Lara Logan, not Laura.

    She should change her last name to Croft then. I would always make it a point to watch.

    • #3
  4. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    Truth about the MSM is never well received by the MSM.

    • #4
  5. ST Member
    ST
    @

    She is blackballed for life by all True Believers

    • #5
  6. JCM Member
    JCM
    @JCM

    It was worth it to me to spend the time listening to the entire podcast – about 3 hours.  Listening to her talking about her experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq was like reading a Tom Clancy novel.  She may have bigger balls been in more dangerous situations than our own Boss Mongo.  She is one tough women.

    It sounds like she’s been very frustrated with CBS and all of MSM for a long time but for someone in her profession I guess that’s the only game in town.  Maybe there are a lot of people who work in MSM who think like Lara Logan and Sharyl Attkisson.  I hope so.

    • #6
  7. David Carroll Thatcher
    David Carroll
    @DavidCarroll

    On a related note:

    In an unusual fit of sanity, CNN hired a political conservative, Sarah Isgur, to edit its 2020 campaign coverage.  Not surprisingly, the rank and file at CNN are revolting over the prospect of balanced coverage.  Oh, they don’t actually say they object to balanced coverage.  Their excuse for objecting is the Ms. Isgur is not trained as a journalist (as if that matters for an editor).  Instead they smear her as being a political operative (whatever that means), as if CNN as whole in the last election cycle did not behave as a political operative for the Clinton campaign.

    It is good to see CNN trying to rise above being the country’s premier fake news outlet, even over internal resistance.

    • #7
  8. Phil Turmel Inactive
    Phil Turmel
    @PhilTurmel

    The Scarecrow (View Comment):

    Phil Turmel (View Comment):

    It’s Lara Logan, not Laura.

    She should change her last name to Croft then. I would always make it a point to watch.

    Based on what I saw and heard in that podcast video, Lara Croft is dull and plain compared to Lara Logan.

    • #8
  9. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    JCM (View Comment):

    It was worth it to me to spend the time listening to the entire podcast – about 3 hours. Listening to her talking about her experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq was like reading a Tom Clancy novel. She may have bigger balls been in more dangerous situations than our own Boss Mongo. She is one tough women.

    It sounds like she’s been very frustrated with CBS and all of MSM for a long time but for someone in her profession I guess that’s the only game in town. Maybe there are a lot of people who work in MSM who think like Lara Logan and Sharyl Attkisson. I hope so.

    She happened to be on Hannity last night and said she lived in Iraq for 5 years and Afghanistan for a year – literally in the thick of things. I had no idea of her extensive background as a war correspondent.  

    • #9
  10. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Thank you for shining a light on her work, on her courage and her values. I understand Kirsten Powers, who is a reporter on the Left, is reflecting on her own efforts to create the journalistic chaos we are now witnessing. If you can call it journalism.

    • #10
  11. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    David Carroll (View Comment):

    On a related note:

    In an unusual fit of sanity, CNN hired a political conservative, Sarah Isgur, to edit its 2020 campaign coverage. Not surprisingly, the rank and file at CNN are revolting over the prospect of balanced coverage. Oh, they don’t actually say they object to balanced coverage. Their excuse for objecting is the Ms. Isgur is not trained as a journalist (as if that matters for an editor). Instead they smear her as being a political operative (whatever that means), as if CNN as whole in the last election cycle did not behave as a political operative for the Clinton campaign.

    It is good to see CNN trying to rise above being the country’s premier fake news outlet, even over internal resistance.

    we’ll see……they have a lot to overcome..

    • #11
  12. RyanFalcone Member
    RyanFalcone
    @RyanFalcone

    If only one of the networks could be purchased by someone with a soul. She is one of many journalists who could fix the situation we find ourselves in.

    • #12
  13. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    JCM (View Comment):

    It was worth it to me to spend the time listening to the entire podcast – about 3 hours. Listening to her talking about her experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq was like reading a Tom Clancy novel. She may have bigger balls been in more dangerous situations than our own Boss Mongo. She is one tough women.

    It sounds like she’s been very frustrated with CBS and all of MSM for a long time but for someone in her profession I guess that’s the only game in town. Maybe there are a lot of people who work in MSM who think like Lara Logan and Sharyl Attkisson. I hope so.

    Yes. AND.

    I listened to the entire podcast and then watched the 60 Minutes episode where she talked about the sexual attack by the mob. Her story changed in this detail:

    The 60 Minutes piece did not assign clear blame for the attack on any faction. Indeed, it concluded with the terrible truth that Egyptian women regularly face sexual violence. Indeed Lara Logan says: “I had no idea it was so endemic…”

    Now, years later, she either has evidence, not introduced, or needs to protect herself by asserting the attackers were agents of the fallen regime. No mention now of the fact that what happened to her was acceptable in the new Muslim Brotherhood regime, which the crowd was celebrating. To be an objective reporter now would mean reporting on her wishful beliefs putting her into the position she was somehow unaware ordinary Egyptian women feared. 

    We are all imperfect vessels, with tragic flaws, Achilles heels, blind spots. We have all remarked, or nodded in agreement, on the lethal self delusion of white Western travelers biking or trekking though very bad places. Lara Logan has spoken truth, or what we want to hear, about major media, so we are avoiding raising the apparent continuing blind spot.

    • #13
  14. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):
    I understand Kirsten Powers, who is a reporter on the Left, is reflecting on her own efforts to create the journalistic chaos we are now witnessing.

    @susanquinn, I would like to see a reference to that reflection. Years ago I thought her commentary on Fox, while occasionally irritating was pretty centrist. But the stuff I have heard reported on her commentary on other cable outlets sounded deranged.

    • #14
  15. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

     

    @susanquinn, I would like to see a reference to that reflection. Years ago I thought her commentary on Fox, while occasionally irritating was pretty centrist. But the stuff I have heard reported on her commentary on other cable outlets sounded deranged.

    I heard Glenn Beck talk about it:

    https://www.theblaze.com/news/kirsten-powers-apologizes-for-covington-tweets

     

    I had the same impression of her on Fox but haven’t seen her elsewhere. I’ve noticed a couple of lefty reporters who appear somewhat balanced on Fox are nasty on other networks.

    • #15
  16. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Thanks to @frontseatcat for this post. I’ve expanded my comment to an OP: Achilles’ Heels, or am I being a heel?

     

    • #16
  17. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):
    https://www.theblaze.com/news/kirsten-powers-apologizes-for-covington-tweets

    Thank you for the link. I hope she does do better.

    • #17
  18. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Rodin (View Comment):

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):
    https://www.theblaze.com/news/kirsten-powers-apologizes-for-covington-tweets

    Thank you for the link. I hope she does do better.

    So do I. She’s a smart and apparently religious women. Time will tell.

    • #18
  19. Nanda "Chaps" Panjandrum Member
    Nanda "Chaps" Panjandrum
    @

    I heard this interview excerpted on All Marine Radio earlier  this week: Wow! Bravura!

    • #19
  20. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Is this the Lara Logan interview (with Mike Ritland)?

    To be honest she seems pretty equal opportunity in her criticism – from what I gathered the media has a ‘liberal bias’ because more journalists are liberals, not because liberal journalists are more biased.

    ??

    • #20
  21. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Is this the Lara Logan interview (with Mike Ritland)?

    To be honest she seems pretty equal opportunity in her criticism – from what I gathered the media has a ‘liberal bias’ because more journalists are liberals, not because liberal journalists are more biased.

    ??

    That is a 32 minute excerpt of the three-hour-long Mike Drop podcast. I agree with your read of her assessment of the media.

    • #21
  22. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Is this the Lara Logan interview (with Mike Ritland)?

    To be honest she seems pretty equal opportunity in her criticism – from what I gathered the media has a ‘liberal bias’ because more journalists are liberals, not because liberal journalists are more biased.

    ??

    That is a 32 minute excerpt of the three-hour-long Mike Drop podcast. I agree with your read of her assessment of the media.

    She also doesn’t go into market share.  Fox is one of the few Right biased media houses, but its market share is pretty respectable.  From marketplace.org [I have no idea who they are, June 2018 article]:

    The latest survey from Nielsen shows CNN is losing the prime time cable news race. It has 944,000 viewers from 8 to 11 p.m. EST. Compare that to 2.3 million for Fox News and 1.7 million for MSNBC.

    So the Right may have fewer journalists, but they’re still getting 46% of the market.

    Less encouragingly:

    Though that seems to assume that wisdom lies in the middle, and that’s an unproved assumption so far. (I think it’s true, but fwiw, not yet proved.)  And to be fair, subjective – though the person who created it thinks that you can make your own chart as well using the same process.

    • #22
  23. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Is this the Lara Logan interview (with Mike Ritland)?

    To be honest she seems pretty equal opportunity in her criticism – from what I gathered the media has a ‘liberal bias’ because more journalists are liberals, not because liberal journalists are more biased.

    ??

    That is a 32 minute excerpt of the three-hour-long Mike Drop podcast. I agree with your read of her assessment of the media.

    She also doesn’t go into market share. Fox is one of the few Right biased media houses, but its market share is pretty respectable. From marketplace.org [I have no idea who they are, June 2018 article]:

    The latest survey from Nielsen shows CNN is losing the prime time cable news race. It has 944,000 viewers from 8 to 11 p.m. EST. Compare that to 2.3 million for Fox News and 1.7 million for MSNBC.

    So the Right may have fewer journalists, but they’re still getting 46% of the market.

    Less encouragingly:

    Though that seems to assume that wisdom lies in the middle, and that’s an unproved assumption so far. (I think it’s true, but fwiw, not yet proved.) And to be fair, subjective – though the person who created it thinks that you can make your own chart as well using the same process.

    I think its important to distinguish between “news” and commentary. While Fox has eyeballs, the total content of news is much less market share than print, online, television news broadcast of left leaning sources. The dominance of Fox (and right leaning talk radio) on commentary reflects that most people are center-right in their orientation and seek out commentary that supports their POV. People have the opportunity to change their POV as their understanding of facts change. That is why “news” — which is supposed to be factual — has a strength for change that mere commentary does not. 

    • #23
  24. Nanda "Chaps" Panjandrum Member
    Nanda "Chaps" Panjandrum
    @

    I basically watch “Special Report” on FNC from 6:00-7:00 Eastern on weeknights…I sorely miss Charles Krauthammer’s insightful way of framing a question; and his humor.  The replacements in that seat just don’t cut it…

    • #24
  25. Ed G. Member
    Ed G.
    @EdG

    Front Seat Cat:

    Logan was hired back on ’60 Minutes’ and continued to document from the trenches, those dark places where men and angels fear to tread. Her reporting is engaging, sensitive, and riveting. I hope the talented Lara Logan, who to me is a champion for truth, is picked up by a media outlet that appreciates this kind of old-school journalism: boots on the ground, face-to-face, no matter how challenging, no matter the topic, digging for truth, a voice for our day and time willing to risk a job, to call out the unprofessional and biased press that we are witnessing today.

    I watched that whole Mike Drop interview, and I have to say that she has an undeniable charisma. It must be irresistible in person.

    As much as I welcome working mainstream journalists speaking truth about bias, I also noticed some negatives which tempered my enthusiasm.

    For one, in all of the thrilling stories from war zones it struck me that she was trading on her sexual allure constantly. I don’t have a problem with that necessarily, but to what end and to what effect on other people like the guys she seemed to collect as big brothers and protectors? What was the reason for all of that? What did it gain and for whom? What did it cost? Of course some people (probably Logan among them) are incapable of turning “it” off no matter what they say, do, or wear. That doesn’t excuse a cavalier use of that power over others. Luckily that one guy who groped her was only kidnapped and beaten for a few days instead of summarily executed. Yeah, I know he shouldn’t have groped her – agreed – yet he shouldn’t have been tortured over it either. I guess it’s a good thing to manipulate the BSD in the area into become a protector. Did her ranking officer really do all that for the pleasure of her company at dinners? Is such a thing really so valuable as a status marker? It’s true, we guys aren’t difficult to figure and most of us don’t need much to be satisfied.

    • #25
  26. Ed G. Member
    Ed G.
    @EdG

    What happened to Logan in Egypt is horrific and criminal. She reports on it in this video, not asking for sympathy or anything of the listener. That’s some journalistic mindset right there. Speaks well of her indomitability. Here again though, insensitive lout that I am, I thought “play with fire long enough and you’re going to get burnt”. No, that kind of thing is never deserved – that’s not what I’m saying so you can refrain from discussions about blaming  the victim because I don’t blame the victim. However, I was a bit incredulous at the idea that she didn’t know that simply being there was a safety risk of that magnitude. Perhaps she was aware at least in some circumstances (she did speak of worrying about becoming a “military mattress” at one point). Again, I ask: to what end? To what effect on her, on others, including her entourage and her family?

    • #26
  27. Phil Turmel Inactive
    Phil Turmel
    @PhilTurmel

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Less encouragingly:

    Though that seems to assume that wisdom lies in the middle, and that’s an unproved assumption so far. (I think it’s true, but fwiw, not yet proved.) And to be fair, subjective – though the person who created it thinks that you can make your own chart as well using the same process.

    Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha !!!!

    All those in the middle are supposed to be “Minimal Bias” ?  Bull [expletive] [expletive] !

    Consider reading Tim Groseclose’s  Left Turn for a corrective to your supposition.  Note — Groseclose’s underlying research was conducted, peer reviewed, and published by Harvard.  It makes a compelling case that the “middle” shown in your diagram is most certainly not where wisdom lies.

    • #27
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