|
News, commentary, opinion on politics, government, books, social trends, American life, travel, cycling, books, other stuff
|
|
|
Eric Wimple in the WashPost has a hard hitting take on the mess at CBS News, which resulted, so far, in the reporter, Lara Logan and the producer who worked on the Benghazi foul up being “sent home” on a force “leave of absence”. (The best bet is that this is merely a prelude to a quieter dismissal of both of them, except that CBS would not like to lose Logan, who has done some outstanding work and who would be picked up by some other organization rather quickly. )
|
|
|
2) Leaves of absence are worthless. Suspensions, leaves of absence, forced sabbaticals, whatever you call them, they’re empty and symbolic PR stunts, designed to quell public outrage, always to the detriment of the organization. They do nothing more than further shake the confidence of someone who screwed up, while marooning the employee at home, far away from the training and support that would best prevent a repeat failure.
Following their bad reporting, Logan and McClellan are now taking an extended holiday break, during which they’ll do, what? Sit at home and stew? Catch up on some reading? Gossip about how certain other colleagues should also be doing forced leisure?
In circumstances such as this one, news organizations need to make a call as to whether the breakdowns constitute a firing offense. If they do, then fire people, as CBS News did following the Dan Rather non-expose on the National Guard service of President George W. Bush. If they don’t warrant dismissal, then work these people harder. Start on the next story. Raise the standards. (Note, from the TerryReport: Dan Rather was not fired following the Bush/draft screw up. He was pushed to retire a year earlier than planned.)
It’s possible that the leaves of absence are but a first step toward the dismissal of Logan and McClellan. If that’s the case, though, doesn’t CBS News have enough information right now to take that step? A better bet is that the two will quietly slink back into the office in the near future. Is that really accountability?
3) Where’s Jeff Fager’s leave of absence? Check out Jeff Fager’s bio on the CBS News Web site. Not only is he chairman of CBS News, but he’s also executive producer of “60 Minutes”, a difficult duality whenever trouble bubbles up from the set of the country’s most influential TV newsmagazine. In such circumstances, it’s ideal to have a chairman who’s free of any direct, working-level attachment to the work of “60 Minutes”.
Perhaps the most embarrassing part of this Benghazi meltdown was Fager’s own conduct. After The Washington Post exposed the inconsistencies in the testimony of Davies, Fager defended the reporting. Ortiz explains the whole sequence of events in his findings:
After the story aired, the Washington Post reported the existence of a so-called “incident report”€ť that had been prepared by Davies for Blue Mountain in which he reportedly said he spent most of the night at his villa, and had not gone to the hospital or the mission compound. Reached by phone, Davies told the 60 Minutes team that he had not written the incident report, disavowed any knowledge of it, and insisted that the account he gave 60 Minutes was word for word what he had told the FBI. Based on that information and the strong conviction expressed by the team about their story, Jeff Fager defended the story and the reporting to the press. |
|
