Lara Logan's CBS 60 Minutes apology doesn't quite cut the mustard. That’s what Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel said when she went on MSNBC’s The Ed Show to discuss revelations that 60 Minutes had an imposter on its show discussing the Benghazi raid last year that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.
Speaking on a panel with Media Matters’ Eric Boehlart, she asked whether CBS’s ownership of the Simon & Schuster imprint that published the imposter’s story had influenced their decision to put him on air. She said the new world of media had various corporate interests to contend with. “These companies are not just news organizations, they have vast operations and this imprint is a measure of corporate self-interest,” she said.
vanden Heuvel also noted similarities to the scandal that led to Dan Rather’s resignation from 60 Minutes after a 2004 broadcast that questioned former President George W. Bush’s military service record. In that case, Republican media furore pressured CBS into an independent investigation.
“We saw a pathetically inadequate apology the other evening and we're witnessing an egregious double standard in terms of handling this,” vanden Heuvel said. “We need an independent investigation because, let's face it, the media's on trial here too.”
“Do we need a lapdog media in this country or do we need a watchdog?” She asked, “Put aside left and right, this is about the integrity of the media.”
—Nicolas Niarchos
More Katrina vanden Heuvel here: How Progressives in the Democratic Party are gaining steam.
