Katrina vanden Heuvel: CBS’s Egregious Double Standard

Katrina vanden Heuvel: CBS’s Egregious Double Standard

Katrina vanden Heuvel: CBS’s Egregious Double Standard

What Laura Logan's apology means.

Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email


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.

Hold the powerful to account by supporting The Nation

The chaos and cruelty of the Trump administration reaches new lows each week.

Trump’s catastrophic “Liberation Day” has wreaked havoc on the world economy and set up yet another constitutional crisis at home. Plainclothes officers continue to abduct university students off the streets. So-called “enemy aliens” are flown abroad to a mega prison against the orders of the courts. And Signalgate promises to be the first of many incompetence scandals that expose the brutal violence at the core of the American empire.

At a time when elite universities, powerful law firms, and influential media outlets are capitulating to Trump’s intimidation, The Nation is more determined than ever before to hold the powerful to account.

In just the last month, we’ve published reporting on how Trump outsources his mass deportation agenda to other countries, exposed the administration’s appeal to obscure laws to carry out its repressive agenda, and amplified the voices of brave student activists targeted by universities.

We also continue to tell the stories of those who fight back against Trump and Musk, whether on the streets in growing protest movements, in town halls across the country, or in critical state elections—like Wisconsin’s recent state Supreme Court race—that provide a model for resisting Trumpism and prove that Musk can’t buy our democracy.

This is the journalism that matters in 2025. But we can’t do this without you. As a reader-supported publication, we rely on the support of generous donors. Please, help make our essential independent journalism possible with a donation today.

In solidarity,

The Editors

The Nation

Ad Policy
x