Taking on Lara Logan

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New Yorker editor Amy Davidson takes on CBS' Lara Logan over her assault on Rolling Stone's Michael Hastings. Logan thinks Hastings' reporting of Gen. Stanley McChrystal's remarks was inappropriate, Davidson begs to differ.

CBS correspondent Lara Logan, 07/08/08. (photo: Helayne Seidman/Washington Post)

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+10 # Guest 2010-06-30 21:23

Another example of the fawning, shock and awe media being caught with their pants down and then reacting with vitriol and more than a bit of envy. This is the kind of reporting that will ultimately get Americans involved in the ending of this insane war. A few more salvos like this and "Peace with Honor" will be coming up the stretch. Bravo Hastings!

+13 # Guest 2010-07-01 03:19

Gen. McChrystal should never have been in command in the first place. He should have been "allowed to resign" for his indispensable part in enabling the Pat Tillman farce to go forward. He could have been a "profile in courage" at the time but, instead, he swallowed his integrity and signed off on the attempted coverup of the circumstances of Tillman's death at the hands of his own platoon. The DOD and Bush administration lies to the Tillman family could never have continued as long as they did without the participation and enabling of General McChrystal. I wonder if Lara Logan's apologetics extend to the sorry facts of the Tillman fiasco and McChrystal's part in it?

+10 # Guest 2010-07-01 03:44

One of the problems I anticipated with the practice of journalists being imbedded with combat troops was that reporters would bond with those troops as they faced danger with them, and become reluctant to write anything negative. Understandable, but totally negative the value of their being there. Hastings did the hard, often unpopular job of a journalist. If that finally becomes untenable, this country will have closed the door on one of its most important hallmarks.

+14 # Guest 2010-07-01 05:19

McChrystal is a war criminal by his own admission. He said publicly that his men had killed "lots" of civilians and that none of them had represented any threat to them.

In addition, he was the head of Dick Cheney's Death Squad of executioners for five years!!

This man should not have been allowed to resign. He should have been courtmartialed and sent to prison for war crimes--includi ng the Pat Tilman coverup.

+3 # Guest 2010-07-01 05:24

Nice reference to Milton's Sonnet on His Blindness in fourth paragraph

+12 # Guest 2010-07-01 05:36

Logan's parting comment about Hastings' having no history of serving our country (as she compares Hastings to McChrystal) reveals her absolute failure to understand the highest commitments of true journalists: speak truth to power. Hastings' report serves our country & its people. Hastings is a journalist-grou ndbreaker, and no amount of the Logans among us can detract from the service he has rendered.

+5 # Guest 2010-07-01 05:54

The important thing upon which we must focus our attention isn't the personalities involved -- McChrystal, Hastings, Logan, or even Davidson -- but the policy. The McChrystal kerfuffle is only fallout from the real explosion, that of a war policy that is failing. We need to re-examine the policy and change it -- or abandon it -- as the situation requires.

+6 # Guest 2010-07-01 12:00

Excellent point. Bob C points out a classical logical fallacy--an ad hominem attack on the personalities involved instead of a discussion of the substance of the interview. Much more is going on here than people behaving badly.

+11 # Guest 2010-07-01 09:37

I stopped watching CBS news after they fired Dan Rather for getting caught in the Bush missing year trap. Lara Logan never impressed me as a genuine reporter or journalist buy as one more embedded, figuratively and literally with the Cheney neo-con imperialistic campaigns against vulnerable populations to deprive them of their resources and right to self-determination.

It is a relief to know there is one medium such as Rolling Stone which is willing to print what we need to know as a people whose blood and treasure is being squandered by an on-going crime against humanity under the false flag of national security in order to enhance the wealth and power of a global consortium of racketeers. Bravo, Hastings. Well done, Rolling Stone!

+6 # Guest 2010-07-01 09:38

How much was MChrystal's coverup of the Tillman murder like than-Captain Colin Powell's coverup of the My Lai massacre? People in the military are, among other things, a deep-rooted fraternity ("sorority" sounds odd and "girlish; it seems better to have a fraternity of mixed sexes). Some know they owe their lives to fellow soldiers. They're surrounded in the Middle East, as they were surrounded in Vietnam, by civilians whose allegiances they can't be sure of. After all, what sort of people would embrace an invading army that routinely kills civilians -- and whose General even trivializes those deaths, as McChrystal did? It makes a deep sense for soldiers to feel they must stick together. And that's the danger, as Blayney Colmore noted, of embedding journalists with the military: that they too will want to obey the unwritten rules of comradeship and help cover for their buddies, the soldiers. It's understandable, but it's wrong -- as this Lara Logan was wrong.

+7 # Guest 2010-07-01 10:06

Thank you Amy Davidson for saying what needed to be said. Gen. McChrystal is
arrogant and out-of-line. Some think
he is trying to further his own political
career. For too long, we have not challenged those who are self serving and
not concerned about the common good.
To me, as a New Yorker subscriber, you
have demonstrated responsible journalism
while I feel that Lara Logan like many
wants to cover up bad behavior again. I
believe that Hastings is also a responsible journalist.

+4 # Guest 2010-07-01 11:49

Again, another piece of the conspiracy puzzle (or is it how the system operates). Either reporters/journ alist tell the truth to the American people and let the chips fall where they may or these reporters continue lying to America in order to get "access" and facetime on TV with the big shots thereby advancing their own careers (and salaries).

+5 # Guest 2010-07-01 13:05

And here I thought real journalism was about exposing things to the public we would like to know, so we can fix what is broken and make better choices in the future.

Silly me.

+3 # Guest 2010-07-01 16:31

American civilians need to hear about whats going on from other civilians who are where the news happens. Hastings did just that, and I appreciate what it took to get that info out here in front of us civilians. I appreciate what Dan Rather was doing also.

As for meek reporters, and the talking heads in the MSM delivery system; why are you pretending to be journalists anyhow??? If you're playing "editorialist", let me ask this: Who's side are you trying to be on??? Would you please report what you see and what you hear - accurately?

+4 # Guest 2010-07-02 06:04

Hmm ... CNN reporter interviewing CBS reporter who's never served and contends another reporter lies, when he's the only one not mirrorspeaking to his own media and actually gathering, then publishing The NEWS? Grapes aren't the only thing Sour HERE!

+4 # Guest 2010-07-02 06:59

What Logan wrote shows she doesn't know what a true journalist is. That is an example of why people don't read newspapers like they used to, and why people who watch comedy news shows are better informed than people who watch network news. That's why you have to go to places like Rolling Stone and Mother Jones to find good journalism nowadays.

0 # Guest 2010-07-05 09:21

logan is simply currying favor with her military informants... can't blame an oppourtunist corporate schill from trying to make the bucks her words promote, can you? embedded? these people are wedded.

0 # Guest 2010-07-06 15:52

CBS = NBC = ABC = FOX. Let's face it, the MSM sucks! None of them have reporters; they only have readers. None of their readers have any idea what the hell is actually going on in the world!

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