Lara Logan apologizes on '60 Minutes' again for false Benghazi report, admits, 'we made a mistake'

CBS' '60 Minutes' apologized for a second time on Sunday's broadcast for reporting a false version of the 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, and for the untruthful source who claimed to have been at the event.
Logan was the reporter responsible for the Oct.27 on air story with uncredited source Dylan Davies. 
After his interview with reporter Lara Logan aired on the show, his account began being questioned publicly by The Washington Post and The New York Times. Though '60 Minutes' initially stood by him- believing his claims that he was the subject of a slander attack by the State Department- they issued a public apology for their mistake on the following Friday.
Dylan Davies previously worked as a security contractor hired by the State Department and he told 60 Minutes that he was not on the ground of the Special Consulate when the attack began on the night of September 11, 2012, but he rushed over as soon as he heard.

Lara Logan on '60 Minutes' on Sunday where she recounts a false broadcast on Oct.27 and issues an apology

'60 Minutes' correspondent Lara Logan made a second apology on air for trusting an untruthful source

‘The most important thing to every person at 60 Minutes is the truth, and today the truth is we made a mistake. That's very disappointing for any journalist, that's very disappointing for me,’ Logan said when she gave an on-air mea culpa during CBS This Morning on November 8.
‘Nobody likes to admit that they made a mistake, but if you do, you have to stand up and take responsibility and you have to say that you were wrong and in this case we were wrong.’
During the original interview, Davies- who went by the pseudonym that he used while writing a book about his version of events, Morgan Jones- said that he scaled a 12 foot wall and fought off a terrorist when he arrived at the consulate on the evening of the attack.

 

Apology on Nov.8 : Lara Logan said that they were wrong to air her interview with a man called Dylan Davies who, it has since been revealed, lied about his role on the night of the attacks on the American mission to Benghazi

Multiple stories: Dylan Davies, who went by the pseudonym Morgan Jones during the interview, told his security company and the FBI something different than he told CBS during his interview that aired at the end of October

He also said that he later saw the body of Ambassador Chris Stevens when he went to a local hospital that evening.
It was later revealed that in reports he made both to his company, Blue Mountain Group, and the FBI, he said that he never made it to the compound on the night of the attack. He said in those reports that he never made it to the Special Mission compound until the next morning on September 12.
Logan said that they were aware of the discrepancy between the version of events that he was telling CBS and the Blue Mountain Group report, saying that before they aired the piece he told them that he lied in the company’s report to go along with his boss’ story which said that Davies tried going to the mission but there were roadblocks and he couldn’t make it.

Lies: Davies told 60 Minutes that he scaled a 12-foot wall to get into the compound and then fought a terrorist to the ground once he got inside. He also said he saw the dead body of the American ambassador

‘His boss is someone he cared about enormously. He cared about his American counterparts in the mission that night, and when his boss told him not to go, he couldn't stay back. So that was always part of the record for us,’ Logan said.
She made it clear that what they did not know was that Davies had given that account to the FBI in their incident report. His involvement with the FBI report came via The Washington Post after the 60 Minutes piece aired, and Logan said that when they confronted him over the claims, he denied it.
Logan said that they have since tried contacting Davies about the situation and they have not been able to get in touch with him.
‘We were misled and we were wrong and that's the important thing and that's what we have to say here: we have to set the record straight and take responsibility,’ she said.

Placing the blame: While she repeatedly said 60 Minutes was taking responsibility, she said that they were 'misled' by Davies who did not tell them that he gave a different version of events to the FBI

Davies motivation to lie presumably has something to do with the fact that he is coming out with a book about alleged warnings that he gave the U.S. government about security flaws before the attack.
The publisher of the book, The Embassy House, has now said that they have retracted the book.

Pulled: The publisher announced on Friday that it will stop selling Davies' book

It had already been on sale online and an unknown number of people had already bought the book. Simon & Schuster announced that 'in light of information that has been brought to our attention' they will no longer be selling the book.
Anyone who purchased the book in the past week since the story aired and it went on the market can now return it to the publisher, Politico reports.
The book itself was another problem for '60 Minutes' because while they did disclose that Davies had a book that was being published, they failed to mention that Threshold Editions is an imprint of Simon & Schuster which is owned by CBS.
CNN said that they got a statement from Davies who said that his book is 'consistent' with what he told U.S. authorities and the FBI, but their own reporter said that there were discrepancies between his book and official reports.
When asked about what steps they took to vet that Davies was telling the truth before they put him on air, Logan said that they did independent research and also used material that he provided.
'We verified that he was who he said he was, that he was working for the State Department at the time, that he was in Benghazi at the Special Mission compound the night of the attack,' she said on CBS' morning news show.
'He gave us access to communications that he had with government officials. we used US government reports and congressional testimony to verify many of the details  of his story and everything checked out. He also showed us photographs that he had taken at the Special Mission compound the following morning.'