Was Lara Logan, as CBS News claims in a press release put out June 25th, 2008 and touted by CBS News President Sean McManus “ … the only journalist from an American network in Baghdad when the U.S. military invaded the city.”
Both Logan and CBS News claims she was. Problem is, she wasn’t.
Lara Logan, the fast rising star at CBS News, who’s derring-do overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere in recent years has catapulted her to network news stardom may need to hire someone to fact check the claims being made about her by her bosses at CBS. We assume she actually watches and reads her own stories, bio and the press releases put out about her.
Although, we may be wrong about that, because on a recent appearance last week on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” she professed to not watching American TV News.
Now Logan and her CBS’ bosses have more fact checking to do.
CBS News claims Logan was the only journalist working for an American network in Baghdad when U.S. forces rolled into the city and toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime in April 2003. But that claim is patently false.
While Logan was in Baghdad at the time, having returned to the city only hours before US troops rolled in, she was far from the only American journalist there.
At the time, April 4th, 2003, many American journalists, including several from American broadcast networks were also there. They included Richael Engel, now of NBC News, who was working for ABC News filing reports from the Iraqi capital.
In addition, NPR reporter Ann Garrells was in Baghdad filing reports. To hear Garrel’s NPR 2003 reports click here:
As anyone who watches American TV News would know, Fox News reporter Greg Kelly was the only American reporter embedded with the U.S. Marines 3-ID division as they rolled into central Baghdad and took control of the Iraqi capitol on live TV.
Kelly, who still works for Fox News today, has described his front line Baghdad experience that day as somewhat “surreal.” Although we doubt it, he may wonder if he was there or not after reading CBS and Logan’s claims. ERS can assure him and the public it wasn’t all a dream.
*Editor’s Note: As ERS was preparing to publish this story Thursday morning (June 26, 2008) the online media site “TVNewser” reported that a CBS spokesperson clarified the inaccurate statement saying "Lara was the only reporter for an American network who reported live from Firdos Square as the statue of Saddam fell."
