Roger Yu, USA TODAY
CBS News correspondent Lara Logan, under fire for using a discredited source for a 60 Minutes story on the Benghazi attack, has agreed to take a leave of absence, according to an internal memo obtained by USA TODAY.
The segment's producer, Max McClellan, also was placed on leave.
"Thereis a lot to learn from this mistake for the entire organization," JeffFager, chairman of CBS News and executive producer of 60 Minutes,said in an email to CBS employees Tuesday. "As executive producer, Iam responsible for what gets on the air. I pride myself in catchingalmost everything, but this deception got through and it shouldn'thave."
Fager didn't address how long Logan or McClellan would be away from their jobs.
"The 60 Minutesjournalistic review is concluded, and we are implementing ongoingchanges based on its results," said CBS News spokeswoman Sonya McNair.
InOctober, Logan reported a harrowing eyewitness account of the deadlyattack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. Dylan Davies, a security guardfor working for a British contractor hired by the State Department tohandle security, told Logan that he violated his employer's orders tostay away from the compound and fought off a militant at the facility.He also claimed to have seen the body of U.S. Ambassador ChristopherStevens at a local hospital. Stevens was one four Americans who died inthe attack.
Davies' claims were widely discredited after it wasrevealed that he had told his employer and the FBI that he had in factbeen nowhere near the scene.
The review, conducted by Al Ortiz,CBS News' executive director of standards and practices, concluded thatthe error could have been prevented if Logan and McClellan had used"wider reporting resources of CBS News" to confirm his account.
"It'spossible that reporters and producers with better access to inside FBIsources could have found out that Davies had given varying andconflicting accounts of his story," Ortiz wrote in another internal memoobtained by USA TODAY.
Earlier this month, Logan apologized publicly on CBS This Morning."Today the truth is we made a mistake and that's very disappointing forany journalist," she said. "It's very disappointing for me."
Loganwas scheduled to host the Committee to Protect Journalists' pressfreedom awards dinner in New York on Tuesday evening. She will notattend the event.
