It took a while, but CBS has concluded an internal investigation of the 60 Minutes Benghazi! story, and reporter Lara Logan and producer Max McClellan are taking a “leave of absence” that has been strongly recommended by their boss, CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager.
Most of the reaction to this development has focused on the question of what CBS has learned from this deeply embarrassing incident. But I wonder about Lara Logan. Will she take her medicine and climb back up the slippery pole of on-camera talent she seemed to be ascending quite rapidly before she decided to begin a new Benghazi! furor? Or will she make a strategic retreat into celebrity reporting or science reporting or sports reporting?
The short-cut for her, of course, will be to assume the mantle of Conservative Media Martyr and land a gig with Fox, where there will be no “internal investigations” of reporters who bend the rules in pursuit of Big Stories like Benghazi!. If she resists that temptation, then perhaps there is hope for her as a legitimate journalist who admits when she’s wrong and rededicates herself to journalism.
