vendredi 3 janvier 2014

'60 Minutes' Apologizes For Benghazi Report: 'We Are Very Sorry'

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"60 Minutes" issued a brief on-air apology and correction on Sunday for its botched and mishandled report on the Benghazi attacks, but gave few details about the failures that led to its retraction of a piece it had staunchly defended.

Speaking about Dylan Davies, the discredited man at the heart of her piece, correspondent Lara Logan told viewers, "We realized we had been misled, and it was a mistake to include him in our report. For that, we are very sorry."

The venerable program was forced into an embarrassing retreat after it had defended itself for a week about the reliability of Davies, a British security officer. On Thursday night, it emerged that Davies—who had already admitted to lying to a superior about his whereabouts on the night of the attack—had also told the FBI he had been nowhere near the American compound when it took place, a statement completely at odds with the detailed, harrowing tale he told "60 Minutes."

It was the second on-air apology delivered by Logan. On Friday, she went on television to say that she was "wrong" to have put Davies on air.

Predictably, her Sunday mea culpa offered little insight into why Davies was chosen as the key source for the report, and why "60 Minutes" had so fervently defended him, even amid mounting evidence of his unreliability. Also unmentioned was what role, if any, corporate ties played in placing Davies at the heart of the piece. A conservative imprint of Simon and Schuster, which is also owned by CBS, had published a book about Benghazi by Davies. That book has since been recalled.

Many media observers pronounced themselves to be less than impressed:

Media Matters, which led the charge against the report, issued a statement from its founder David Brock, who called the apology "wholly inadequate and entirely self-serving."

Also on HuffPost:

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Texas And 5 Other States Resist Processing Benefits For Gay Couples

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On the morning of Sept. 3, the first day the Pentagon said they could, Alicia Butler and her spouse, Judith Chedville, who is a Texas Army National Guard officer, went to Austin’s Camp Mabry so Ms. Butler could get a military spouse identification card and register for the same federal marriage benefits provided to wives and husbands of heterosexual service members.

Read the whole story at The New York Times


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Jonathan Martin's Threatening Text Message To Richie Incognito Was This Meme, Claims His Lawyer

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jonathan martin text Miami Dolphins guard Richie Incognito (68) and tackle Jonathan Martin (71) stand on the field during practice in Davie, Fla. on July 24, 2013.

Attempting to provide context for his treatment of teammate Jonathan Martin, Richie Incognito claimed he also received a threatening text message. The suspended Miami Dolphins guard made this revelation when he sat down with Jay Glazer of FOX Sports to discuss the Dolphins' bullying scandal involving him and Martin. A second-year offensive tackle, Martin abruptly left the Dolphins on Oct. 28 to receive treatment for emotional distress. Incognito, once named the NFL's dirtiest player in a poll of his peers, was subsequently suspended by the Dolphins on Nov. 2 for unspecified misconduct related to alleged mistreatment of Martin.

"People don't know how John and I communicate to one another," Incognito explained to Glazer. "For instance, a week before this went down, Jonathan Martin texts me on my phone: 'I will murder your whole effing family.' Now, did I think Jonathan Martin was going to murder my family? Not one bit. I knew it was coming from a brother. I knew it was coming from a friend. I knew it was coming from a teammate."

Hours after the interview aired on FOX on Sunday afternoon, David Cornwell, an attorney for Martin, shared a profane Internet meme featuring a smiling woman and a dog on Twitter and indicated this was the message that Incognito mentioned to Glazer.

WARNING: Image Below Contains Strong Language

Is that what viewers had in mind as Incognito recalled the text message?

Incognito referenced the text from Martin when asked about the threatening voice and text messages he had reportedly sent that included racial slurs. Speaking with Glazer, Incognito confirmed leaving the following voicemail for Martin, who is bi-racial.

“Hey, wassup, you half n—– piece of [expletive] . . . I saw you on Twitter, you been training ten weeks. [I want to] [expletive] in your [expletive] mouth. [I'm going to] slap your [expletive] mouth. [I'm going to] slap your real mother across the face (laughter). [Expletive] you, you’re still a rookie. I’ll kill you.”

Although he did expressed embarrassment over the voicemail, Incognito cited the text from Martin as evidence that both players traded similar threats in jest. He portrayed a locker room culture where such language was acceptable.

"When I see that voicemail, when I see those words come across the screen, I'm embarrassed by it," Incognito said after he was presented with a transcript of the offensive voicemail he left for Martin. "I'm embarrassed by my actions. But what I want people to know is, the way Jonathan and the rest of the offensive line and how our teammates, how we communicate it's vulgar. It's not right."

[H/T Deadspin]


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