CBS’ beleaguered Lara Logan gets a cheerleader — Dan Rather

Lara Logan, the CBS correspondent under fire for her discredited “60 Minutes” report on Benghazi, Libya, has received some support from one of her former network colleagues — Dan Rather, the veteran newsman who was pushed to leave his position after inaccurate reporting on George W. Bush.

Mr. Rather said Miss Logan should not be fired, Politico reported.

“OK, for whatever one thinks of what Lara Logan did or didn’t do with the story, in fairness it should be put against her whole record,” Mr. Rather said in an interview with Piers Morgan on CNN. “She’s still a very young correspondent, but for a young correspondent she has a distinguished record. It should be seen in that context and perspective.”

Miss Logan, along with her producer, Max McClellan, has been on leave from CBS since November. The Oct. 27 report that sent them there included claims of a former security contractor in Benghazi named Dylan Davies — claims that now have been contradicted and debunked. Mr. Davies said he was an eyewitness to the terrorist attack at the U.S. compound, and that’s how Miss Logan reported it — and some questioned whether she should have known of his contradictory statements before the broadcast.

Mr. Rather, for his part, said executives at CBS News were also to blame for Miss Logan’s report, which has been retracted, Politico reported.

The former CBS anchor had a long and colorful career, but he’s now best known perhaps for his reporting on Mr. Bush’s supposed favored service with the National Guard — a story he still stands by, despite the loss of his job after it was shown the documents he used to support his report were likely fabricated.

“With our story, the one that led to our difficulty, no question the story was true,” he said on CNN. “What the complaint was, was ’Okay, your story was true, but where you got to the truth was flawed.’ That’s not the case with the Benghazi [Lara Logan] story. Unfortunately — and there’s no joy in saying it — they were taken in by a fraud.”