CBS News foreign correspondent Logan, before she was attacked in Cairo
These have been the worst of times for two female television news reporters, who in an ironic twist, are both employed by CBS. Both women are highly experienced broadcast journalists, one on the streets of Los Angeles, the other in world trouble spots. Both happen to be very attractive and if it matters, blonde. Both were working, one on camera, one off camera, when events spiraled beyond their control—and the women themselves, instead of reporting the news, became headline news.
Some of the details are emerging about the attack on CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan, sexually assaulted by a mob of Egyptian men as she covered the fall of Hosni Mubarak in Tahrir Square last week—and they’re not pretty.
Logan was rushed out of the country on a CBS jet and was hospitalized in the US, after she was initially rescued by a group of women and 20 Egyptian soldiers. In the crush, she became separated from her security detail and crew. Word is the crowd cried, “Jew, Jew” as they attacked her. The day before, she told Esquire magazine that Egyptian soldiers had harassed her, accusing her and her crew of being Israeli spies.
Put an American woman dressed in Western clothing in the midst of a crowd of angry men in a Third World country, and good things will not likely result. But Logan appeared to know the ropes. She’d come under fire in Iraq and Afghanistan, and had expressed concern in the past about not coming home from those war zones. But Egypt was not technically at war—yet she was held captive.
In a news release about the assault, CBS said she was surrounded by a “dangerous element” of more than 200 people whipped into a frenzy who attacked her for 20-30 minutes, causing serious injuries.
Apparently, the network, with Logan’s approval, only went public after getting a call from the Associated Press asking for information.
As part of the chaotic, back and forth events during 18 days of protests leading up to Mubarak’s departure, CNN’s Anderson Cooper had been roughed up and ABC reporter Brian Hartman had been threatened with beheading.
Naysayers have downplayed the attack on Logan, saying sexual assault could mean she was grabbed, but if that were the case, she wouldn’t have needed to be rushed back home and hospitalized.
But a fellow journo took his criticism to the extreme. Nir Rosen, a freelance journalist and New York University fellow who has covered the Iraq war, tweeted, “Yes yes it’s wrong what happened to her. Of course. I don’t support that. But it would have been funny if it happened to Anderson too.” (Oh yes, very amusing.)
Those comments have since been deleted, and in the face of an outcry about his comments, Rosen resigned his fellowship at NYU.
In a tweet that remains on his feed, Rosen said: “Jesus Christ, at a moment when she is going to become a martyr and glorified we should at least remember her role as a major war monger.”
Rosen has since filled his Twitter page with apologies, saying: “I never meant to hurt anyone.”
President Obama called Logan today, but no other details were available and CBS said it would not have further comment and that Logan and her family requested privacy. She’s reportedly recuperating at home and plans to be back at work in several weeks. That will be a triumph after the trauma she’s endured.
- Serene Branson’s infamous on-air Grammy gaffe
And then there’s the case of KCBS-TV reporter Serene Branson on Grammy night in Los Angeles. The anchors tossed to her at the top of their newscast and outside Staples Center, on live television, she spewed out a string of incoherent words—something about a “heavy, heavy burtation”—before the station cut to her taped piece about the awards show.
Having seen it live, first impression was that she was drunk—and then the speculation started that she’d had a stroke, or was on drugs, or having a reaction to medication.
Clips of the mishap appeared almost immediately online, although CBS tried to have them removed for copyright infringement. Branson became the butt of mean-spirited jokes, some of them relating to her being blonde–and then the subject of medical stories about what sort of condition could have possibly caused the bizarre wordplay. She herself tweeted that it was just nerves, but that doesn’t seem likely for an experienced reporter who knows the drill in covering an awards show. Live shot. Intro. Taped piece. Tag. Toss back to studio.
The station released a statement saying she was examined by paramedics at the scene—apparently anchor Paul Magers immediately suggested calling 911– was determined to be fine, and that a colleague gave her a ride home. While paramedics do life-saving work, they are not physicians, and many people think she should have been taken to the emergency room immediately.
A KCBS insider speculated the whole incident could actually be a boon to her career. “That’s every local reporter’s dream, to be seen nationally—and have international exposure as well,” he told me. “She can turn this around to work it to her advantage.”
Yes, the reporter who couldn’t speak clearly, for whatever reason, and has been taking some time off, will probably soon be making the rounds of all the morning news and talk shows. And maybe only then will the mystery be solved.
