This morning CNN revealed that it scavenged Ambassador Chris Stevens’ diary from the U.S. consulate in Benghazi where he was murdered in a terrorist attack on Sept. 11.
https://twitter.com/JuliaCHurley/statuses/249517769383636993
Rather than immediately turning the journal over to authorities investigating the attack, CNN scoured it for “newsworthy tips” like TMZ breathlessly interpreting the hearts and doodles in Miley Cyrus’ diary.
Four days after he was killed, CNN found a journal belonging to late U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens. The journal was found on the floor of the largely unsecured consulate compound where he was fatally wounded.
CNN notified Stevens’ family about the journal within hours after it was discovered and at the family’s request provided it to them via a third party.
…
For CNN, the ambassador’s writings served as tips about the situation in Libya, and in Benghazi in particular. CNN took the newsworthy tips and corroborated them with other sources.
Anderson Cooper also acknowledged the previously undisclosed source of CNN’s scoops on his Friday evening show.
CNN contributor David Frum continued his final descent into moral bankruptcy, calling his employer’s actions “noble” (which is likely just the response the tone-deaf news org was aiming for).
CNN finds diary of murdered ambassador Stevens and returns to family – a noble action in a prurient media culture … http://t.co/APbOUwM5
— David Frum (@davidfrum) September 22, 2012
Noble? If by “noble” you mean “an unethical obstruction of justice.” CNN withheld evidence and cited the journal in news reports as “a source familiar with Ambassador Stevens’ thinking.”
After letting it sink in, Frum amended his tweet.
Didn't appreciate when I tweeted previously: CNN * used * the diary before returning it to family. http://t.co/APbOUwM5
— David Frum (@davidfrum) September 22, 2012
But what he still doesn’t seem to appreciate is that CNN removed evidence from the scene of a terrorist attack and, according to CNN’s own account, failed to hand it over to authorities.
https://twitter.com/CuffyMeh/statuses/249498121074257920
https://twitter.com/CuffyMeh/statuses/249500123858599936
What else did CNN swipe from the scene of a terrorism investigation?
Why was cnn on scene first? What other evidence gone? RT @CuffyMeh Umm, why didn't CNN give Amb. Stevens' journal to the CIA?
— Greg Pollowitz (@GPollowitz) September 22, 2012
If it’s true that #CNN used quotes from Ambassador Stevens' found journal in reporting then someone needs to be fired.
— sjglass ?? (@UrquhartMP) September 22, 2012
@cnn sometimes there is a bridge too far in journalism. You crossed it, http://t.co/rjMGGQrF
— Chakotae the Bae (@Nicosan1) September 22, 2012
Update:
The Wall Street Journal reports that CNN aired programming based on the journal against the wishes of Stevens’ family.
A State Department spokesman slammed CNN in a statement:
Given the truth of how this was handled, CNN patting themselves on the back is disgusting.
What they’re not owning up to is reading and transcribing Chris’s diary well before bothering to tell the family or anyone else that they took it from the site of the attack. Or that when they finally did tell them, they completely ignored the wishes of the family, and ultimately broke their pledge made to them only hours after they witnessed the return to the Unites States of Chris’s remains.
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