Publisher pulls CBS source's Benghazi book

Do you think they could have checked the story first?

Publisher pulls CBS source's Benghazi book
NBC News
By Elisha Fieldstadt
November 8, 2013

A notable publisher ceased the publication of a book detailing firsthand accounts of the Benghazi consulate attacks on Friday, after two previous reports by one of the authors conflicted largely with accounts in the book.

Simon and Schuster’s decision to stop selling “The Embassy House” — written by security officer Dylan Davies under the pseudonym Morgan Jones — followed an apology by CBS correspondent Lara Logan on Friday for featuring Davies as a key source during a “60 Minutes” interview.

In the interview and in the book, Davies recounted rushing to the U.S. compound on the night of the attack. However, an incident report written by Davies and submitted to his employer three days later read, “we could not get anywhere near the mission.”
read more here

Coming Home: Justice for our veterans

Coming Home: Justice for our veterans

The following is a script from "Coming Home" which aired on Oct. 14, 2012.
Scott Pelley is the correspondent.
Ashley Velie, producer.

Two and a half million Americans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan; many of them, more than once. The VA tells us about 20 percent come home with post-traumatic stress disorder, known as PTSD. So, that comes to about 500,000. For some, returning is harder than they imagined. The suicide rate for the Army is up 15 percent over last year. For the Marines its up 28 percent. A few of our troops return to become something they never thought they could be: criminals, for the first time in their lives.

Around Houston, in Harris County, Texas, 400 veterans are locked up every month. We met a judge there who saw them coming before the bench, fresh out of the warzone and he thought a lot of them were worth saving. Judge for yourself once you meet some of our troops, coming home.

Scott Pelley: How long in the Marine Corps?

Arthur Davis: Almost 22 years, sir.

Scott Pelley: Number of combat deployments?

Arthur Davis: Four altogether.

Scott Pelley: And you made first sergeant.

Arthur Davis: Yes, sir.

Scott Pelley: Leader of Marines.

Arthur Davis: Yes, sir.

Scott Pelley: It was a good life.

Arthur Davis: Yes, sir.

Let us show you two pictures of Arthur Davis. This one, with the president, was taken in 2006, in Afghanistan, when Davis was in charge of our embassy security there. This is a mug shot they took a couple of years later in the Harris County jail -- one year after his retirement from the Corps.

Arthur Davis: One of the things I swore that I'd never do was go to jail. And for seven days I was in the county jail, trying to figure out what was I going to do, thinking about all the things that I screwed up on, all the hard work that I've put myself through to get to this point in my life where I could say, you know, I did a good job. And I screwed it all up. I thought my life was over.

It could have been over. He faced up to 20 years for assault with a deadly weapon. Davis, drunk and in a rage, took a gun and a knife into a fight with a neighbor.

Arthur Davis: It was just too much for me to deal with. You know, I thought I was the toughest person I knew, I could handle anything. But I couldn't deal with my own demons.

read more here

Coming Home: Justice for our veterans
October 14, 2012 4:00 PM
An alternative court program in Harris County, Texas, seeks to rehabilitate veterans who turn to crime for the first time. Scott Pelley reports.

Veteran: "I felt like a monster"
October 14, 2012 4:00 PM
Veterans Affairs Dr. Charity Hammond oversees a group therapy session for veterans coping with PTSD and substance abuse -- one of the many treatment programs that the Harris County, Texas veterans' court mandates as part of its 18-24 month program.

CBS News thought Afghanistan report was important, Americans didn't care

We complain about the lack of coverage on Afghanistan and Iraq yet when they do a fine job Americans just don't seem to care. We cannot use the excuse we all have our own problems. During WWII everyone had problems but paid as much attention as they could. It seemed as if everyone knew someone serving. During the Korean War, people still cared enough to find out what was going on. Vietnam was brought into our living rooms everyday. The Gulf War was covered. The invasion of Afghanistan and the first year was covered but then all the talk and coverage was about Iraq. That too faded from the news.

We didn't really know what happened to them when they came home and took off their uniforms. We were not reminded about the troops being sent back over and over again and we were not reminded that many of them were still fighting what the war did to them. Today most don't know how many are in Iraq or Afghanistan, how many died, how many were wounded or how many ended up taking their own lives.

The ratings for the CBS news coverage is about as depressing as it gets when the people of this country are detached from the men and women risking their lives for this country. We should be ashamed that Americans just don't seem to care anymore.

CBS' Afghanistan trip unrewarded, a ratings downer
(AP)

NEW YORK — Television news divisions may be thinking twice about ambitious travel plans.

That was the ominous message delivered to the "CBS Evening News" last week. The Nielsen Co. said Katie Couric's broadcast reached just under 5 million viewers, a low point for evening newscasts for at least two decades and probably much longer.

The week's centerpiece was a two-day trip to Afghanistan, where some striking work was done by Couric and reporter Terry McCarthy. Each of those telecasts had fewer than 4.7 million viewers.

Executive Producer Rick Kaplan says the low ratings aren't a surprise. He says he makes no apologies for the trip.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

NEW YORK (AP) — Katie Couric and the "CBS Evening News" team did some striking work during a two-day trip to Afghanistan last week, only to see some record-setting low ratings in return.

The Nielsen Co. ratings have to be discouraging to news organizations contemplating expensive assignments in a tough economy. The broadcast's executive producer, Rick Kaplan, said he made "no apologies" for traveling to the war zone because of the importance of the story.
go here for more
CBS Afghanistan trip unrewarded

Veterans Suicide Report Earns Emmy

Keep in mind with all of this, with all that happened, NAMI Veterans Council thought it was a good idea to award Dr. Katz for being behind all of this and forced to act to save lives.

It is not as if they didn't know what was going on.

National Alliance on Mental Illness
Submitted to
Subcommittee on Military Construction,
Veterans’ Affairs and Related Agencies
Committee on Appropriations
United States House of Representatives

March 20, 2007

The General Accountability Office (GAO) issued a startling report last year to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs documenting VA’s failure to spend several millions of available dollars in pursuit of important initiatives that would move VA in the right direction to reform its mental health programs. The Veterans Council Executive Committee met recently with Dr. Ira Katz to discuss his plans to improve the allocation of funds dedicated to the initiatives under the new strategic plan. We hope Congress will closely monitor VA’s implementation of the new strategic plan to ensure it meets that promise.

National Alliance on Mental Illness

Anyway, a reminder of what was behind all of this can be found here

Friday, July 3, 2009

Dr. Ira Katz award slaps veterans
I still believe in NAMI but I no longer believe in the NAMI Veterans Council. The decision to award Dr. Ira Katz for suicide prevention is akin to awarding a vampire for testing blood. Katz, as reported here countless times, was refusing to admit there was a problem with veterans committing suicide. Everything he did, what they are awarding him for, he was forced to do. The Veterans Council is giving him an award for what it took an act of Congress to do!

Veterans Suicide Report Earns Emmy
CBS' Armen Keteyian's Investigation Exposing a Cover-up by the VA Honored by Award
By CBSNews.com
(CBS) The "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric" won an Emmy Award last night in the category of Outstanding Investigative Journalism in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast for a series of reports by Chief Investigative Correspondent Armen Keteyian that exposed how officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs tried to cover-up the true risk of suicide among veterans.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/22/cbsnews_investigates/main5329689.shtml

Play CBS Video Video Suicide Cover-Up Runs Deep
New information reveals that statistics related to veterans' suicides was explicitly withheld from the public and from CBS News. Chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports.
Video Veterans Suicides In Question
In a recently filed lawsuit, the Department of Veterans Affairs is accused of deliberately misinforming the American public about the number of veterans committing suicide. Armen Keteyian reports.
Video Veteran Suicides, An Epidemic
CBS News first reported on the staggering number of veteran suicides in a report last year. Now, newly-released data shows that vets who get help from the VA are still at risk. Armen Keteyian reports.
Photo
(CBS)
Stories
Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans
Veteran Suicides: How We Got The Numbers

Excerpts of the veteran suicide coverage:
Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans
Veteran Suicides: How We Got The Numbers
Congress Vows Action On Vets' Suicides
VA Admits Vet Suicides Are High
VA Says E-mail Was "Poorly Worded"
VA Official Grilled About E-Mails Soldier Suicide Attempts Skyrocket

Lindsey Baum, missing child of National Guardsman covered by CBS

UPDATE

Small town of McCleary not giving up on missing girl
By Keith Eldridge
Watch the story
MCCLEARY, Wash. -- While the official search for Lindsey Baum has been scaled back, no one in this town is giving up on finding her. "We continue to get tips, we continually talk to the public," said McCleary Police Chief George Crumb. "I don't believe they've given up hope."At the town's annual Bear Festival over the weekend, volunteers were passing out flyers with photos of the missing girl, who missed her 11th birthday last week. "I know she's out there and I know she's alive," said Lindsey's mom, Melissa. "I just want her to know if she can hear me that I'm never going to stop looking for you. I'm going to look for you until I have you back. I swear I will never stop looking.

Girl Disappears, Dad to Deploy
July 13, 2009 5:55 AM

The search continues for an 11-year-old Wash. girl who disappeared. Julie Chen spoke with the parents of the missing girl, whose father will soon be deployed to Iraq.

Watch CBS Videos Online

You can read more about this here
Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Lindsey Baum, missing child's father to deploy to Iraq

Katie Couric's Notebook: Road To Recovery

Katie Couric's Notebook: Road To Recovery

CBS News - New York,NY,USA

August 7, 2008, 4:29 PM
Katie Couric's Notebook: Road To Recovery
Posted by Katie Couric 1




Video:
Notebook: Road To Recovery
At 23, Nancy Kules was a newlywed with her whole life ahead of her. On November 27, 2005, life changed.

The phone rang, and words came flying at her. IED. Leg. Arm. Coma.

She describes not knowing what to do with all that information, but the bottom line was that her husband Ryan was badly injured in Iraq.

The story gets repeated far too many times. Nearly 33,000 men and women have been injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thousands more suffer from invisible wounds like PTSD.

The wounded warrior needs help to heal, but so do caregivers like Nancy.

For more of my notebook, just click the little monitor.

Nice little speech but 1.6 minutes is all she came up with? Granted I'm not sure how this "note book" usually is but I'm thinking back on some of the reports that have come out on PTSD and wondering where the media has been on all of this. Sure they do a snip it here and there, but where are the hour long reports? Where are the series stations like PTSD used to do? This is such a huge issue that you'd think they would spend a hell of a lot more time on it as a public service issue alone but they haven't. It is not political. It is not about pro-war or pro-defense but it is about pro-those-we-send.

I think they deserve a lot more time and their families as well.

Senator Obama, what's more pressing than the troops and veterans?

When NAMI sent out a questionnaire on mental illness, you (or one of your advisors) took the time to answer every question, while others didn't bother. When NAMI asked you to send a representative of your campaign to the convention in Orlando, you did when McCain didn't bother to do more than send in the same kind of letter he responded to the request from NAMI with. For most of your campaign, you seem to claim there is nothing more important than taking care of the troops and veterans. You said the invasion of Iraq and occupation of it was wrong and spoke out against it, but for all the claims you have about the importance of the troops and veterans is to you, you decline to participate in a Town Hall meeting with them. What is more pressing then the needs the men and women serving this nation have? What is more important than addressing the military families sacrificing while their family member is deployed? What is more pressing than addressing the special needs of citizen soldiers and their families?


From Carissa Picard, President Military Spouses for Change

If there is one more debate or town hall before the general election, it should be before an audience composed of the men and women whose service and sacrifice ensure that these events continue through their defense of our country and of our Constitution; particularly after six years of war.



Press Release about the event is attached.


NEW YORK TIMES

July 12, 2008
Obama Won't Commit to Event at Military Base
By KATE ZERNIKE
A coalition of military groups is planning a nationally televised town-hall-style meeting with the presidential candidates near Fort Hood, Tex., the largest active-duty military installation in the country. But so far, only Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee, has agreed to attend.

CBS has agreed to broadcast the meeting live from 9 to 11 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, Aug. 11. The candidates would face questions directly from an audience of 6,000 people, made up of veterans, service members and military families from the base.

Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has not agreed to participate.

"Senator Obama strongly supports America's veterans and military families and has worked hard on their behalf in the Senate," said Phillip Carter, director of Mr. Obama's veterans effort and an Iraq war veteran. "While we unfortunately had a previously scheduled commitment on the date proposed, Senator Obama looks forward to continuing the dialogue he's been having throughout the country with veterans on how we can better serve our men and women in uniform as they serve us."

Carissa Picard, managing director of the Fort Hood Presidential Town Hall Consortium, said she had suggested Aug. 11 and asked the campaign to suggest other dates if that was not convenient, but after several conversations she had not been able to work anything out.

"I'm having extreme difficulty getting the Obama campaign to commit to this event, and we do not understand why," said Ms. Picard, whose husband is deployed in Iraq. "We made it very clear to them that if they would commit to the event, we would work with them on dates."

The organizers released details about the event in hopes that it would pressure the Obama campaign to agree to the event.

"This was a decision that was made with tremendous difficulty, to publicize it," Ms. Picard said. "We were at a point where we had no other option. We got the impression that they could talk us to November."

The meeting would be at the Expo Center in Belton, Tex., about 25 miles from Fort Hood.

A military audience might seem more hospitable to a Republican candidate, particularly one like Mr. McCain, who has made his support for the war in Iraq the heart of his campaign. But the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken a heavy toll on Fort Hood; one of the groups organizing the event estimates that up to 800 of the service people who have died in Iraq have come through the base.

And organizers say many Fort Hood residents — the base serves about 218,000 people, including service members, retirees and military families — have grown tired of the war and agree with Mr. Obama's declaration that it must end.

Still, Mr. McCain prefers the town-hall-style format. He had proposed a series of 10 similar events with Mr. Obama, and the two campaigns were said to be working out details for a more limited series of meetings.

Organizers say the veterans and military population in the United States, including families, totals about 44 million people.

"McCain and Obama are asking to be the next commander in chief," Ms. Picard said. "What's a more compelling audience than this, the people that you have asked to maintain our security? It would be tremendous for the morale of this community."

Organizers include American Veterans, Disabled American Veterans, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Veterans for Common Sense and Military Spouse Corporate Career Network.

Carissa Picard, Esq.

CBS Evening News ready to tell story of Spc. Joseph Dwyer

Story Draws National Media Spotlight

BY MATTHEW MORIARTY: STAFF WRITER

The story of former soldier Joseph Dwyer's death and struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder has been picked up by several national news outlets.
The CBS Evening News contacted The Pilot Tuesday and is working on a story, tentatively to air Thursday night. Newsday and the Associated Press both picked up the story Monday. USA Today ran a reprint of an Army Times story Tuesday. Even the Melbourne, Australia, newspaper The Age ran a story.

Dwyer died at his Pinehurst home June 28. Pinehurst police believe an accidental overdose of inhalants and prescription drugs caused his death.

Dwyer became famous in 2003 when a photograph of him running with an Iraqi boy in his arms appeared in newspapers, magazines and television programs. Army Times photographer Warren Zinn took the photograph during one of the first days of the war as Dwyer ran the boy to a makeshift Army hospital.
click post title for more

Six months of TV news and only 181 minutes of war news

June 23, 2008
Reporters Say Networks Put Wars on Back Burner
By BRIAN STELTER
Getting a story on the evening news isn’t easy for any correspondent. And for reporters in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is especially hard, according to Lara Logan, the chief foreign correspondent for CBS News. So she has devised a solution when she is talking to the network.

“Generally what I say is, ‘I’m holding the armor-piercing R.P.G.,’ ” she said last week in an appearance on “The Daily Show,” referring to the initials for rocket-propelled grenade. “ ‘It’s aimed at the bureau chief, and if you don’t put my story on the air, I’m going to pull the trigger.’ ”

Ms. Logan let a sly just-kidding smile sneak through as she spoke, but her point was serious. Five years into the war in Iraq and nearly seven years into the war in Afghanistan, getting news of the conflicts onto television is harder than ever.

“If I were to watch the news that you hear here in the United States, I would just blow my brains out because it would drive me nuts,” Ms. Logan said.

According to data compiled by Andrew Tyndall, a television consultant who monitors the three network evening newscasts, coverage of Iraq has been “massively scaled back this year.” Almost halfway into 2008, the three newscasts have shown 181 weekday minutes of Iraq coverage, compared with 1,157 minutes for all of 2007. The “CBS Evening News” has devoted the fewest minutes to Iraq, 51, versus 55 minutes on ABC’s “World News” and 74 minutes on “NBC Nightly News.” (The average evening newscast is 22 minutes long.)
go here for more
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/business/media/23logan.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1214202979-IKPzwPHPth4O%20XkM/q3e8w&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

Watching US news would ‘drive me nuts’

CBS foreign correspondent: Watching US news would ‘drive me nuts’
By David Edwards and Muriel Kane Uncategorized Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Chief CBS News foreign correspondent Lara Logan, who recently returned from Iraq, appeared on Tuesday’s Daily Show.

“Are we just numb?” Stewart asked. “Have we lost our humanity with this entire situation?”

“Yeah, we have,” agreed Logan. “Nobody really understands. And the soldiers do feel forgotten. … We may be tired of hearing about this five years later. They still have to go out and do the same job. … More soldiers died in Afghanistan last month than Iraq. Who’s paying attention to that?”

This is the part that made me the most upset because it was true. No one really cares unless they have skin in the game, in other words, someone over there or has been there themselves. It's very sad. Even on this blog there is a clear example of the apathy considering the posts on the Marine Puppy Toss video gathered more hits than any other post I have done. What does that say about Americans? What does that say about this country when we have thousands of dead soldiers in two occupations, thousands more wounded, thousands of families hurting and more and more problems these men and women are coming back to yet people seem to care more about a puppy being video taped as a Marine idiot tosses it into the air?

Even veterans families don't pay enough attention to all of this and that is distressing. Ok, fine, it's not a pleasant thing to read about but think about how unpleasant it is to live with any of this? The loss of true care these men and women need is staggering. Is it because of the lack of photos of coffins covered being loaded onto planes to return bodies to the states? I doubt it. One flag draped coffin looks like all of them. Taking a picture of one of them looks like what is already available online. Is it because their pictures are not published? No because sites like CNN have most of their pictures up with the death notice from the DOD they keep track of. So what is wrong with us?

Why is it the media has been able to get away with it? It's because we have not demanded they cover the occupation of Iraq or Afghanistan. We simply don't care enough to do it. I know how much time I invest in all of this but even though I don't have anyone in my family over in Iraq or Afghanistan, I have several people over there that I've been in contact with and praying for. I pay attention because I know what too many of them are going through and their families with PTSD and the problems with the VA and the DOD. I don't even know what percentage of the American public are paying attention to any of this but I guess it's reflective of the percentage of the men and women serving in both occupations which is less than 2 million involved. Think of that. Almost 7 years into Afghanistan and over 5 in Iraq and only that many families have been touched by it all. Very, very sad.

VA Watchdog: VA strikes back at CBS for doing their job

The VA is striking back at CBS News for their reporting on veterans and suicide.
The first CBS report is here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfNOV07/nf111407-10.htm
The second is here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfNOV07/nf111507-10.htm
But, the VA's arguments, against CBS and for their own advocacy, do NOT hold water.
VA's self-congratulatory press release (below) speaks of all they have done in the area of suicide prevention. Truth be told, VA has virtually ignored the problem of veterans and suicide until this year.
In the wake of the Walter Reed scandal and the ensuing stories about problems in VA healthcare, the VA added more suicide counselors.
Their suicide hotline did not get started until late July of this year.
go here for the rest
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfNOV07/nf111607-1.htm

It took CBS months of hard work but the VA has had years. No excuse will work now.

Suddenly PTSD is a epidemic?

If you've been wondering why I haven't posted much the last couple of days, don't worry. I'm working on new videos.

If you've been tracking or watching CBS, I'm sure you are aware of what I've been screaming about. I really wonder where all this interest was when they came home from Vietnam. Do you think we'd have half the problem we do now? I wonder where it was six years ago when Bush took on Afghanistan? Or five years ago when Iraq was invaded? How late are they for how many?

This country was so upset with the attack and the loss of less than 3,000 on 9-11, that we ended up invading two nations. We were again upset with the loss of the people following Katrina and the deplorable treatment they received. We keep getting really upset when it is regular citizens being killed or wounded, but we don't seem to find the same outrage when it comes to the men and women who serve this nation. Do we dismiss their humanness because they are willing to lay down their lives for this nation? Or is it because we just don't pay enough attention to them at all unless they happen to be part of our own family?

I will never understand what people in this country value when all of this is going on and still to this day people are shocked when they see it on the nightly news.