CBS News acknowledges error in ‘60 Minutes’ Benghazi story

NEW YORK – CBS News admitted Friday it was wrong to trust a “60 Minutes” source who claimed to be at the scene of a 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, and the publisher of the source’s book on the incident has halted its publication.

“There are so many people out there who have the potential to deceive a news organization,” said Jeffrey Fager, CBS News chairman and “60 Minutes” executive producer, in an interview with the Associated Press on Friday. “We do our best and I think we do very well at spotting them. This time, I really feel like one got through and it’s extremely disappointing.”

The correspondent responsible for the Oct. 27 story, Lara Logan, said the newsmagazine would correct its story on Sunday. She had interviewed former security contractor Dylan Davies, who claimed he took part in fighting at the mission. His story had been quickly doubted, and his credibility crumbled with a New York Times report late Thursday that revealed the FBI said the story Davies told them didn’t match what he told CBS.

With it now unclear where Davies had been, publisher Simon & Schuster said Friday it was withdrawing his book, “The Embassy House: The Explosive Eyewitness Account of the Libyan Embassy Siege by the Soldier Who Was There.” It was published on the conservative Threshold Editions imprint two days after the “60 Minutes” story.

Davies had written the book under the pseudonym Morgan Jones.