CNN's Use Of Christopher Stevens' Journal Is 'Disgusting': State Dept.

[DonViejo]

NEW YORK -- The State Department blasted CNN Saturday night for the network's handling of a personal journal belonging to late U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, which was removed from the site of the deadly Sept. 11 consulate attack.

State Dept. spokesman Philippe Reines said in a statement to The Huffington Post that "given the truth of how this was handled, CNN patting themselves on the back is disgusting."

The Huffington Post contacted CNN Friday afternoon after receiving a tip that it had removed Stevens' journal from the U.S. consulate in Benghazi following the attack that left Stevens and three others dead. CNN did not confirm that information, but later referred HuffPost to Anderson Cooper's on-air acknowledgment during his 8 p.m. Friday show that CNN found Stevens' journal and had used it in their reporting, a fact not previously disclosed.

Shortly after 1 a.m. Saturday, CNN.com posted an un-bylined story explaining that CNN had found the journal four days after the attack "on the floor of the largely unsecured consulate compound where [Stevens] was fatally wounded." The CNN.com story noted that the network notified Stevens' family "within hours after it was discovered," that the personal journal was only used for news "tips" later corroborated by other sources, and that it was then provided to a third party to return to his family. (The Wall Street Journal later revealed an Italian diplomat as the third party).

Read more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/22/cnn-christopher-stevens-journal-state-dept-response_n_1906609.html

[bemildred]

1. The ethics of a mink in heat, I would say.

But you can't expect much from CNN.