CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan sent an e-mail around last week with a subject header that simply read "Help."
According to a comprehensive piece on MediaChannel.org, Logan wrote to friends and colleagues that she had reported on what she considered to be an important story about real life in Baghdad, but CBS would only run the footage online. The video shows a daily–and deadly– battle that is occurring on a street near the CBS offices in Baghdad. The video footage includes interviews with local Iraqis who say the U.S presence is not helping the political situation–and only making the day-to-day lives of the people worse.
Logan said the piece was " a story that is ignored even though it istaking [sic] place everysingle [sic] day in Baghdad."
The segment called Battle for Haifa Street appeared online on January 18 and a second segment, The Battle for Haifa Street Continues, appeared on January 24. They are not prominently placed on the CBSNews website.
According to a spokesperson for CBS News, the executive producer made the decision that some of the video was "too graphic for an evening news audience." She also said that the network currently had no intention to broadcast the footage–edited or otherwise–but added, "you never know what could happen."
As to whether or not CBS brass was unhappy with Logan for sending out an e-mail about the situation, the spokesperson said "I think anything that happens internally should stay internal."
A call to Lara Logan for comment has not yet been returned.
By Caroline Palmer
