Lara Logan tarnished her integrity as a journalist and the 60 Minutes brand last year when she ran a piece on the Benghazi attack that was mostly made up of fabrications. She herself didn’t lie, but rather she made the mistake of using a source without first verifying its integrity. It was a rookie mistake and one that may cost her her job. The producers at CBS may even have a replacement ready.
In a feature on Logan’s career and the events that led up to her Benghazi report, New York Magazine reports that Logan may be replaced by Clarissa Ward. The 34-year-old journalist currently works for CBS News as a foreign correspondent in London. Like Logan, Ward is multi-lingual, has experience covering wars and both have won awards for their original reporting. The only difference is that Ward is free of controversy.
If Ward does replace Logan, what kind of journalist can we expect to take over 60 Minutes? Ward started off at at Fox News where she became assignment editor in 2004. In 2006, she up within Fox News as a field producer and foreign correspondent for the Middle East. In 2007, she joined ABC News and covered Russia. She then moved to Asia where she covered the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake in Japan.
In 2011, she moved to CBS News where she covered stories in Asia and the Middle East. She received a Peabody Award for her coverage of the Syrian civil war. Her latest contributions to the network have been a fill-in host on CBS This Morning and occasional contributor to 60 Minutes.
If you want some insight into the kind of person Ward is, here’s a talk she gave at Stony Brook University last year:
Ward has not commented on the potential of her replacing Logan yet as she’s currently too busy covering the situation in Crimea:
Stopped and diverted at Slovyansk checkpoint by pro-Russian activists. They're waiting for orders- send us to prison or let us proceed
— Clarissa Ward (@clarissaward) May 2, 2014
We've been released.
— Clarissa Ward (@clarissaward) May 2, 2014
One of our crew was beaten but we are all ok. Thanks for concern
— Clarissa Ward (@clarissaward) May 2, 2014
Most surreal moment of detention was when young guy played "Eye of the Tiger"- I pointed out that it was American music and they turned off
— Clarissa Ward (@clarissaward) May 2, 2014
Judging by her reporting and her tweets from the ground, CBS has one hell of a foreign correspondent in Ward. It may be a waste to have her focus all of her efforts on 60 Minutes.
Image via Clarissa Ward/Twitter