Longtime CBS News correspondent Bob Simon has been killed in a car accident in New York, the broadcaster announced.
In a career spanning five decades, Bob Simon, 73, covered many war zones from Vietnam to the former Yugoslavia.
At the end of his stint in Saigon in the 1970s Bob Simon was on one of the last helicopters out of the city, CBS said.
Bob Simon won multiple awards, including 27 Emmys, for his reporting and regularly appeared on the network’s flagship program 60 Minutes.
His last piece, a report about the Oscar-nominated civil rights drama Selma went out on 60 Minutes at the weekend.
“It is a tragedy made worse because we lost him in a car accident, a man who escaped more difficult situations than almost any journalist in modern times,” CBS News Chairman and 60 Minutes executive producer Jeffrey Fagan said.
Bob Simon was a passenger in a hired sedan that hit another car stopped at a traffic light and then slammed into metal barriers separating traffic lanes, police said February 11.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who worked with Bob Simon on 60 Minutes said: “Bob was for the last five decades simply one of the best, in my opinion, at getting a story, telling a story, writing a story and making it simply unforgettable.”
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CBS News’s correspondent Lara Logan is being quarantined in a South Africa hotel for 21 days as a precaution after visiting an American-run hospital treating Ebola patients in Liberia for a 60 Minutes report that aired on November 9.
Lara Logan’s 21-day self-quarantine will end on November 14, CBS said.
Neither Lara Logan nor the four other CBS employees in South Africa have shown any sign that they are infected with the virus.
Lara Logan is being quarantined in a South Africa hotel for 21 days as a precaution after visiting Ebola patients in Liberia (photo CBS News)
Lara Logan, speaking in a 60 Minutes Overtime web interview from the room where the CBS crew put its report together, admitted to some cabin fever as she waits out her stay. She said the South African government had given the crew permission to work at the hotel.
“We wanted to try, as much as possible, to minimize our exposure to anybody while we still had to get our piece done,” she said.
“We were very mindful of the fact that this 21-day period after you’ve been in an Ebola-affected country is very important to everyone.”
The interview showed Lara Logan and one of her colleagues in a room stuffed with equipment.
“We haven’t traveled far from the room that you can see,” she said.
The 60 Minutes report detailed Lara’s precautions while in Liberia, including being hosed down with a chlorine solution, having her temperature taken frequently and making sure not to touch people. A CBS security worker traveled with the crew with the responsibility of watching everyone’s interactions to minimize any chance they could be infected.
A cameraman who was working for NBC News in Liberia contracted the virus but recovered last month. Nancy Snyderman, the NBC News medical correspondent who worked there, was asked to go into voluntary quarantine when she arrived home but that was made mandatory after she was spotted leaving her home. ABC’s Richard Besser was not quarantined upon his return from Liberia because the ABC team was judged not to have had exposure to the virus.
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CBS News has apologized for airing a report in October that gave false information about the September 2012 attack on a US diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya.
A security contractor told 60 Minutes programme he had been present during the attack, but later gave a conflicting statement to investigators with the FBI.
Reporter Lara Logan said it was a “mistake” to put the contractor on air.
Four Americans died in the attack, including a US ambassador.
Lara Logan, a reporter for 60 Minutes, a storied current affairs programme, said on Friday a source had provided false information during a report aired on October 27.
The security official, identified as Dylan Davies, said he had been at the US compound during the September 11, 2012, attack.
Dylan Davies reported he had witnessed the attack, fought off an assailant, and later viewed the body of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
But other news outlets subsequently revealed Dylan Davies had told FBI investigators and his employers he was not at the Benghazi compound the night of the attack.
Lara Logan, a reporter for 60 Minutes, said a source had provided false information during a Benghazi report aired on October 27
“The most important thing to every person at 60 Minutes is the truth, and today the truth is we made a mistake,” Lara Logan told a CBS morning news programme on Friday.
“Nobody likes to admit they made a mistake, but if you do, you have to stand up and take responsibility and you have to say that you are wrong. And in this case, we were wrong.”
Lara Logan added that 60 Minutes planned to air a correction on its regular broadcast on Sunday evening.
CBS News chairman Jeff Fager told the New York Times Dylan Davies had lied to the network.
“There are people in the world who try to deceive others,” he said.
“We believe we have a really good system to guard against that. This guy got through that.”
Meanwhile, publication of a book written by Dylan Davies about the 2012 attack has been halted.
Threshold Editions said on Friday it was suspending publication of The Embassy House: The Explosive Eyewitness Account of the Libyan Embassy Siege by the Soldier Who Was There.
The book, written under the pseudonym Sgt Morgan Jones, was released on October 29.
The attack against the US consulate – which resulted in the death of Christopher Stevens, another state department worker, and two former Navy Seals – was originally said to have grown out of violent anti-American protests sparked by an anti-Islam film produced in the US.
It was later revealed to have been an organized, pre-planned assault by militia forces.
The US filed charges against a Libyan militia chief, Ahmed Abu Khattala, in August and an unknown number of other alleged attackers have also been charged.
Republicans denounced President Barack Obama’s handling of the incident, accusing the administration of failing to provide adequate security at the Benghazi compound and of neglecting to send a force to rescue the personnel after the attack began.
Also, the Republicans accused Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats of downplaying the attack in order to protect his 2012 re-election campaign.
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