CBS Belatedly Wonders -- UPDATE II: Crossing the Threshold

If claims by their main 60 Minutes Benghazi source that he was a magic, invisible, mind-reading, ninja might have been somewhat far-fetched:

60 Minutes reviewing account of Morgan Jones on Benghazi

60 Minutes has learned of new information that undercuts the account told to us by Morgan Jones of his actions on the night of the attack on the Benghazi compound.

We are currently looking into this serious matter to determine if he misled us, and if so, we will make a correction.

Background via Politico:

...

In the Oct. 27 edition of "60 Minutes," a man who identified himself as Morgan Jones "described racing to the Benghazi compound while the attack was underway, scaling a 12-foot wall and downing an extremist with the butt end of a rifle as he tried in vain to rescue the besieged Americans," the Post states. 

"But in a written account that Jones, whose real name was confirmed as Dylan Davies by several officials who worked with him in Benghazi, provided to his employer three days after the attack, he told a different story of his experiences that night," the Post's report continues: "In Davies’s 2 1/2-page incident report... he wrote that he spent most of that night at his Benghazi beach-side villa. Although he attempted to get to the compound, he wrote in the report, 'we could not get anywhere near . . . as roadblocks had been set up.'"

On the other hand, it's nice to see that Jerry Dantana kid getting work after that unpleasantness over at ACN.



Update:

CBS walks the story back, and notes that the liar involved also had a book deal pending:

Since it was a story which loudly play up a wingnut fairy tale at the expense of a Democrat, I assume everyone involved will keep their job.

If not, well, I hear Breitbart.com is hiring.

UPDATE II:  File under "No one could have predicted"...

The publishing house that was gearing up the make a pile of loot off of Curveball II:  The Benghazening is owned by the teevee syndicate which loaned this liar several million dollars worth of its credibility:

The walls are closing in on Dylan Davies (a.k.a. "Morgan Jones), the British security contractor whose dramatic "eyewitness" account of the 2012 Benghazi attacks featured prominently in a controversial CBS 60 Minutes report. Now that government officials have stated that Davies told the FBI he was nowhere near the diplomatic compound on the night of the attack (consistent with the after-action report Jones filed with his employer, which Jones disavows), CBS News has withdrawn the report and correspondent Lara Logan apologized on-air for making "a mistake."

CBS News, of course, still has a multitude of questions to answer, but so too does Threshold Editions, the imprint of the Simon and Schuster publishing company (owned by CBS) that released Davies' book, The Embassy House: The Explosive Eyewitness Account of the Libyan Embassy Siege by the Soldier Who Was There.

In the book, Davies describes the two trips he made to the diplomatic compound in Benghazi the night of the attacks: an aborted first attempt in which Davies and a Libyan associate were turned away at gunpoint from the compound's rear gate by a terrorist; and a one-man incursion into the compound after the initial attack subsided, in which Davies dramatically bashes a terrorist in the face with the butt of a scavenged AK-47. In between the two trips, Davies writes he traveled to the Benghazi Medical Center where he discovered the body of Ambassador Chris Stevens and was the first person to confirm that the ambassador had been killed.

Much of Davies' narrative would have been difficult or impossible to confirm (a red flag in and of itself), but there are details of his story that could have -- should have -- been confirmed by fact-checkers at Threshold.

What Media Matters does not mention is that the Editor-in-Chief of Thresholds  -- Simon and Schuster's in-house schlock-house -- is none other than...

...that to-the-death defender of Dick Cheney, publisher of every wingnut demagogue and conspiracy monger in the universe...

...that professional political analyst whose sober reflections on the Republican's 2012 election debacle went a little something like this...

Mendacity and Malice Won

November 7, 2012 2:23 P.M.

What happened? A political narcissistic sociopath leveraged fear and ignorance with a campaign marked by mendacity and malice rather than a mandate for resurgence and reform. Instead of using his high office to articulate a vision for our future, Obama used it as a vehicle for character assassination, replete with unrelenting and destructive distortion, derision, and division.

...

Unfortunately and unfortuitously, forces of nature bookended the general election: Our convention was compromised by one weather disaster and our momentum stalled by another. Two human hurricanes also radically altered the political atmosphere: Bill Clinton’s unique windbaggery constituted a campaign updraft, while Chris Christie’s deplorable and gratuitous gas-baggery infused the campaign with a toxic political pollution.

...and the creature James Carville hired to (as one long-forgotten wag once put it) "breed him up a passel of snake-headed swamp babies"...

...Mary Matalin!

This has been another edition of "Your Liberal Media In Action!"