"What [CNN is] not owning up to is reading and transcribing Chris’s diary well before bothering to tell the family or anyone else that they took it from the site of the attack. Or that when they finally did tell them, they completely ignored the wishes of the family," said Philippe Reines, an advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to Politico.
"Anderson Cooper didn’t even bother to offer any other explanation as to why the network broke its promise to the family. And only did so after being contacted by a reporter asking about the diary and their convoluted sourcing. How do they justify that? They have yet to even try to defend the indefensible.”
Given the truth of how this was handled, CNN patting themselves on the back is disgusting,' he said. He also wondered, "Whose first instinct is to remove from a crime scene the diary of a man killed along with three other Americans serving our country, read it, transcribe it, email it around your newsroom for others to read and then call the family?"
CNN, clearly on the defensive, offered further explanation, and a barb at the State Department: "The real question here is why is the State Department now attacking the messenger… The reason CNN ultimately reported Friday on the existence of the
journal was because leaks to media organizations incorrectly suggested
CNN had not quickly returned the journal, which we did."
Watch Cooper explain the journal report, via Mediaite:
