Lara Logan's Fox Nation gig is the most conservative turn of her career so far, but politics have cast a long shadow over her work

Ashley CollmanDec 8, 2021, 07:36 IST

Lara Logan.Photo by Tommaso Boddi/WireImage

Lara Logan recently drummed up controversy for comparing Dr. Anthony Fauci to an infamous Nazi doctor in an appearance on Fox News.
For 16 years, Logan made a name for herself as a war correspondent at CBS.

Lara Logan, the South African-born journalist who made a name for herself covering the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, recently sparked controversy by comparing Dr. Anthony Fauci to Dr. Josef Mengele, a Nazi doctor who experimented on Auschwitz prisoners.

Lara Logan in 2015.Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Helping A Hero

Lara Logan, the South African-born journalist who made a name for herself covering the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, recently sparked controversy by comparing Dr. Anthony Fauci to Dr. Josef Mengele, a Nazi doctor who experimented on Auschwitz prisoners.

Source: Business Insider

Logan experienced a meteoric rise at CBS in the 2000s and early 2010s, before an inaccurate story tainted her image. She left the network in 2018, and two years later started hosting a show on Fox News' streaming service, Fox Nation.

Lara Logan in Iraq in 2006.Chris Hondros/Getty Images

Logan experienced a meteoric rise at CBS in the 2000s and early 2010s, before an inaccurate story tainted her image. She left the network in 2018, and two years later started hosting a show on Fox News' streaming service, Fox Nation.

Logan got her start in journalism at Reuters Television in Africa, where she worked a senior producer from 1992-1996, according to an old biography on the CBS News website.

Lara Logan in 2004.Evan Agostini/Getty Images

That bio has since been deleted, but Insider was able to view an archived version.

Logan got her start in journalism at Reuters Television in Africa, where she worked a senior producer from 1992-1996, according to an old biography on the CBS News website.

Her work started to attract attention after she moved to London in the mid-1990s, first as a stringer for CNN during the conflict in the Balkans, and later for breakfast show GMTV, as Joe Hagan detailed in a 2014 profile of Logan for New York Magazine.

Lara Logan in 2007.Margaret Norton/NBCU Photo Bank

Logan sued Hagan over the New York Magazine story, saying it derailed her career, but the suit was was thrown out in 2020, according to Women's Wear Daily.

Her work started to attract attention after she moved to London in the mid-1990s, first as a stringer for CNN during the conflict in the Balkans, and later for breakfast show GMTV, as Joe Hagan detailed in a 2014 profile of Logan for New York Magazine.

Logan sued Hagan over the New York Magazine story, saying it derailed her career, but the suit was was thrown out in 2020, according to Women's Wear Daily.

Logan was working at GMTV on 9/11 and convinced her bosses to let her travel to Kabul to report on the invasion of Afghanistan, Hagan reported for New York Magazine.

Lara Logan during a "60 Minutes" report in 2010.CBS News

Source: New York Magazine

Logan's reports from Kabul led to a bidding war as news networks fought to hire a "captivating beauty with a smoldering presence in the war zone," Hagan wrote. Logan ended up taking a job at CBS, where she landed a $1 million full-time contract.

Logan is seen with CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer, left, and fellow correspondent Mark Strassberg, right, in 2006.David Handschuh/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

Source: New York Magazine

Logan's reports from Kabul led to a bidding war as news networks fought to hire a "captivating beauty with a smoldering presence in the war zone," Hagan wrote. Logan ended up taking a job at CBS, where she landed a $1 million full-time contract.

During her 16 years at CBS, Logan made a name for herself by reporting from the frontlines, including securing interviews with major military figures.

Lara Logan questions US soldiers in Camp Victory in Baghdad, Iraq on November 17, 2006.Chris Hondros/Getty

But her connections in the military sometimes blurred the lines of professionalism. During the Iraq War, she started dating her current husband, who worked for a firm hired by the government to push pro-military stories, New York Magazine reported.

Lara Logan and husband Joseph Burkett at the 2013 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.Walter McBride/Corbis via Getty

Source: New York Magazine

But her connections in the military sometimes blurred the lines of professionalism. During the Iraq War, she started dating her current husband, who worked for a firm hired by the government to push pro-military stories, New York Magazine reported.

Logan made headlines herself while covering the ousting of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Logan became separated from her crew, after which she said she was raped by a mob of men.

Egyptian anti-government protesters celebrate at Cairo's Tahrir Square after president Hosni Mubarak stepped down on February 11, 2011 — the same night Logan said she was raped by a mob while covering the news.MARCO LONGARI/AFP via Getty Images

Logan later spoke about the experience for CBS News:

Logan made headlines herself while covering the ousting of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Logan became separated from her crew, after which she said she was raped by a mob of men.

It was around this time that Logan first started overtly expressing her political views, including criticizing a fellow reporter whose profile of a general resulted in that official's firing, New York Magazine reported.

Michael Hastings in 2012.Jeff Neira/CBS via Getty Images

In June 2010, then-President Obama relieved Gen. Stanley McChrystal from his position as the top US commander in Afghanistan after Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings published an article including disparaging remarks the general made about the president and his national security team.

In an appearance on CNN's Reliable Sources, Logan speculated that Hastings published comments McChrystal made off the record, and therefore not meant for publishing. But Hastings told CNN during the same show that no ground rules were laid out for the story and he assumed his talks with McChrystal were on the record.

"Michael Hastings has never served his country the way Commander McChrystal has," Logan said.

Source: New York Magazine

It was around this time that Logan first started overtly expressing her political views, including criticizing a fellow reporter whose profile of a general resulted in that official's firing, New York Magazine reported.

Michael Hastings has never served his country the way Commander McChrystal has, Logan said.

Source: New York Magazine

Then came what The Daily Beast described as a "provocative" speech at the annual lunch of the Better Government Association in 2012, where Logan criticized Obama's decision to ramp down the US military presence in the Middle East.

Logan's politics weren't necessarily seen as a negative at CBS, according to Hagan, who wrote in New York Magazine that the correspondent "inoculated" the network against "charges of a leftist agenda."

Logan is seen with fellow CBS journalist Bob Schaeffer at the GLAMOUR Women of the Year Awards Dinner on November 5, 2007.NEIL RASMUS/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Source: New York Magazine

Logan's politics weren't necessarily seen as a negative at CBS, according to Hagan, who wrote in New York Magazine that the correspondent "inoculated" the network against "charges of a leftist agenda."

Logan's career later imploded in 2013, when she was forced to apologize for inaccuracies in a "60 Minutes" story about the 2012 attack on the US governmental compound in Benghazi, Libya.

Lara Logan apologizes on "CBS This Morning" for her Benghazi report.CBS News

Logan's career later imploded in 2013, when she was forced to apologize for inaccuracies in a "60 Minutes" story about the 2012 attack on the US governmental compound in Benghazi, Libya.

Logan scored an exclusive interview with a security contractor, Dylan Davies, who claimed to have responded to the attack at the government compound.

Dylan Davies.CBS News

Logan's report presented "a narrative in which American authorities were perhaps cavalier about taking security concerns seriously in Benghazi," NPR's media correspondent David Folkenflik said at the time.

Logan's report presented a narrative in which American authorities were perhaps cavalier about taking security concerns seriously in Benghazi, NPR's media correspondent David Folkenflik said at the time.

But The New York Times soon revealed that Davies had mostly made up the story to sell a book for a conservative imprint of Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS' parent company.

Simon & Schuster's New York City headquarters in 2016.Robert Alexander/Getty Images

Source: The New York Times

But The New York Times soon revealed that Davies had mostly made up the story to sell a book for a conservative imprint of Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS' parent company.

Source: The New York Times

CBS put Logan and a producer, Max McClellan, on indefinite leave in late November 2013 following an internal review of the story, which found it to be "deficient in several respects," The Times reported.

Lara Logan in 2017SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

Source: The New York Times

CBS put Logan and a producer, Max McClellan, on indefinite leave in late November 2013 following an internal review of the story, which found it to be "deficient in several respects," The Times reported.

Source: The New York Times

Logan quietly returned to work on "60 Minutes" seven months later, according to the The Hollywood Reporter.

CBS headquarters in New York City in 2012.Mario Tama/Getty Images

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Just as quietly as she returned to the network, Logan left CBS in 2018. Her exit wasn't revealed until February 2019, when a CBS spokesperson told Variety that Logan was no longer with the network and hadn't been for several months.

Lara Logan in 2018.Amy Harris/Invision/AP

Source: Variety

Just as quietly as she returned to the network, Logan left CBS in 2018. Her exit wasn't revealed until February 2019, when a CBS spokesperson told Variety that Logan was no longer with the network and hadn't been for several months.

Variety looked into the status of Logan's employment after she appeared on a conservative former Navy SEAL's podcast, where she voiced the opinion that most media outlets skew liberal.

Hagan wrote in his 2014 profile of Logan that CBS producers and crew members he spoke with didn't think of Logan as "particularly political," but that she "came to stories with strong biases" more typical in British media, where she got her start.

Logan in 2005.Larry Busacca/WireImage for AWRT

Source: New York Magazine

Hagan wrote in his 2014 profile of Logan that CBS producers and crew members he spoke with didn't think of Logan as "particularly political," but that she "came to stories with strong biases" more typical in British media, where she got her start.

In the aftermath of Logan's comments on Fauci, one of her former producers, Peter Klein, wrote in an op-ed that Logan "tried to push the envelope sometimes" in his experience working with her, but he still found her to be a "good reporter."

Dr. Anthony Fauci directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.Alex Wong/Getty Images

Klein was a former producer of Logan's at "60 Minutes," and is now executive director of the Global Reporting Centre and a professor at the University of British Columbia.

"My phone and inbox have been overflowing with questions from friends, colleagues and strangers, asking if Lara was always this way. Let me set the record straight: no," Klein wrote in The Globe and Mail on December 3.

"It's true that Lara tried to push the envelope sometimes, but there's a system in place at reputable news organizations that keeps journalists in check," Klein added.

"The Lara I worked with was a good reporter. She was brave and curious, she listened during interviews and she knew how to tell a good story. While she did her share of pieces that glorified the US military, she was also open to critiques, as in our 2007 story Dissension in the Ranks, which looked at service members refusing to redeploy to Iraq over their concerns about how the war was being run by the Bush administration."

In the aftermath of Logan's comments on Fauci, one of her former producers, Peter Klein, wrote in an op-ed that Logan "tried to push the envelope sometimes" in his experience working with her, but he still found her to be a "good reporter."

Klein was a former producer of Logan's at 60 Minutes, and is now executive director of the Global Reporting Centre and a professor at the University of British Columbia.

My phone and inbox have been overflowing with questions from friends, colleagues and strangers, asking if Lara was always this way. Let me set the record straight: no, Klein wrote in The Globe and Mail on December 3.

It's true that Lara tried to push the envelope sometimes, but there's a system in place at reputable news organizations that keeps journalists in check, Klein added.

The Lara I worked with was a good reporter. She was brave and curious, she listened during interviews and she knew how to tell a good story. While she did her share of pieces that glorified the US military, she was also open to critiques, as in our 2007 story Dissension in the Ranks, which looked at service members refusing to redeploy to Iraq over their concerns about how the war was being run by the Bush administration.

But Klein wrote that he saw a new version of Logan emerge two years ago, and he's watched as she's popped up occasionally to make "controversial comments that keep her relevant."

Upon leaving CBS News, Logan did a stint at the conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group, before debuting her Fox Nation show, "Lara Logan Has No Agenda," in January 2020.

Lara Logan is seen making an appearance on Fox News Primetime in September 2021.Fox News/YouTube

On her Fox Nation show, Logan has produced episodes on the rise of socialism in America, the Taliban's recapture of Afghanistan, and privacy issues in Big Tech.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times

On her Fox Nation show, Logan has produced episodes on the rise of socialism in America, the Taliban's recapture of Afghanistan, and privacy issues in Big Tech.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times

She's also made regular guest appearances on Fox News, including subbing in for primetime host Tucker Carlson.

Lara Logan is seen hosting "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Fox News in September 2021.Fox News

Even before her comments on Fauci, Logan's guest appearances on Fox News made headlines.

In her appearances on the network, Logan has suggested — without evidence — that communists may be behind attacks against white police officers; that the Biden administration is "hiding evidence" of COVID-19 vaccine side effects; and that someone may be using migrants to intentionally spread disease in the US.

Source: Fox News

Even before her comments on Fauci, Logan's guest appearances on Fox News made headlines.

In her appearances on the network, Logan has suggested — without evidence — that communists may be behind attacks against white police officers; that the Biden administration is hiding evidence of COVID-19 vaccine side effects; and that someone may be using migrants to intentionally spread disease in the US.

Source: Fox News

The episode of Fox News Primetime where Logan made her comments about Fauci is unavailable online, and she hasn't appeared on the network since.

Lara Logan in 2008.Jemal Countess/WireImage

Neither Logan or Warm Springs Productions, which produces her Fox Nation show, returned Insider's requests for comment on Tuesday. Fox News did not immediately return a request for comment on why the November 29 episode of Fox News Primetime is not available online.

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Lara Logan's Fox Nation gig is the most conservative turn of her career so far, but politics have cast a long shadow over her work

Lara Logan, the South African-born journalist who made a name for herself covering the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, recently sparked controversy by comparing Dr. Anthony Fauci to Dr. Josef Mengele, a Nazi doctor who experimented on Auschwitz prisoners.

Logan experienced a meteoric rise at CBS in the 2000s and early 2010s, before an inaccurate story tainted her image. She left the network in 2018, and two years later started hosting a show on Fox News' streaming service, Fox Nation.

Logan got her start in journalism at Reuters Television in Africa, where she worked a senior producer from 1992-1996, according to an old biography on the CBS News website.

Her work started to attract attention after she moved to London in the mid-1990s, first as a stringer for CNN during the conflict in the Balkans, and later for breakfast show GMTV, as Joe Hagan detailed in a 2014 profile of Logan for New York Magazine.

Logan was working at GMTV on 9/11 and convinced her bosses to let her travel to Kabul to report on the invasion of Afghanistan, Hagan reported for New York Magazine.

Logan's reports from Kabul led to a bidding war as news networks fought to hire a "captivating beauty with a smoldering presence in the war zone," Hagan wrote. Logan ended up taking a job at CBS, where she landed a $1 million full-time contract.

During her 16 years at CBS, Logan made a name for herself by reporting from the frontlines, including securing interviews with major military figures.

But her connections in the military sometimes blurred the lines of professionalism. During the Iraq War, she started dating her current husband, who worked for a firm hired by the government to push pro-military stories, New York Magazine reported.

Logan made headlines herself while covering the ousting of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Logan became separated from her crew, after which she said she was raped by a mob of men.

It was around this time that Logan first started overtly expressing her political views, including criticizing a fellow reporter whose profile of a general resulted in that official's firing, New York Magazine reported.

Then came what The Daily Beast described as a "provocative" speech at the annual lunch of the Better Government Association in 2012, where Logan criticized Obama's decision to ramp down the US military presence in the Middle East.

Logan's politics weren't necessarily seen as a negative at CBS, according to Hagan, who wrote in New York Magazine that the correspondent "inoculated" the network against "charges of a leftist agenda."

Logan's career later imploded in 2013, when she was forced to apologize for inaccuracies in a "60 Minutes" story about the 2012 attack on the US governmental compound in Benghazi, Libya.

Logan scored an exclusive interview with a security contractor, Dylan Davies, who claimed to have responded to the attack at the government compound.

But The New York Times soon revealed that Davies had mostly made up the story to sell a book for a conservative imprint of Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS' parent company.

CBS put Logan and a producer, Max McClellan, on indefinite leave in late November 2013 following an internal review of the story, which found it to be "deficient in several respects," The Times reported.

Logan quietly returned to work on "60 Minutes" seven months later, according to the The Hollywood Reporter.

Just as quietly as she returned to the network, Logan left CBS in 2018. Her exit wasn't revealed until February 2019, when a CBS spokesperson told Variety that Logan was no longer with the network and hadn't been for several months.

Variety looked into the status of Logan's employment after she appeared on a conservative former Navy SEAL's podcast, where she voiced the opinion that most media outlets skew liberal.

Hagan wrote in his 2014 profile of Logan that CBS producers and crew members he spoke with didn't think of Logan as "particularly political," but that she "came to stories with strong biases" more typical in British media, where she got her start.

In the aftermath of Logan's comments on Fauci, one of her former producers, Peter Klein, wrote in an op-ed that Logan "tried to push the envelope sometimes" in his experience working with her, but he still found her to be a "good reporter."

But Klein wrote that he saw a new version of Logan emerge two years ago, and he's watched as she's popped up occasionally to make "controversial comments that keep her relevant."

Upon leaving CBS News, Logan did a stint at the conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group, before debuting her Fox Nation show, "Lara Logan Has No Agenda," in January 2020.

She's also made regular guest appearances on Fox News, including subbing in for primetime host Tucker Carlson.

The episode of Fox News Primetime where Logan made her comments about Fauci is unavailable online, and she hasn't appeared on the network since.