CBS reporter Lara Logan was surrounded, beaten and sexually assaulted after being separated from her team in the midst of Egyptian protests last Friday.
CBS News released a statement that on February 11th, shortly after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down from power,
“chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a ’60 Minutes’ story when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration. It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy. In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers.”
Logan was able to rejoin her team and return to the U.S. She was recovering in a hospital on Feb. 15.
CBS’ statement concludes by saying: “There will be no further comment from CBS News, and correspondent Logan and her family respectfully request privacy at this time.”
Esquire landed an interview with Logan just last week, on her way back to Cairo after being kicked out of the country the week before. “This is the Tiananmen Square of the cyber age,” she said. “There’s no question.”
Reporter Foster Kamer incredulously asked Logan if CBS was “insured for this s**t” and if she was crazy to go back to the thick of the protests. “You know,” Logan answered, smiling, “I don’t worry about things like that.”
CBS Los Angeles reporter Serene Branson has reportedly been taken to hospital for tests after stumbling incomprehensibly over her words during a Grammy’s broadcast.
After being introduced from the studio, Branson began “Well a very, very…”, before mispronouncing “heavily”. Trying again, she was still unable to get the word out and continued with a train of unintelligible sounds.
It is feared that she may have suffered a stroke on air. Strokes can cause speech problems in different ways, either by interfering with the brain’s ability to recognize and construct words, or by preventing the facial muscles from forming syllables correctly.
About a third of stroke sufferers develop problems with communicating, although it is often possible to reverse some of the damage.
Branson, twice nominated for an Emmy, was born and raised in the Los Angeles area. The CBS website lists her hobbies as reading and yoga.
Not about her new romantic comedy ‘Going the Distance’ and not about working with on-again, off-again beau Justin Long. In fact, she went off about a reporter who’d just interviewed her!
“You should have heard this bitch I had to do an interview with before you. God, I wanted to punch her, she would just not drop the youth thing. I have no problem talking about it. I am not someone who is ashamed of my past. I’m actually really proud. I know I made a lot of mistakes, but they in turn were my life lessons,” she recalled to the London Daily Standard.
The actress continued, “It’s actually good to get it done young and have a great life later. But yeah, man, I wanted to rip this woman’s face off. She just would not shut up about it.”
Barrymore never names the reporter or the publication that asked the probing questions. Quick note to self: keep “wild child” questions to a minimum next time we interview Ms. Barrymore.
“Girls Gone Wild” creator Joe Francis — who never met a teenage beauty he didn’t want to get naked — is getting hitched!
Francis, 37, proposed to Los Angeles’ CBS News Entertainment Reporter Christina McLarty — niece of Mack McLarty, former White House chief of staff to Bill Clinton — while vacationing in St. Tropez. But it won’t be a traditional wedding.
“We have chosen to have a civil domestic partnership because we don’t believe it’s appropriate to be married until our gay and lesbian friends are afforded the same rights as us to legally marry in the United States.”
The couple have been dating on and off for nearly four years, during which Francis — who spent 339 days in jail battling various charges in Florida and Nevada — also went to court against Steve Wynn over a $2 million gambling debt, and the IRS, which seized $100 million from his bank accounts.
The gorgeous McLarty, who started her TV career in Texas, raised eyebrows two years ago when she appeared onstage in Las Vegas in a skimpy showgirl costume for a segment on Sin City nightlife.
The proposal to McLarty was obviously made on impulse. Asked about the ring, Francis said, “We’re having one made.”
The happy lovebirds were giddily planning the ceremony with 200 guests for sometime in September at Casa Aramara, Francis’ lavish beachfront estate in Punta Mita, Mexico.
Francis revealed, “The weekend will be fun, luxurious and filled with lots of surprises.” Quincy Jones, his longtime neighbor in Bel Air, will serve as best man. “This will be a nontraditional celebration of love, family and friends,” Francis said.
I wonder what the bachelor party will be like?
source: ‘Wild’ Joe Francis getting married [ny post]
You know the saying, “Pick on someone your own size?” Tell that to this reporter from Chicago’s WGN-TV, who played a little b-ball with a child and proceeded to dunk on him, yell in his face and make him cry.
He almost redeemed himself. After the boy started crying, Pat Tomasulo said, “I feel like the lowest person on the planet right now.” But then, the reporter took it back.
Hey, Tomasulo, we’re curious…were you bullied as a kid?
Ever watched the news and seen news reporters trying to do their job while in the middle of hurricane winds or any other disaster? Well it seems this isn’t all they have to deal with. Asylum.com have come up with a great list of things that happen behind a reporters back when people jump in the camera.
01. Newsflash: My Butt Was Just Pinched
This grabby Gus casually strolls through the shot and gives the reporter’s backside a little squeeze. The creepiest part, however, may be the weird old man in the background who darts out to watch and then back into hiding.
02. Off to a Bad Start
Rule number one of TV Journalism: Even if you get beer spilled on your head by rowdy football hooligans before you start speaking, the show must go on.
03. Self-Fulfilling Naked Prophecy
This reporter was asking for it when he used the phrase “streak of weather.”
04. Reporter Discusses High Winds, Gets Full Moon
In Palmdale, drive-by moonings are a grave and growing problem.
05. Thief Takes the Saying “Stealing the Mic” Literally
Reporters often worry about people grabbing the microphone away during an interview. This reporter almost gets hers stolen. The would-be thief faced a tough choice: Steal the just-released iPhone from the guy being interviewed, or the microphone from the reporter. He goes for the latter. You can’t tweet with that thing, genius.
06. Reporter Gets the Evil Eye From About 30 People
Before the summer’s volatile health-care reform rumble, town hall meetings were a place where things were discussed civilly, without Photoshopped posters of the president sporting a Hitler ‘stache and manufactured slogans being screamed. This reporter learns the hard (and awkward) way that maybe broadcasting live during a meeting isn’t a good idea.
07. In Other News: Two Old Guys Fighting
This just in! Random fight breaks out between two old guys on the street. Who knows what the reporter was originally covering, but watching an old guy take a swing, miss, and have an “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” moment is clearly more important.
08. Guy Faceplants on Stairs Behind Reporter
Karma comes quickly to this dancing d-bag. He mimics the reporter, dances and even dry humps him. However, his 15 minutes of fame makes him forget how to walk up stairs.
09. Crazy Lumberjack Guy
Segueing from a clip featuring riot cops is never easy. This reporter pulls it off with aplomb thanks to a shirtless, neck-bearded man twirling a T-shirt.
My favorite has to be the two old guys fighting, what one do you like?
source: What Goes on Behind Reporters’ Backs [Asylum]
Police are investigating the slaying of a longtime radio reporter who was found in his apartment bound with duct tape and stabbed to death.
An autopsy found that George Weber, 47, died of repeated stab wounds to the head, neck, torso and arms. Police believe he was killed Friday, but his body was found Sunday after his boss reported him missing.
New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said investigators were searching for the murder weapon, working to re-create Weber’s last moves and following up on one witness report that a person was seen pacing Friday night outside the Brooklyn brownstone where Weber lived. The person was later let into the building.
“They are looking to see if there is any information to indicate that he may have known the individual responsible for his death,” Browne said.
Weber worked for WABC for 12 years as the on-air reporter for popular shows like “Curtis and Kuby.” The station let him go amid programming changes last year, and he had since worked as a freelancer for ABC News Radio, the national network. His last newscast was on March 15; in his last blog entry, posted Friday, he talked about working to rid his apartment of bedbugs.
Police found Weber’s body in the bedroom, bound at the ankles with duct tape. Water was left running in a sink and a tub, possibly to clean up the crime scene, police said.
The apartment appeared to be ransacked, but it didn’t look like anything was taken, Browne said.
Weber was a veteran radio newsman who worked at stations including KGO in San Francisco and KTLK and KMPC in Los Angeles before coming to New York.
