that isn't to take away from lara logan and max mcclellan, who are very good journalists. but this is true in any corporation. when something goes wrong, you have to apologize and take action in order to maintain your credibility. >> i'm told the suspension will be for a significant period of time, not just a couple of weeks, which some might see as a slap on the wrist. but jim woods, someone without the track record and star power of lara logan have been fighting this. >> that's possible. an old joke in journalism, too good to check. if you make millions a year, you're obligated. jeff factor, overall in charge of the show, why didn't he suspend himself as well as logan and mcclellan? >> that's a serious suggestion? >> why not? if accountability means accountability, the people who make the mistakes are accountable. >> which leads to my question for dana, which is the language in this internal inquiry report is very measured, sort of just the facts approach. wouldn't it have been better for cbs' credibility, for jeff's credibility, to have an outside investigation? >> well

you have two wonderful journalists in lara logan and max mcclellan, her producer who have been put onave for believing an eyewitness who turned out to be completely and absolutely wrong. and as you said, jeff bezos, boy, did he get a christmas present after their report the day before cyber monday that talked about his drone program, and charlie rose was all gaga about these drones. but not one really serious question about whether or not the faa would be able to handle this, when would this happen, what are the technical problems. it was really good publicity. leland: i wonder how much this has to do with money in the sense that doing ard-hitting investigation -- hard-hitting investigation, sending crews all over the country, sending anchors to stake out people that you want to ask tough questions to, that's really expensive. going to interview jeff bezos and having him fly a drone around is pretty cheap. is this a money issue or actually a fundamental crisis in journalism? >> well, leland, i think if we were just talking local news and maybe some not-so-successful, money-making orga

. >> i think lara logan said it better than i did. >> now you have to be pillaged and brlundered by yourlleagues. he makes a good case. >> no, he doesn't. that was absolutely terrible. let me tell you the biggest lie of the year. >> no, why is it terrible before you tell me. >> you have one informant hood winked 60 minutes? and that's the biggest lie of 2013? >> it's not even close. i know people in the media were like brian. but people, it didn't even affect the ratings that much. if you like 60 minutes, one mistake. i don't think one mistake can be the biggest lie. this is a mistake, unfortunate. it was the perfect storm of errors in fact checking. i don't think it was the biggest lie. >> can you let somebody get in? >> joe, what do you think? why is your colleague, brian stelter wrong? >> he's certainly not wrong, i just wouldn't rank it as number one. trayvon martin and george zimmerman case and the way that was handled. obviously there were some issues at msnbc. but overall, with media watchdogs out there, sites like media hype, news busters which goes after liberal publications, me

but as lara logan reported in 2005, there are millions of people who take endless vacations in the summerth, two months, even more. and we're not talking about the idle rich. these are government employees, blue collar workers, office clerks. what's their secret? they live in france. >> stephane marchand is a senior economics editor at the french newspaper le figaro. >> in my line of job, i am a journalist working with french newspaper. we have eight weeks of vacation. >> eight weeks of vacation? >> eight weeks, yes. i know it maybe surprising for you because i know in the u.s. you might have only two or three if you are lucky. but we have eight. >> like most frenchmen, marchand has no guilt about taking so much time off. in fact, it's the law. full-time workers in france are guaranteed at least five week's vacation, guaranteed those long lazy days in the sun and leisurely lunches in outdoor cafes. on top of the five weeks, there are another dozen public holidays and a maximum 35-hour work week with no paid overtime allowed. managers like marchand, who work more than 35 hours a week, get

responses in the media have run media organizations to outrage and controversy. 60 minutes did not fire lara logan for the flawed report that she put on the air. msnbc waited to essentially ask martin bashir to leave. ap fired three journalists for a mistake they made. suspension, firing? what's the standard? we don't have a standard. >> that's a great point. >> one of the things that also bothers me is that i feel like the institutions are acting to protect themselves at the expense of learning what happened and journalistic transparency. one of the things that i think that we see in common with the 60 minutes case and with msnbc is that cbs news a and msnbc seem to be trying to shut down the controversy before it harmed their brand publicly. rather than being journalistly transparent about how the mistake happened both them as a news organization and us as viewers. so we have no sense of where the line is for msnbc except you can't embarrass msnbc without getting fired and that's not a great lesson. >> that's a great point. let's briefly talk about something that doesn't involve scandal at all.

lara logan does a story that embarrassing the obama administration. gets fired, and martin bashir attacks sarah palin, and he's fine. >> alec baldwin brought up the martin bashir comparison after msnbc blew up his show after the blow-up with a photographer outside his apartment. he did lose his temper and curse at the guy, but that wads on the street. he was angry. maybe you just suspend him, cut him slack, where bashir read his scathing personal, disgusting atact against sarah palin from a teleprompter. it was graphic, and they have not taken any disciplinary action that we know of, hasn't even condemned the comments. >> it was scripted and graphic. this was not some rogue event. this is not something he ad-libbed out of rage. this is something his producers knew about. a lot of people knew he was going to say this on air and they didn't stop him. >> in the case of "60 minutes" not only has lara logan been suspended indefinitely as punishment for this badly botched benghazi report, but her producer got the same punishment. in the case of alec baldwin