When “60 Minutes” scored the exclusive interview with the Navy SEAL who wrote the tell-all book about the Osama bin Laden raid, Scott Pelley promised that his anonymity would be safe:
“When word of the book came out last month, a cable news channel learned Mark Owen’s real name and reported it,” Pelley said. “Since then, others have reported his name. We will not.”
CBS News has so far stuck to that arrangement, though the AP (and subsequently CBSNews.com) has not:
In a separate account of the raid that was published last month, one member of the Navy team, Matt Bissonnette, wrote that the SEALS climbed a stairway inside the compound and opened fire when bin Laden poked his head around a doorway. Bissonnette wrote that bin Laden’s hands were concealed and the SEALS presumed he was armed so they shot him.
Update: TVNewser hears that the story will be coming down. It was an AP story that slipped through the cracks on a debate day.