CNN takes heat for reporting on journal of slain Ambassador Stevens'

The State Department blasted CNN this weekend for reporting on the personal journal of slain American ambassador Christopher Stevens.

A State Department spokesman said the news channel wrote an online posting about Stevens’ journal after family members to the ambassador objected.

“The journal was found on the floor of the largely unsecured consulate compound where he was fatally wounded,” CNN posting said. “A source familiar with Stevens’ thinking told CNN earlier this week that, in the months leading up to his death, the late ambassador worried about what he called the security threats in Benghazi and a rise in Islamic extremism.”

State Department spokesman Philippe Reines, a senior adviser to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, said CNN broke a pledge to the family that it wouldn’t report on the journal and he called the story “indefensible.”

From AP: In a statement Saturday, CNN defended its use of the journal’s contents and asked “why is the State Department now attacking the messenger.”

“CNN did not initially report on the existence of a journal out of respect for the family, but we felt there were issues raised in the journal which required full reporting, which we did,” the channel said.