Lara Logan Slams Media for Ignoring Nigerian Atrocities, Urges Journalists to "Do Your Job"

 Lara Logan Slams Media for Ignoring Nigerian Atrocities, Urges Journalists to "Do Your Job" Lara Logan In a searing address at th...

 Lara Logan Slams Media for Ignoring Nigerian Atrocities, Urges Journalists to "Do Your Job"

Lara Logan

In a searing address at the National Press Club in the United States, veteran journalist Lara Logan unleashed a scathing critique of mainstream media’s failure to report on the brutal violence against Christian villages in Nigeria. Drawing from her experiences and the work of local reporters like those at Truth Nigeria, Logan exposed what she sees as a deliberate suppression of truth, accusing journalists of cowardice, corruption, and complicity in perpetuating misleading narratives.

Logan began by highlighting the absence of credible media coverage in Nigeria’s conflict zones. “There was no Truth Nigeria. There was no media organizations,” she said, pointing to the neglect of journalists like Lawrence and Masara Kim, who risk their lives to document atrocities in frontline villages. She accused urban-based reporters of lazily accepting government and U.S. State Department claims that the violence stems from climate-driven land disputes between nomadic Fulani tribesmen and Christian communities. “The Fulani are not really terrorists. Oh, the fact that they’re Muslims got nothing to do with it,” she mocked, dismissing this narrative as “absolute nonsense” and a “scam” designed to obscure the reality of targeted attacks.

The journalist painted a grim picture of the violence, citing horrific acts reported by Truth Nigeria, such as women and children being burned alive in cages and a pregnant teenager beheaded while her unborn child was torn from her body. Logan recounted receiving a video of this brutality while dining in Texas, an experience that left her husband unable to eat. “That’s the reality of what, when you put those numbers up and you go before your colleagues in Congress, that’s what it means in human terms,” she emphasized, urging policymakers to grasp the human toll behind the statistics.

Logan reserved her sharpest criticism for the media’s role in what she called “systems of control.” She argued that false narratives, like the climate-driven conflict excuse, are not merely inaccurate but part of a broader effort to manipulate information and obscure the truth. “All of these systems that are being implemented that are so profoundly dishonest, they’re systems of control,” she declared. She praised the courage of Nigerian journalists like Lawrence, who once called her from a “meat wagon” surrounded by the bodies of his friends, yet noted that their reports are often ignored or denied by mainstream outlets.

Speaking directly to the press corps, Logan invoked the United States’ First Amendment responsibilities. “I stand before all of you in the National Press Club of the United States of America, the most powerful free nation on Earth,” she said. “I cannot say strongly enough to the press corps, do your job.” She condemned journalists as “too lazy, too corrupt, too stupid, too cowardly” to report the truth, calling their inaction “without conscience” and urging an end to a culture where truth-tellers are punished and liars rewarded.

Logan also connected the suppression of Nigerian stories to broader efforts to silence uncomfortable truths, referencing her work to promote Sound of Freedom, a film about child trafficking that faced resistance. Her speech was both a call to action and a warning: the media’s failure to confront these atrocities undermines its role as a global beacon of free speech and leaves vulnerable communities voiceless.

In closing, Logan’s words resonate as a challenge to journalists worldwide. The courage of local reporters in Nigeria, coupled with the horrific realities they uncover, demands accountability from the global press. As Logan put it, “We have to stop being afraid of what people will say to us.” Her address serves as a clarion call for journalists to reclaim their integrity and amplify the stories of those on the front lines of human suffering.

Family Writers Press International.