DEAD AMBASSADOR'S DIARY REVEALS THREAT WORRY

◼ CNN Reports Details of Amb. Chris Stevens’ Private Diary; State Dept. Calls it ‘Indefensible’; CNN Punches Back: State Dept. ‘Attacking the Messenger’ - Media Bistro

On Wednesday’s AC360, Anderson Cooper reported Stevens was worried about never-ending security threats, the rise in Islamic extremism, and being included on an Al Qaeda hit list.

On Friday, Cooper explained how CNN came upon the diary and how it factored into Wednesday’s reporting: “The information for that report like all of CNN’s reporting was carefully vetted. Some of that information was found in a personal journal of Ambassador Stevens in his handwriting. We came upon the journal through our reporting and notified the family. At their request, we returned that journal to them.”

◼ Three days after he was killed, CNN found a journal belonging to late U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens. The journal was found on the floor of the largely unsecured consulate compound where he was fatally wounded. - CNN

◼ State Dept. gets blowback for CNN attack - Dylan Byers/Politico

The State Department's effort to fault CNN for reporting on Ambassador Christopher Stevens' journal met some considerable blowback today from BuzzFeed reporter Michael Hastings.

On Saturday, State Dept. spokesman Philippe Reines slammed CNN for the “disgusting” and "indefensible" act of reporting on Stevens' diary, which was discovered by a CNN reporter in Benghazi, taken from the scene, and used by the network to confirm that Stevens had been worried about a threat on his life by Al Qaeda -- against the wishes of the Stevens' family, according to Reines.

But in an email exchange published today online, Hastings slammed Reines for his "offensive" and "over the top" attack on CNN.

"From my perspective, the scandal here is that the State Department had such inadequate security procedures in place that four Americans were killed. And then the Ambassador's diary--and who knows what else--was left behind for anyone to pick up," Hastings, who became famous for the Rolling Stone article that brought down Gen. Stanley McChrystal, wrote. "Thankfully, it was CNN--and not Al Qaeda or some other militia--that found it and was able to return it to the family. That CNN used portions of the material in the diary they found at the scene--material that appears to contradict the official version of events that State/WH has been putting out--is completely in line with practices of good journalism."

◼ HILARY AIDE GOESS OFF ON BUZZFEED REPORTER, CALLS HIM AN ‘UNMITIGATED A**HOLE,‘ TELLS HIM TO ’F**K OFF’ - Becket Adams/The Blaze