A spokesman for ABC told Mr. Elliott that the network never retracted the story and that Mr. Ross' reporting was simply folded into a larger, more newsworthy story about the arrest of Yemeni hijackers.

"We fully stand by the reporting on the story. The story was overwritten and overtaken by the changing the story about the Yemeni men in custody. You should not read into that that we backed away," said the spokesman.

Mr. Ross's original story was sourced to "one senior U.S. official" — not the sort of thing that goes away. And it's hard to see where Mr. Ross' original item was folded into the new story.

Longtime CBS News Washington-based corrpesondent Jim Stewart spoke with The Observer in 2007 about Mr. Ross' reporting for the web.

Jim Stewart, who recently retired as CBS News’ longtime Washington-based correspondent, expressed reservations about some of Mr. Ross’ work, in particular questioning the accuracy of some of Mr. Ross’ stories on the ABC investigative team’s Web site, The Blotter.

“Were they wrong some of the time? Yes,” said Mr. Stewart “I’d rather be right than be first.

Read: Hold the Champagne — Are Brian Ross' ABC Scoops All They're Cracked Up to Be?