I never heard of CNN's Eason Jordan until the ruckus he created at the Davos World Economic Forum recently by allegedly stating "off the record" that the U.S. military was deliberately shooting journalists. In all the brouhaha that resulted from the blog posting about his statement and his resignation from CNN, attention has been deflected from a more serious issue: Is the U.S. military deliberately shooting journalists in Iraq?
As usual, the medium (blogging) has become the message, rather than the message itself. I hope Jordan gets online and explains his comments; otherwise, we'll be killing journalists by more than guns alone.
Please do a minimal amount of research before posting -- Jordan addressed this issue a week ago in a Howard Kurtz piece for the Washington Post:
Jordan denied that last night, saying he had been responding to Frank's comment that the 63 journalists who have been killed in Iraq were "collateral damage" in the war. "I was trying to make a distinction between 'collateral damage' and people who got killed in other ways," Jordan said last night. "I have never once in my life thought anyone from the U.S. military tried to kill a journalist. Never meant to suggest that. Obviously I wasn't as clear as I should have been on that panel."
Posted by: Brian Carnell | February 15, 2005 at 05:47 PM
This is a tricky one. I went to CNN.com to see if they had a statement but couldn't find anything.
I agree - there is this giant uncertainty sort of hanging in the air, someone needs to anchor it beyond a WaPo quote. Doubters from the right will wonder if Eason was just one of many, he happened to get caught. Doubters from the left will wonder what stories CNN is burying to preserve ratings. "The most trusted name in news"??
Posted by: Alison | February 15, 2005 at 06:03 PM
Is the US Military deliberately shooting down UFOs?
Before it really qualifies as a "serious issue", I would think we need some sort of significant evidence first. I would be happy to hear it or read links to it. I'm not saying it doesn't exist. Personally I have no stake either way. But until it does, it's not a "serious issue".
(Before drawing the obvious connection between my statement and the rather scanty evidence we have that Eason said anything wrong, or jumping to any conclusions about my "allegiances", I will say that I already agree with that. Based on what we actually know, resignation was a massive over-reaction. Presumably, there is more to the story than we know, but I am resisting glib assumptions about what that is.)
Posted by: Jeremy Bowers | February 15, 2005 at 07:00 PM
I don't think he "resigned" because of this stupidity, And yes, it was stupidity. On the record, off the record, this guy has to be insane to even get near the edge of that slippery slope, especially near a microphone.
I think he "resigned" because of an extreme lack of integrity. It was the deal he made with Sadam to be his mouthpiece, and his agreement to report only one side of the story. The only difference between him and good old "Baghdad Bob" is that he was getting over on his own people. It doesn't matter much because nobody watches CNN anyway. Plus idiots like him create jobs for bloggers on the right and left.
Posted by: Phil | February 15, 2005 at 07:35 PM
Howard Kurtz (Washington Post) wrote that he resigned because "top executives are also said to have lost patience with the continuing gossip about Jordan, including his affair with Marianne Pearl, widow of the murdered reporter Daniel Pearl, and subsequent marital breakup."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002178496_cnn12.html
The bloggers were just an excuse or a last straw, depending on how you want to play it.
Posted by: Dusty | February 15, 2005 at 09:58 PM
The CSS statement is here: http://www2.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/11/easonjordan.cnn/
Posted by: Matthias | February 16, 2005 at 02:06 AM
LOL, make that "CNN statement", not "CSS statement". I should have used the preview feature.
Posted by: Matthias | February 16, 2005 at 02:08 AM
Thanks for the link Matthias, and Dusty for you're post. I hadn't heard about him and Pearl. Damm, this guy is high maintenance! This guy has so much stuff in his closet that he doesn't have room for shoes.
The golden rule for news reporters is to never become the story. Evidently Rather and Jordan never got the memo.
I would really like to know if anybody even watches CNN.
Posted by: Phil | February 16, 2005 at 07:42 AM
The Nation thinks there's something to it:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050307&s=scahill
Posted by: joe | February 21, 2005 at 12:11 PM