Posted on 02/02/2005 8:42:18 PM PST by handy
Eason Jordan, chief news executive at CNN, said there had been only a "limited amount of progress", despite repeated meetings between news organisations and the US authorities.
"Actions speak louder than words. The reality is that at least 10 journalists have been killed by the US military, and according to reports I believe to be true journalists have been arrested and tortured by US forces," Mr Jordan told an audience of news executives at the News Xchange conference in Portugal.
FYI - This came via the Captains Quarters blog. He is all over this one.
I have a report that I believe to be true as well. It's the one where I'm kicking the ever loving god out of Mr. Jordan for his tripe.
Jordan, care to meet and see who's correct?
Eason Jordan, chief news executive at CNN. Should be able to back his statements. He's supposedly on light weight at CNN. For him to make these kind of statements and not be required to back them up is irresponsible. The military or the Justice Dept should look into this and bring this man and other who make these false claims to task.
These people are supposedly PROFESSIONAL Journalist, they are not stupid, nor should they be treated like handicapped or teh mentally retarded, who have more honor and credibility than these "Journalist"!
Personally I believe that after CNN'S non reporting of the mass executionsa nd tortures of the Iraqi People the Iraqi Government should throw them out of that country and the US should throw them out of the US!! CNN is nothing more than Al Jazerra West!
That term long ago left their vocabulary. It was replaced with agenda.
Isn't this the turd who confessed that CNN was Saddam's private whorehouse for years before the overthrow?
Yah but to quote arnold..... "Yah but they were all bad guys ...."
If this is true, I'm re-enlisting! Payback time for those m*therf*ckers who cost the troops our hard-earned victory in Vietnam. I actually was a journalist before I went in the Army (1966-69) and when I got to Vietnam in 1968, I was amazed. It was NOTHING like what I had seen in the papers or on TV before I got there. As a result of my tour in Nam, I quit journalism in disgust. The biggest lesson journos don't learn is that Americans want victory first, then we'll read the papers -- not a lot of nitpicking while the war is going on.
…and according to reports I believe to be true journalists have been arrested and tortured by US forces…
Now turn to the heart of David Gergen's argument last night on PBS:
"DAVID GERGEN: I have no objection to the tape being released whatsoever. I've been quoted to that effect in the press. It was an off-the-record setting. That's ordinarily respected. But in these circumstances I have no problem with the tape being released and let it be settled that way. But, you know, I think the damage is done now. This is what I think is very regretful is that this is a man who spent more than 20 years gaining stature and great respect within the journalistic community for helping to build CNN International, working with Ted Turner, working with Tom Johnson and others.
And I think it's very distressing that one mistake which he tries to move back from, you know, costs him his job. And I have to tell you, Terry, that while I agree with Jay Rosen that, you know, the world has changed. I welcome the blogosphere because I think it's really important that citizens in this new public square be able to hold people more accountable than in the past, whether it's journalists or public officials or corporate officials or others.
I think that is a welcome development. It's empowerment of citizens that we should be for. But there is within this public square -- there is a raucous quality sometimes; in this particular instance there were not only those who were pressing I think not unfairly for a release but there were those who were out for his scalp. And there was a vigilante justice kind of quality here of people who were going after Eason Jordan not because of what he said but because of what he represented, and that is he represented CNN. And there are those who wish to paint CNN as this liberal media outlet in contrast to Fox and they want to beat up on him for that reason. Frankly I think that there has been a quality of vigilante justice here which has gone -- has been excessive. I think it's very -- it's been a cruel fate for Eason Jordan to be caught in effect in the culture wars that are going on in the country."
Is it possible that David Gergen doesn't know about the first slander? Or that he doesn't bring it up because it makes his defense of Jordan absurd? And how can a serious journalist like Terence Smith ignore this crucial aspect of the controversy?
Every single commentary on the matter that does not bring up the first slander is either incompetently assembled or ideologicially blinkered.
One final comment on why Jordan either left or was shoved out the door.
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One final comment on why Jordan either left or was shoved out the door.
The force that was growing wasn't among the polibloggers of the center-right or the media theorists of the center-left. It was the milbloggers that must have concerned CNN.
Three of the folks who put together Easongate --Bill Roggio of The Fourth Rail, Chester of the Adventures of Chester, and Blackfive-- are veterans, and they were ticked off. It is one thing for civilian supporters of the military to take exception to Jordan's double slander, but I doubt these men would have flagged in their efforts to get the tape released and reviewed, or have halted their research into Jordan's past statements like the slander in Portugal. Chester was himself a member of the forces that swept into Iraq and brought an end to the dictatorship and is still there fighting the insurgency. In a very real way he was fighting for the reputation of his friends and his own reputation. Either Jordan or CNN must have figured out this one wasn't going to blow over.
It wasn't a lynch mob. It wasn't "one mistake." It was a demand for accountability fueled by legitimate and still unanswered questions based upon unrepudiated past statements by a senior American news executive that slandered the American military. Even at this late hour, it would be useful if commentators on the controversy became familiar with its basic facts.
fyi
I guess he didn't get enough attention the FIRST time he wrote about "journalists" getting killed by soldiers.
******
Journalists' killers 'not being brought to justice'
Guardian ^ | 01/18/05 | Dominic Timms
Dominic Timms Tuesday January 18, 2005
The culprits responsible for killing more than 100 journalists and other media workers worldwide last year are only half as likely to be caught as London burglars, a leading international press group claimed today. The International Federation of Journalists said most of the 129 deaths of media staff in 2004 - the highest on record - resulted from either "deliberate attacks" by gunmen, corrupt officials, armed gangs and governments, or "nervous, unruly and ill-disciplined soldiering".
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