Posted on 02/08/2005 1:52:45 PM PST by vanderleun
The dog has barked and, without the videotape, the caravan has moved on.
The Eason Jordan vs The Bloggers match ended its first set today with a high lob set-up from Howard Kurtz at the Washington Post put away by an overhand smash by Mr. Adams of Davos who announced that the videotape of the Davos meeting, in which Jordan claimed the US Military was deliberatly killing journalists in Iraq, would not be released to the public.
Jordan's office also released a yet another "clarifying" statement which was picked up and noted in passing by the Boston Globe.
Yes, the New York Sun and the Washington Times have both covered the story and amplified the reports and the reporting by the blogosphere, with Michelle Malkin being especially distinguished in this regard.
But, for the time being, that's all folks.
As I remarked yesterday, the videotape is the key. But just knowing there is a videotape is not enough. At a bare minimum, the videotape must be seen, and widely seen, for it to make a difference. The Jordan/Davos videotape is the McGuffin here in the same way that the Rathergate CBS PDF documents were in that case. If the Jordan videotape is not seen at all, not all the sworn affidavits and interviews with eye-witnesses nor all the "outrage" of career politicians will matter one whit. And we now know that there will be no videotape released. Videotape, as I have said before, is Mr. Jordan's game. You don't think he'd be stupid enough to let it see the light of day if there were any way in which it could be prevented, do you? As William Burroughs is fond of asking, "Wouldn't you?"
Mr. Jordan controls the tape in the best way one can possibly control such a potentially damaging item. He controls is without controlling it. 'It's not me,' he can justly claim. 'It is that damned Davos conference and their Chatham House Rules. Can't do a think about it, fellows.'
I'm not really surprised and neither, do I think, are any other of the online commentators on this issue. Calls for the release of the tape will go on as part of the standard after-game Stonewalling wrap-up, and the whole incident will be marked in Mr. Jordan's Permanent Online Conduct Record. And that, as they say, will be that.
As to mainstream media coverage outside the blogosphere, well, you've had all you're likely to get. With Kurtz at the Washington Post finally weighing in, that's going to be it. Interview with principle, plausible deniability, David Gergan fallen in line, small squib in the Boston Globe.... What more could anyone possibly expect?
Mickey Kaus, it would seem, expected more and harped on Kurtz for days to get on the story. Now that Kurtz has, Kaus is upset because Kurtz didn't go for the jugular. Absurd. What did Kaus expect Kurtz to do? If he expected anything more penetrating that what he got, Kaus is a fool. And I don't think Kaus is a fool, but was setting Kurtz up for a small one-day game of inside-gotcha. That's also over now with the game point going to Kurtz and Jordan.
The Jordan Affair is now officially stamped with the big red stencil that spells out: O L D N E W S.
In this world, if it doesn't happen on television it doesn't happen, and without the videotape this will not happen on television.
Woof. Woof. Woof. Saddle the camels. Head out for the dunes.
As President Bartlett says, "What's next?"
Are you kidding? Why so eager to put this brand-new story to rest?
Malkin on Howie Carr right now (4:58 PM EST) talking about this. Doesn't sound like a dead story to me.
He said game and set -- not game, set, and match.
Thank you for noticing that .
Actually, it is not a brand-new story. It is at least 10 days or more old. That is forever in the news business.
Let me add that I would be the happiest person here to see Jordan have to account for his words, but without the tape, that isn't going to happen.
The tape is the key.
It's well-known what Eason said, whether he admits it or not.
How true. If there's a visual of something relatively unimportant it becomes "important" by virtue of the visual. If there is something important but no visual, it is relegated to the status of "unimportant". To paraphrase..."It's the visual, stupid." And that's something Eason Jordan and the Davos organizers are well aware of.
At the same time, the videotape is also equivalent to Kerry's Form 180. Unseen. Unheard. But highly suspicious.
Whether Jordan can be "impeached" without the tape, as Kerry was defeated (barely) without the full disclosure of Form 180, is uncertain.
Without the tape, we're left with the "where do we go from here?" question.
C'mon, eason. Are you afraid the msm is going to only show clips of your statements like they did to Rumsfield while he was meeting with the troops? I didn't think so.
You sound like a quitter to me.
Those who work against America are allowed to conceal/hide any facts they want and make up any facts they want. We'd only see a tape is an American speaker said something they'd like to doctor (Rummie's recent comments, for example). Just imagine the days when these commmies and neocommies controlled ALL the media and be thankful for today's bloggers. Five years ago, for example, Rather's forgeries would have been accepted as real. This tape is the same as those forgeries. It could prove MSM falsification and will be concealed so it can be used as the forgeries were, to prove the media's mendacity.
Well, guess what: Brit Hume has reported that the ONLY person who said Jordan "backed off his statement" was Gergen!
All the other reporters who were there say he didn't.
In other words, the only way that Eason Jordan might "clear his name" would be to have the tape released.
Otherwise, do we not have a presumption of guilt? Or, at least, a preponderance of the evidence.
Blood in the water...
Michael Kelly, embedded reporter killed in Iraq in April, 2003, wrote a brilliant analysis of David Gergen's career, calling him the "perfect flower of the Insider species," and of his ability to spin in whatever direction would benefit Gergen.
"...He (Gergen) is so perfectly of his time and place and class that he is himself part of the tribal language. To be Gergenized is to be spun by the velveteen hum of this soothing man's smoothing voice into a state of such vertigo that the sense of what is real disappears into a blur. Nothing is more Gergenized than Gergen himself. The blur is the man. He is his own magic movie, forevever revising the reality of himself."
If your head whirled when reading Gergen's description of Eason Jordan "walking back" his lies you were being Gergenized.
Reading Michael Kelly's take on Gergen (a masterpiece,)Ted Kennedy, Clinton, in the posthumously published collection of his writing, "Things Worth Fighting For," one feels our loss of this engaging, honest, honourable man, all over again. b
So we should believe Brit or the liars in the america hating media???????
Hugh Hewitt on Kudlow and Cramer. Also going to be covered on Scarborough tonite. The fat lady hasn't sung yet.
I agree with you completely about Kelly. Do you know if that Gergen article is online. I could put it to good use.
Bump.
Comparing this to Rathergate, despite all the stonewalling by CBS, there were those images of the disputed memos that could not be explained away.
This story instead has allegations but no physical evidence until the tape is released. The MSM is learning (not that it will do them much good in the long run). They can pretend that this story is dead and didn't have any impact - and the impact was reduced by not having the video. But it adds to the body of evidence that they are partisan hacks without facts to back up their positions.
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