The confessions of Eason Jordan - The news they kept from everybody but themselves.

Radiofree West Hartford ^ | April 15, 2003 | Vincent Fiore

[ddodd3329]

On Friday the 11th of April, the NY Times ran an op-ed piece from CNN's chief news executive Eason Jordan. Now, having read thousands of opinion pieces and many books ranging from the astute brilliance of George Will to the impractical denunciations of former President Carter, I have become accustomed to being dazzled or dismayed on a daily basis. Truly though, I was not prepared for the piece of Mr. Jordan. It left me in a sought of surrealistic seasickness, a kind of nightmare dream state, only I was all too awake and fully grasped the gravity of it. To be sure, I had to reread it three times; and if you have not yet read or heard of Mr. Jordan's barring of soul in the pages of the Times, seek it out. {WWW.nytimes.com/2003/04/11/opinion/11JORD}

After reading the piece, what struck me were the awful tales of human suffering, and Jordan's and henceforth, CNN, breathtakingly willful disregard for truth in reporting. Even the penning of this betrayal of news by CNN seemed almost cavalier in its empathetic outreach to all involved, or so it seemed to me. Only at the end of his work does Mr. Jordan inform the reader of how "awful I felt having these stories bottled up inside me". Totally self-serving, and totally unacceptable when put into the context of the political rollercoaster the world has been on these past 12 years regarding Iraq.

This revelation of Eason Jordan also left me with many poignant questions. Did CNN willfully and by design color their reporting in and of Iraq? Apparently, they did, if one reads the piece the way I did. Did Mr. Jordan, being the chief news executive, put substance over people in its efforts to maintain a CNN Baghdad bureau office? Again, so it seems. When you put reporters into a known hazard, as Jordan did, does this speak to the journalistic bravery, or integrity of the CNN media brass? When you report by omission over a 12 year time period regarding one of history's most brutal monsters, it does not. After all, can anybody now say what we have seen and heard from CNN in relation to Saddam Hussein is fact or fiction? The prudent viewer would have to say no.

What Mr. Jordan's article has done {unintended, though really, unavoidable} is lend foundation to all of the "right wing conspirators" among us who for years have lamented the liberal bias in the media. This confession of Jordan's can rightly be extended to how CNN has covered politics on the whole in this country since the very beginnings of Ted Turner's opus, and not just this war. What else have they failed to report? Has Peter Arnett always been sympathetic to Iraq and its regime? And was it a "staged" act that just went too far? Or Christian Amanpour, who has throughout her years said many a discouraging word regarding American foreign policy, and in particular President Bush's handling of the war on terrorism? These displays of bias have always been noticed by Conservatives and rightly attributed to Western elite media in the position of shaping opinion. >>>continued<<<

[backhoe]

Cross-link:

-The Access of Evil-- CNN's Duplicity --

[Izzy Dunne]

Jordan will get hung out to dry for this. Ostensibly for doing it to begin with, but in truth, only for admitting it.

[Izzy Dunne]

Eason Jordan owes the American people, and all interested parties, an apology, and another syndicated op-ed piece, titled "My resignation from CNN".

Last I heard, he was not the least bit apologetic.
Won't happen, unless it's one of those "you can't fire me - I quit" type of resignations.

[Steven W.]

Not only are they not apologetic, they continue the propaganda to this day with barely a mention of the attrocities that are coming to light daily, whether it's the mass graves, children's prison opening or dungeon release in lieu of shemale Christiane Amanpour's regular diatribes about civilian casualties and looting.

[Utah Girl]

Yep, you are exactly right. Some former CNN executive was on MSNBC last night, madly spinning away, saying that "everyone" does what CNN did, and then went on to quote someone from Fox News who said during some broadcast that they could only tell one side of the story. What the stupid former CNN guy missed is that CNN NEVER said they were only showing one side of the story.

[Tamzee]

I had an odd problem accessing the remainder of the column, the screen appeared totally black and blank. I don't know if it was just a problem with my browser or if they set up the text improperly.

Anyways, if anyone else has the same problem.... just highlight the blank area as if you are going to cut and paste. That brings out the appearance of the text and you can read it that way :-)