EJR III: Media Blackout

Monday, February 7: Lucianne.com readers, please follow this link for breaking news on the Eason Jordan story.
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Note (2/6 @ 9:45 a.m.): Thank you, Lucianne. It’s good to finally get some high-profile credit for all this tracking and linking I’m doing. I’ll see you all when I return from church!

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Self-Promotion Note III: To editors of all kind, television and radio talk show hosts: In addition to blogging, I’m also a freelance writer. If my widely expressed disappointment in the media isn’t a deterrent, and you’re looking for real diversity, I’m available for assignments and interviews. True diversity includes different points of view, not just different colored skin.

Readers: If you have exclusive news tips, please e-mail me by clicking the “Contact Me” button on the left.

Please scroll to the bottom for the latest developments. For background information all in one place, see the Easongate category.

Note IV (2/7): Scroll to the bottom for the latest developments. Find out what CNN’s Judy Woodruff had to say about the Eason Jordan story.

Breaking News: Michelle Malkin speaks to Rep. Barney Frank. See update below.

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For background on the Eason Jordan controversy, see the original post, the Eason Jordan Repository Part I and Part II. You’re reading The Eason Jordan Repository III. Additionally, blogger Sisyphus will have the videotape of Jordan’s remarks next week.

If you have the time, check out those posts, which contain dozens of links. If not, the following chronology from press critic Jay Rosen’s blog may be more helpful:

* Do US Troops Target Journalists in Iraq? (Rony Abovitz, ForumBlog.org, Jan. 28)

That’s the original account of Eason’s remarks. Abovitz, a vice president of a medical technology firm and a participant in the Forum but not a reporter, followed that up with:

* Journalists Killed in Iraq — The Core Issues. (Feb. 3)

Which was after he had returned to the United States. Then see:

* Rony Abovitz replies to Questions from Hugh Hewitt (Feb. 4)

Rebecca MacKinnon — journalist, blogger and Berkman Center fellow — was also there: “I was in the room and Rony’s account is consistent with what I heard,” she writes.

* Blogstorm descending on CNN (Feb. 2)

MacKinnon is a former correspondent for CNN: Eason Jordan was her boss then. She writes to him for an explanation and gets one:

* Response from Eason Jordan to MacKinnon. (Feb. 2)

Another statement from Jordan came to blogger Carol Platt Liebau:

* Response from Eason Jordan to Liebau. (Feb. 2)

In a nutshell: At the World Economic Forum (described as the “foremost global community of business, political, intellectual and other leaders of society committed to improving the state of the world”) Eason Jordan, a CNN executive and journalist, made the stunning accusation that American troops had targeted and killed journalists. These statements were made while on a discussion panel with journalist David Gergen, Congressman Barney Frank and Senator Christopher Dodd.

Rony Abovitz wrote about it on the forum’s blog, and his account of Jordan’s statements was corroborated by journalist and blogger Rebecca MacKinnon. At the time Abovitz challenged Jordan on his assertion and asked if he had proof. Jordan said no and that he didn’t believe it himself. Abovitz adds:

[W]hen pressed by others, he [Jordan] seemed to waver back and forth between what might have been his beliefs and the realization that he had created a kind of public mess. His statements, his reaction, and the reaction of all in attendance left me perplexed and confused. Many in the crowd, especially those from Arab nations, applauded what he said and called him a “very brave man” for speaking up against the U.S. in a public way amongst a crowd ready to hear anti-US sentiments. (Source)

So why would Jordan say something like this, before an international audience, against his own countrymen fighting and dying in Iraq, if he had no proof and didn’t believe it anyway?

In the original post, I referred to Jordan as “some guy who works for CNN,” but we know at this point he’s much more than that. Back in 2003, he admitted to suppressing information about Iraqi thug Saddam Hussein’s murdering regime in,
The News We Kept To Ourselves. (Read the op-ed at Scripting News.)

Hugh Hewitt wrote about it in Cross-Examing Jordan. He asserts that the suppression, among other things, made Jordan complicit in Hussein’s regime. Based on Jordan’s own admission, Hewitt’s assertion is not an overstatement.

The aforementioned column by Jack Kelly was published today in the Toledo Blade. About the recent kidnapped GI Joe doll incident, Kelly writes: “[W]hy are major media so quick to disseminate anything that a terrorist group, or purported terrorist group, releases? For the terrorist, it is like being given millions of dollars in free advertising.”

Yes, why are mainstream media (MSM) so quick to report news releases from terrorists but not what I consider to be treasonous allegations made by an American journalist before an international audience of America haters during wartime? When it comes to anything even remotely damaging to U.S. involvement abroad, they’re all over it like flies on cow dung.

Now one of their own accuses the military of assassinating journalists, and it merits nary a paragraph. Why? In my assessment, they haven’t covered it because they know it’s not true. No American troops deliberately went after journalists, and they might be a tad embarrassed that Jordan “ran off at the mouth,” as they say.

In sharp contrast, MSM picked on statments made by Lt. Gen. James Mattis within 24 hours:

A senior U.S. Marine Corps general who said it was “fun to shoot some people” should have chosen his words more carefully but will not be disciplined, military officials said on Thursday.

Lt. Gen. James Mattis, who led troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, made the comments at a conference Tuesday in San Diego.

“Actually it’s quite fun to fight ‘em, you know. It’s a hell of a hoot. It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right up front with you, I like brawling,” said Mattis.

“You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil,” Mattis said during a panel discussion. “You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them. (Source)

If one man’s statements merit so much attention, surely the same can be said for journalist-murdering American warriors, don’t you think?

But no. They go after a marine speaking at a conference: Washington Post, New York Times, Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times, just to name a few.

The flies-on-cow-dung image is as disgusting as MSM’s selective coverage and “objective” reporting.

Update: A commenter reminded me of MSM’s coverage of Lt. General Boykin back in 2003. Boykin said, correctly, that the war on terrorism is a religious war. It was an un-PC thing to say. Muslims and religious “freedom” groups complained, and MSM wrote about it for weeks on end. Selective coverage indeed.

Sources: General Seeks ‘Satan’ Speech Probe, Senator Feinstein’s statement, Thank God for General Boykin…

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Power Line, Wizbang, Ed Driscoll…

Update II (Sunday, February 6): Hugh Hewitt speaks out on MSNBC.

Rony Abovitz expresses frustration with us “right wing bloggers,” quoting the often misunderstood Scripture, “Before Eason is stoned, are we sure that we are all without sin?”

Hewitt replies:

I appreciate RA’s candor and willingness to answer all posed questions — we wouldn’t know of this story except for Rony’s original post — but George Bush’s Iraq policy has nothing to do with the issue today. No one is about to “stone” Eason Jordan — he is catching hell for slandering the good men and women in uniform. That’s all. You can’t blast heroes as killers and walk off the field to a cocktail parties in Davos and pretend nothing happened. This isn’t an ideological debate about whether it was wise to invade Iraq and whether 25 million Iraqis are better off today than they were two years ago, though they most certainly are. It is about whether a senior American news executive can slander the people who are fighting — and dying or being wounded — and do so without consequence. Don’t try and raise the issue to one of “blogosphere ethics.” It isn’t that at all. It is about what Eason Jordan said and the refusal — thus far — of MSM to call him on it. It is solely about MSM ethics, or lack thereof.

Jay Rosen as PressThink says, “Eason Jordan’s Job is the Political Job in TV News.”

Michelle Malkin:

Washington Post media reporter / CNN host Howard Kurtz is scheduled to do an online Q&A tomorrow at noon eastern. As Mickey Kaus helpfully points out, the Post is already accepting questions for Kurtz here. So if there’s anything you’d like to ask Kurtz — for example, if there’s a certain story you think he should be covering but isn’t — here’s your chance.

More from Captain Ed here and here. Are MSM’s lights coming on???

Update III (1:36 p.m.): Leave it to innovative bloggers to “cash in.” The newly minted Easongate blog is a must-read site if you’re following the blogger-generated story of Eason Jordan and his outlandish statements.

Mick Stockinger at Uncorrelated has as international commentary on Jordan translated from French.

Blogger David asks why bloggers are all over Jordan but not Ward Churchill, who made some boneheaded remarks about victims of the 9-11 terrorist attacks:

[B]oth of these guys have said things that are beyond the pale. Both are suffering from intellectual dishonesty to say the very least. But the bloggers I mentioned above, and the blogosphere in general seem to be treating them differently.

While condemning what Churchill said, it appears that most bloggers are defending his right to say it and saying that it would be wrong to fire him for his “free speech.” But at the same time, these bloggers seem to be all for CNN firing Jordan for exercising the same free speech rights.

Actually, the blogosphere has been covering the Churchill story. (See AcademicBias.com as an example.)

The difference I see is that while Churchill’s nasty remarks about American victims of the war against Islamofascism are just that, nasty, Jordan’s remarks are much more damaging to our efforts.

Jordan is (or was) an internationally respected journalist and CNN executive, and I’m sure he wields a lot of influence. Before an international audience that already appeared hostile to the U.S. and our efforts in Iraq, he said that American troops are murdering journalists. It’s a slanderous charge, and whether or not he believed it, he should not have said it. No one is curtailing is freedom to speak, but speaking has consequences.

Jimmie as The Sundries Shack notes that today on Howard Kurtz’s show, there was no mention of Eason Jordan. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer had Sen. Chris Dodd on his show, one of the men present when Eason Jordan made the allegations, and didn’t ask him about Jordan. Nothing. Well, can you blame Blitzer? Jordan is his superior. And I’m certain CNN doesn’t have its story together yet. Yes, we’re all waiting for the videotape, but CNN should release a statement before then, and not the same canned e-mail statement they’ve been sending to bloggers.

Side note: Trey Jackson has compiled a birthday tribute to Ronald Reagan.

American Digest believes nothing will happen with the Jordan story:

You see you can blast heroes as killers and walk off the field to cocktail parties in Davos and pretend nothing happened if you and your cohort control the careers of all that might expose you…That’s how, absent a net worth of at least $500 million, you get to Davos in the first place.

My Sandmen has a good round-up of links.

More on Jordan v. Mattis from Malkin.

Update IV (3:30 p.m.): Hugh Hewitt interviews Rebecca MacKinnon, the blogger and journalist who corroborated Rony Abovitz’s version of Eason Jordan’s remarks. An excerpt:

Q: Is the blogopshere being “fair” to Mr. Jordan? Ought he to give an interview to one or more bloggers who are pursuing this story?

A: We can’t deny that there is a lot of herd and mob behavior in the blogosphere. Having been attacked in the past by real-life mobs as well as by blog-mobs, I feel pretty confident in saying this (and I say this as someone who is proud to be a blogger). I think there are definitely some mob dynamics going on with this story. That said, there are also many bloggers who are trying to get to the bottom of this in a fair and rational manner. It would make sense for Jordan to speak to those bloggers.

(Via Power Line)

Resonant Information defends Eason Jordan’s claims:

[T]o all the bloggers and commenters out there that never bothered to look this up, all out of easily found information, you have no room to talk about sloppy journalism or make accusations against Eason Jordan. It’s one thing to be wrong; it’s another entirely to not even try, and then decry others for their errors, and make accusations about “treason” and “slander”. I find it telling that out of all the blogs I saw talking about this, of all the comments, only one blogger and one commenter even bothered to look up the deaths in even a casual fashion…

Zed misses the point. It’s not that we need proof of journalists’ deaths. I’m certain journalists were among the collateral damage. But Jordan used the word targeted.

Hewitt responds to Zed:

Perhaps the new group will turn its attention to this pathetic attempt to buttress Jordan’s claim by attempting to provide evidence for the claim via the collection of data bursts on journalists’ deaths in Iraq. Keep in mind that Jordan specifically asserted that what he was talking about was not the sort of “collateral damage” death that folks know have happened. Jordan employed “targeted” which means the intentional killing. It will be interesting to see if this list and the “analysis” it offers is what Jordan had in mind.

Unasked question: Why isn’t Matt Drudge talking about this? Does he know something we don’t know?

A poster at Free Republic speculates about the death of journalists in Iraq. Captain Ed adds his own comments.

Update V (6:17 p.m.): The Press-Enterprise (fee registration required) has written an editorial about Eason Jordan:

If U.S. troops in Iraq targeted journalists for assassination, that would be a huge story. If the source of the story were a top cable news executive, it would earn continuous coverage.

CNN’s chief news executive, Eason Jordan, said Jan. 27 on a world stage that “he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by U.S. troops, but they had in fact been targeted,” according to Rony Abovitz of the World Economic Forum’s weblog.

Problem is, Jordan has provided no facts to substantiate this very serious charge. Now the claim, which Jordan floated at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is spreading through anti-American circles in Europe and the Middle East.

Jordan’s words matter because CNN is, in the eyes of much of the world, the “voice of America.” If its news chief is reporting fabrications to global leaders at elite summits, it’s another blow to media credibility at home, and to the United States’ reputation abroad.

(Via Easongate)

The Lone Star Times has a blog, and they’re blogging about Eason Jordan.
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Update VI (Monday, February 7): Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd were present at the World Economic Forum where Eason Jordan accused our military of targeting journalists for slaughter. What do these politicians have to say? Contact them and find out.

STATUS OF THE VIDEOTAPE: Blogger Sisyphus, who is trying to obtain a copy of the videotape of the conference, updated his post early this morning:

I just got off the phone with Mr. Adams. [Media Director at the World Economic Fourm] He confirmed again that he has the video. He also confirmed that he will provide the video, but they need to first unpack the boxes of 200+ videos from the conference today.

He will call me back today and confirm arrangements for delivery.

He also confirmed that I’m “not the only one who wants it”.

Tick, tick, tick,…

Many of us are wondering why Adams is making copies of a videotape and why the recording is not digitized for disemination online. Yesterday Sisyphus wrote:

I spent much of today on the phone with Robert Cox from Media Bloggers Association. We are trying to get a footprint in Geneva to work directly with Mr. Adams to get the video digitized and in our possession. Starting around 2:00AM EST tonight (8:00AM Geneva time, Superbowl should be over by then), we will be working contacts in Geneva and trying to reach Mr. Adams to expedite getting the video digitized and hosted online.

Make sure you read the whole post.

GayPatriot wrote about Eason Jordan back on January 31. He credits Rep. Barney Frank for pressing Jordan for proof that American troops were killing journalists. Check it out. (Hat tip: Myopic Zeal)

Update VII (8:50 a.m.): Nothing in the papers on Eason Jordan, but Hugh Hewitt will be on Bill Bennett’s show this morning, no doubt talking about the media blackout.

The latest from Captain’s Quarters:

UPDATE X, 2/7 06:39: Still nothing on any of the search engines. They continue to ignore the story…and us. We should be expanding our demands past CNN to all news agencies now, asking for answers for the dearth of honest reporting on Eason Jordan.

The Bear blogs about the controversy.

Press critic Jay Rosen has more. Also see Captain Ed’s comments.

Cassandra at Villainous Company has a hilarious take on the whole mess.

Update VIII (10:23 a.m.): From Hewitt:

Jon Lauck just talked to Judy Woodruff in the hallway and asked about Eason Jordan. Woodruff told Jon that she had not heard of the story, and after a quick summary, Jon reports she appeared to be stunned by the idea that Eason Jordan, with whom she talks nearly every day, would say that the American military targeted journalists.

Update IX (11:51 a.m.): Rep. Barney Frank confirms that Eason Jordan said the American military had targeted journalists. (Hat tip:Power Line)

Bill Roggio of Easongate will on Kevin McCullough’s radio show today to talk about the story.