by La Shawn on February 15, 2005
in Easongate
Since Eason Jordan resigned last Friday, after the old-school “news cycle” ended, I haven’t written about the controversy since the last post. I don’t have the energy and momentum to keep blogging about Jordan. However, I’ll be on Kevin McCullough’s show today at 1:20 p.m. EST to talk about it.
While I commend bloggers who’ve worked hard on this story, I wish more of us had received recognition. But rather than focusing on what others are receiving, I’ll put my money where my mouth is and bring some attention to smaller bloggers.
The media tend to look to the same people for comments on these events. Even if I generated a blog swarm, reporters would probably still call the same well-known bloggers, and I’d still get lost in the shuffle. I can’t blame the media too much, though. It’s quicker and easier to contact people you’re familiar with, the ones you’ve heard of before. No time to track down obscure bloggers.
It’s no secret that I have high aspirations for my writing and my blog. One day, maybe, when I’m well-known, you’ll see me on shows like Kudlow & Company and Scarborough Country talking about the latest blog swarm controversy. I guess I shouldn’t put too much emphasis on trying to get on these shows. It’s just that once you’ve appeared, you get called back again and again, building a reputation for yourself and generating your own traffic independent of links from high-profile blogs. Oh, well.
I will use whatever writing talent I have and write about under-the-radar bloggers, the qualities of a blog swarm in general (which I find fascinating) and the one surrounding Jordan in particular. I call this the “after market” of a blog swarm, and it’s ripe with good material in need of a good writer. Never say never, however. I may blog about “Easongate” again, especially if something big happens. If I’ve been your go-to person on the Jordan story, I encourage you visit Easongate.com, where I contribute. A daily Easongate must-read is Captain’s Quarters, who’s doing a great job. Smaller blogger Prestopundit is also following the story.
I extend a special thanks to Michelle Malkin and Hugh Hewitt for mentioning me in their latest columns. Both were unexpected.
In the meantime, I’ll have to generate my own press. 
Note: To the person who sent me Scripture Alone from my wish list, thank you. I will post a book review after I’ve finished reading it.
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Blogs and news stories: I Would Have Fired Eason Jordan, After Eason Jordan, Raines, Rather, Jordan, The Jordan Kerfuffle, Blogosphere Flexes Its Muscles Again… CNN’s Eason Jordan Resigns…
Update:
The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. (Source)
Update II: From a commenter: “ON THE MAKE, THE RISE AND RISE AND RISE AND RISE AND RISE AND RISE OF A MEDIA QUEEN by LaShawn Barber.”
That’s sort of funny, but I hope I don’t sound like that. I’ve got to rein the ego in now before it’s too late!
Update II (2/16): Another interesting post from the professor — Eason Jordan v. Jeff Gannon hit.
by La Shawn on February 11, 2005
in Easongate
If you don’t know who Eason Jordan is or what’s going on, read the Easongate archives to catch up. Consider LBC your one-stop shop.
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Before the story was confirmed, this post title was “Eason Jordan Resigns: Truth or Rumor?”
(6:59 p.m. EST): National Review Online reporting. Developing…
Update (7:11 p.m.): Associated Press also reporting:
CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan quit Friday amidst a furor over remarks he made in Switzerland last month about journalists killed by the U.S. military in Iraq.
Jordan said he was quitting to avoid CNN being “unfairly tarnished” by the controversy.
During a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum last month, Jordan said he believed that several journalists who were killed by coalition forces in Iraq had been targeted.
He quickly backed off the remarks, explaining that he meant to distinguish between journalists killed because they were in the wrong place where a bomb fell, for example, and those killed because they were shot at by American forces who mistook them for the enemy.
“I never meant to imply U.S. forces acted with ill intent when U.S. forces accidentally killed journalists, and I apologize to anyone who thought I said or believed otherwise,” Jordan said in a memo to fellow staff members at CNN.
But the damage had been done, compounded by the fact that no transcript of his actual remarks has turned up. There was an online petition calling on CNN to find a transcript, and fire Jordan if he said the military had intentionally killed journalists.
The “online petition” they’re referring to is on Easongate.com!!!
A fellow Easongate blogger reports that Larry Elder just announced it on his radio show. I’m going to be a guest on Kevin McCullough’s show next week. I wonder what we’ll talk about…
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Who would’ve thought one short week ago that the blogosphere would be buzzing over a CNN executive and his dumb remarks? The power of the blog. Other journalists, stay-at-home mothers, lawyers, professors, students, the self-employed and unemployed are blowing down Mainstream Media’s stacked deck house-of-cards. It’s stunning.
At least for the duration of Easongate, I’ll be doing double duty, blogging with the boys (and girl) over at Easongate.com.
But for tonight, I’m staying away from this computer.
While I’m gone, read the background posts on Eason Jordan. My first Jordan post was last Wednesday. I had no idea this thing would grow as it has.
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Wednesday, February 9: The most recent information will appear at the top of this post for easier viewing.
Here for the first time? To catch up, please see the Easongate category for the complete background on the developing Eason Jordan story.
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Update II (Wednesday, February 9) 8:02 p.m. — Yeah, yeah I said I was going to stay away from the computer, but I want to keep you informed. Columnist Morton Kondrake briefly discussed Easongate on FOX news. See this blog.
More updates from The Kerry Spot.
10:51 a.m. — From a reader:
[T]estimony by Danny Schechter, director of Weapons of Mass Deception, at the World Tribunal on Iraq (whatever that is). Near the end, he sites Eason Jordan’s statements at Davos and seems to be using those statements to support his statements that the military really does target journalists. I’m not sure who his audience is.
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Please see the Easongate category for the complete background on the developing Eason Jordan story.
See all the latest information below.
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If anybody’s looking for Eason’s Fables (coined by Captain’s Quarters), here it is.
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It took a few days, but major newspapers are finally covering the Eason Jordan story. Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, who wouldn’t take an Eason Jordan question at his webchat yesterday, writes the story. He quotes Rep. Barney Frank and journalist David Gergen, who both heard Jordan say that American troops were targeting journalists. What Frank says is particularly damning and damaging to Jordan and CNN:
At first, said Frank, “it sounded like he was saying it was official military policy to take out journalists.” But Jordan later “modified” his remarks to say some U.S. soldiers did this “maybe knowing they were killing journalists, out of anger….He did say he was talking about cases of deliberate killing,” Frank said.
There you have it. Just as we thought, but now it’s right there on paper. When I first heard about Jordan’s statements, I could almost picture him saying it, and I knew that he meant to convey this meaning: It was some sort of unofficial policy to “accidentally” kill journalists because the warmongers hate journalists, especially those exposing their warmongering deeds (including taking photos of terrorists with panties on their heads) to the world.
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Important notice (8:08 p.m.): Somebody’s trying to profit from the Eason Jordan scandal by auctioning off easonsfables.com on ebay. The nerve of some people.
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Please see the Easongate category for the complete background (especially useful for Kerry Spot readers) on the developing Eason Jordan story.
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As much as I’d like to do original reporting on this story, as several of my fellow bloggers are doing, I can’t, at least not during the day when people are available. I have a day job.
So I’m doing the next best thing: consolidating links and steering you to what they’re doing. For example, Michelle Malkin just spoke with Rep. Barney Frank, who confirmed that Eason Jordan said the American military had targeted journalists. She writes:
Just got off the phone with Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who spoke with me about Easongate. Rep. Frank was on the panel at Davos.
Rep. Frank said Eason Jordan did assert that there was deliberate targeting of journalists by the U.S. military. After Jordan made the statement, Rep. Frank said he immediately “expressed deep skepticism.” Jordan backed off (slightly), Rep. Frank said, “explaining that he wasn’t saying it was the policy of the American military to target journalists, but that there may have been individual cases where they were targeted by younger personnel who were not properly disciplined.”
Rep. Frank said he didn’t pay attention to the audience reaction at the time of the panel, but recalled that Sen. Dodd was “somewhat disturbed” and “somewhat exercised” and that moderator David Gergen also said Jordan’s assertions were “disturbing if true.” I have a call in to Sen. Dodd’s office and sent an e-mail inquiry to Gergen.
(Hat tip: Power Line)
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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!
Note II: HaloScan users, to trackback to this post, use SimpleTracks. Word Press and HaloScan don’t get along well.
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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Monday, February 7: Kerry Spot readers, please see the Easongate category for the complete background on the developing Eason Jordan story.
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If you’re following this story, make sure you’re checking the updates at the end of this post. The latest news: The videotape of the forum has surfaced.
An interesting question about the videotape was raised at Free Republic. See update below.
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Read the original post and The Eason Jordan Repository I for background on this subject.
This is Day Two or Three of the Eason Jordan blog swarm, and the controversy finally made the papers. Is the Washington Times considered Big Media? So far they’re the only newspaper that picked up on the Eason Jordan fiasco, CNN’s line of fire.
The only blog mentioned is Forumblog.org, which is a good thing, but there’s no reference to Captain’s Quarters, who is in the lead on this and largely responsible for the blog swarm, the reason the story is still alive, or any other blogs (except for Carol Liebau, but they don’t link to her blog.) or the blogosphere in general.
Now that a newspaper has covered this story, I anticipate more media outlets will pick it up. Watch this post for updates throughout the day.
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A repository is place where you put things for safe-keeping, but I prefer the fourth definition of the word: a burial vault or a tomb. That’s what you should consider this post. Eason Jordan’s burial vault. It will contain links, analysis and a chronology of how Jordan buried his career. To catch up on the developments, read the first post.
I didn’t want “burial vault” in the title because I don’t want people to think I’m trying to kill him. The story is still developing because Jordan’s statement, a semantical gymnastics routine, is laughable. Read it on Carol Liebau’s blog:
To be clear, I do not believe the U.S. military is trying to kill journalists in Iraq. I said so during the forum panel discussion. But, nonetheless, the U.S. military has killed several journalists in Iraq in cases of mistaken identity. The reason the word “targeted” came up at all is because I was responding to a comment by Congressman Franks, who said he believed the 63 journalists killed in Iraq were the victims of “collateral damage.” Since three of my CNN colleagues and many other journalists have been killed on purpose in Iraq, I disputed the “collateral damage” statement, saying, unfortunately, many journalists — not all — killed in Iraq were indeed targeted. When someone aims a gun at someone and pulls the trigger and then learns later the person fired at was actually a journalist, an apology is appropriate and is accepted, and I believe those apologies to be genuine. But such a killing is a tragic case of mistaken identity, not a case of “collateral damage.” That is the distinction I was trying to make even if I did not make it clearly at the time. Further, I have worked closely with the U.S. military for months in an effort to achieve a mutual goal: keeping journalists in Iraq safe and alive.
I remind you of what Rony Abovitz said he heard: “Eason Jordan asserted that he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by US troops in Iraq, but they had in fact been targeted. He repeated the assertion a few times, which seemed to win favor in parts of the audience (the anti-US crowd) and cause great strain on others.”
I’m so tired of weak-kneed and jelly-spined men, it’s not even funny anymore. Say what you mean and mean what you say, and stop backpedaling! I’d have more respect for Jordan if he admitted that although he said Americans were targeting and killing journalists, he said so out of frustration with the war or the death of his journalist friends. Be a man and tell the truth. Good grief.
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Note: HaloScan users, to trackback to this post, use SimpleTracks. Word Press and HaloScan don’t get along well.
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Eason Jordan, some guy who works for CNN, has stirred up a blog swarm. He apparently said something really stupid (and false?), and mainstream media (MSM) doesn’t consider it newsworthy. From Forumblog:
During one of the discussions about the number of journalists killed in the Iraq War, Eason Jordan asserted that he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by US troops in Iraq, but they had in fact been targeted. He repeated the assertion a few times, which seemed to win favor in parts of the audience (the anti-US crowd) and cause great strain on others.
Due to the nature of the forum, I was able to directly challenge Eason, asking if he had any objective and clear evidence to backup these claims, because if what he said was true, it would make Abu Ghraib look like a walk in the park. David Gergen was also clearly disturbed and shocked by the allegation that the U.S. would target journalists, foreign or U.S. He had always seen the U.S. military as the providers of safety and rescue for all reporters.
Eason seemed to backpedal quickly, but his initial statements were backed by other members of the audience (one in particular who represented a worldwide journalist group). The ensuing debate was (for lack of better words) a real “sh–storm”. What intensified the problem was the fact that the session was a public forum being taped on camera, in front of an international crowd. The other looming shadow on what was going on was the presence of a U.S. Congressman and a U.S. Senator in the middle of some very serious accusations about the U.S. military. (Emphasis added)
This story is developing. I will update and link to other bloggers and news articles. Trackback to me, and I’ll trackback to you.
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