Saturday, February 05, 2005
Eason Jordon, Put up or Resign from CNN
Well, I have waited a bit to make this update on the CNN Eason Jordon story to see what CNN and the main stream media would do with it. It has been three days so far and the MSM (main stream media) seems to be struck dumb over it as barely a mention has been made of the story.
I feel we are seeing the stark limitations of the MSM here. Since the video or taped sounds of this comment from Eason Jordon is not being revealed by the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, the MSM is unable to make sense of the story, apparently. If no one can hear it, I suppose they imagine it was not said.
Now, we in the blogosphere can be imagined to be taking Mr. Jordon's comments out of context like the CNN email reply claims. After all, we have only one confirmation of the original report by Rony Abovitz, that being a confirmation of the report by a person who is friendly in ideology to Eason Jordon, reporter Rebecca McKinnon, who was also at the conference. We also must admit that the Bloggers can be susceptible to a certain level of "group think" (all feeding off each other and no one actually able to confirm this report) or a propensity to be over active in their own reports. This is a danger as Bloggers we must admit to and work hard to avoid.
However, that being said, there seems to be enough confirmations that this story has some validity. We also have begun to find past instances where Mr. Jordon has acted the lose cannon. He said, for instance, that US forces have been torturing journalists in Iraq. According to The Guardian newspaper from the UK, Jordon said "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." Apparently Jordan told this to an audience of news executives at the News Xchange conference in Portugal.
So now we are at a crossroads as to what we should believe in this case. Do we go down the road that believes that this story got overblown by the Blogosphere? Or do we go down the one that leads to the Bloggers being right? The one where Eason Jordon is the kind of person who is unable to keep an even temper in front of foreign audiences, the one where he lapses into denunciations of his own country with absolutely no proof what so ever for his claims? I have waited a prudent time, I believe, to arrive at the later since my first report on Wednesday, Feb. 2nd .
So where are we? We have CNN making a half hearted disclaimer after which they have left the story uninvestigated to date. We have seen several other stories proving Mr. Jordon's tendency to go off at the mouth. We have seen a lack of proof for his claims. And, more importantly, we are beginning to find out that the original report is most likely correct in its facts through a confirmation by a source also at the conference and agreeing with the tenor of Mr. Abovitz' report.
Now, I believe it is time for Eason Jordon to be called on the carpet. Mr. Jordon, we call on you to either prove your claims or resign the important position you have as CNN "news" chief. After all, the news is the job of an investigator and reporter, not a place for the next Steven King to hone his fictional prose style nor is it the place for a wile eyed conspiracy theorist or polemicist.
You have placed yourself in front of foreign audiences and claimed that the US Forces have hunted down and killed journalists. You have also claimed that US forces have kidnapped journalists and tortured them. These claims, said before foreign audiences, harm the reputation of the United States of America. But we Americans are seriously interested in justice. If you have proof that US forces have done these vile things and as many as 12 times at that, then you are under a moral obligation to reveal this truth to the US people. We WILL, as a nation, have the heads of those who ordered such horrors.
However, chances are that you are just another loud mouthed US hater that is more interested in hurting the USA and it's reputation than in finding any truth or reporting any true story. If THIS turns out to be the case, I demand, as a US citizen, that CNN fire this ignorant, destructive and borderline treasonous man.
Eason Jordon must be fired unless he can prove his allegations.
It's just that simple.
By Warner Todd Huston
I feel we are seeing the stark limitations of the MSM here. Since the video or taped sounds of this comment from Eason Jordon is not being revealed by the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, the MSM is unable to make sense of the story, apparently. If no one can hear it, I suppose they imagine it was not said.
Now, we in the blogosphere can be imagined to be taking Mr. Jordon's comments out of context like the CNN email reply claims. After all, we have only one confirmation of the original report by Rony Abovitz, that being a confirmation of the report by a person who is friendly in ideology to Eason Jordon, reporter Rebecca McKinnon, who was also at the conference. We also must admit that the Bloggers can be susceptible to a certain level of "group think" (all feeding off each other and no one actually able to confirm this report) or a propensity to be over active in their own reports. This is a danger as Bloggers we must admit to and work hard to avoid.
However, that being said, there seems to be enough confirmations that this story has some validity. We also have begun to find past instances where Mr. Jordon has acted the lose cannon. He said, for instance, that US forces have been torturing journalists in Iraq. According to The Guardian newspaper from the UK, Jordon said "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." Apparently Jordan told this to an audience of news executives at the News Xchange conference in Portugal.
So now we are at a crossroads as to what we should believe in this case. Do we go down the road that believes that this story got overblown by the Blogosphere? Or do we go down the one that leads to the Bloggers being right? The one where Eason Jordon is the kind of person who is unable to keep an even temper in front of foreign audiences, the one where he lapses into denunciations of his own country with absolutely no proof what so ever for his claims? I have waited a prudent time, I believe, to arrive at the later since my first report on Wednesday, Feb. 2nd .
So where are we? We have CNN making a half hearted disclaimer after which they have left the story uninvestigated to date. We have seen several other stories proving Mr. Jordon's tendency to go off at the mouth. We have seen a lack of proof for his claims. And, more importantly, we are beginning to find out that the original report is most likely correct in its facts through a confirmation by a source also at the conference and agreeing with the tenor of Mr. Abovitz' report.
Now, I believe it is time for Eason Jordon to be called on the carpet. Mr. Jordon, we call on you to either prove your claims or resign the important position you have as CNN "news" chief. After all, the news is the job of an investigator and reporter, not a place for the next Steven King to hone his fictional prose style nor is it the place for a wile eyed conspiracy theorist or polemicist.
You have placed yourself in front of foreign audiences and claimed that the US Forces have hunted down and killed journalists. You have also claimed that US forces have kidnapped journalists and tortured them. These claims, said before foreign audiences, harm the reputation of the United States of America. But we Americans are seriously interested in justice. If you have proof that US forces have done these vile things and as many as 12 times at that, then you are under a moral obligation to reveal this truth to the US people. We WILL, as a nation, have the heads of those who ordered such horrors.
However, chances are that you are just another loud mouthed US hater that is more interested in hurting the USA and it's reputation than in finding any truth or reporting any true story. If THIS turns out to be the case, I demand, as a US citizen, that CNN fire this ignorant, destructive and borderline treasonous man.
Eason Jordon must be fired unless he can prove his allegations.
It's just that simple.
By Warner Todd Huston
# posted by Publius @ 2/05/2005 07:05:00 PM 
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