Eason Jordan in 1999. Photograph: AP
Eason Jordan's resignation from his post as CNN's top news executive has bloggers in a whirl. The story began when Jordan made a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, in which he reportedly accused US troops of deliberately targeting journalists in Iraq.
We don't know exactly what he said because an unedited videotape of the speech has not been released (WEF said the meeting was held under the Chatham House rule). Whatever his precise words, it seems CNN was not willing to share it with the world. Nor did they back up the assertion.
Newspaper columnist and Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin traces the roots of "Easongate". In short, the WEF decided to open up the get-together for bloggers, an admirable move. One of them, Rony Abovitz, produced a detailed report of Jordan's remarks and the ensuing debate at Davos.
As Malkin tells it: "This ordinary American citizen raised his voice at an international forum of media and political heavyweights - also attended by Europe's most influential America-haters - and demanded that Eason Jordan back up his poisonous assertion about the American military targeting journalists … From there, a few standout bloggers picked up on the story and refused to let it die. The MSM [mainstream media] calls it a lynch mob. I call it a truth squad."
Any inherent sympathy you may be feeling for Abovitz could evaporate when I tell you that his Fix the World blog marked the news of Jordan's journalistic passing by typing out the entire lyrics to the Beatles' A Day in the Life. That would be the one containing the rather insensitive line about "the lucky man who made the grade" blowing his brains out while stopped at traffic lights. Then, in what could be the most pretentious blog post ever, he launches into an extended metaphor on how the Huns (bloggers) have breached the walls of Rome (mainstream media) and brought down a Caesar (yup, Jordan). Good thing it ain't a lynch mob.
(Abovitz, kindly see Reason Number 3 on Blogs are shite.)
Just about everyone in the media has an opinion by now. The BBC's Richard Sambrook - who was on the panel at Davos with Jordan - told Pressthink that Jordan has been misinterpreted: "He clarified this comment to say he did not believe they were targeted because they were journalists, although there are others in the media community who do hold that view (personally, I don't). They had been deliberately killed as individuals - perhaps because they were mistaken for insurgents, we don't know."
Rebecca MacKinnon, a former CNN journalist and colleague of Jordan, passes on the comments of fellow journalists, who she says feel let down that no one is discussing the alleged targeting of journalists, only Jordan. MacKinnon was at Davos, heard Jordan's comments, and backed up Abovitz's account. However she seems more annoyed that no one is dealing with the issue Jordan raised, not even Jordan. "Clearly he is frustrated and angry at the way in which the US military deals with (or fails to protect) non-embedded journalists in Iraq. Why? Does his anger and frustration have any justification?" she asks.
Meanwhile, Reporters without Borders says that at least 32 journalists and 15 media assistants have been killed in Iraq since the start of the war - some by troops, some by insurgents. And while it is certainly worth pursuing CNN for failing to release Jordan's exact words, RSF had to pursue the US government for more than one year through the Freedom of Information Act before receiving the military report on the two journalists killed in the Palestine Hotel.
In a February 3 post, Abovitz wondered: "Is what Eason said the problem, or should we be more frightened at the prospect of journalists being targeted and killed by US soldiers?"
I'm frightened that that's even a question.
