There goes Mr. Jordan

Earlier I mentioned CNN news executive Eason Jordan's comments at Davos. Jordan accused U.S. soldiers of targeting journalists, though he reportedly backed down when challenged by Congressman Barney Frank. Here's a good summary:

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, during a discussion on media and democracy, Mr. Jordan apparently told the audience that "he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by U.S. troops in Iraq, but they had in fact been targeted," according to a report on the forum's Web site.. (snip)

After all, either Jordan's telling the truth -- in which case it's an explosive story of U.S. troop misconduct of the sort U.S. media usually pounce on -- or, alternatively, Jordan's lying -- in which case it's an explosive story of misconduct at a major news organization. I guess they're not as quick to pounce on those stories, which makes me think that Jordan's story isn't true.

Hugh Hewitt interviewed a blogger who was there, and apparently there is a videotape of the event. So where is it? It will either prove that Jordan is being misquoted, or that he's not. (CNN initially claimed that his remarks were taken "out of context," though it has since shifted its position and now says that Jordan expressed himself badly).

Was this an innocent misunderstanding based on clumsy phraseology? Or did a top executive at a major news operation tell a lie to foreign representatives in order to ingratiate himself to anti-Americans at the price of slandering American troops? The longer CNN and Jordan stonewall, the more people will believe the worst.

Captain's Quarters
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/

A Tale Of Two Tales And Many Questions
General James Mattis, commander of Marine expeditions in Iraq, came under domestic fire this week for his blunt and controversial remarks about the joy of war. His intemperate remarks roiled a nation obsessed with political correctness and image projection, even as his men defended his leadership:

"Actually it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot," Mattis said, prompting laughter from some military members in the audience. "It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up there with you. I like brawling.
"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil," Mattis said. "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."

I don't think that General Mattis' remarks about the delight he takes in killing the enemy are either particularly helpful or all that damaging. Most of the reports I've read today have only quoted the first paragraph, while the second gives some important missing context. I don't think that Mattis materially damaged our war efforts by playing into a stereotype of American bloodlust that foreigners have of our soldiers, because those who believe that will do so whether a Marine general makes undisciplined remarks or not. The notion that the sky has fallen, as some media pundits declared today, is nothing more than concealed glee at having their own deepest suspicions about the US military supposedly confirmed. More on that in a minute.

Frankly, I don't want my military leadership to get all weepy about killing people who want to kill me. I'd rather they just stay serious about doing unto them before they do unto me. However, generals know that they also perform public service, and making comments like this in a public forum shows some poor judgment and/or rhetorical discipline. I think a personal reprimand with an apology should suffice.

My point in covering this isn't to weigh in on Mattis for what I think amounts to a tempest in a teapot. I'm posting this to note that the news organization covering this story is none other than CNN, which apparently considers an off-hand comment by a Marine general about his job satisfaction to be extremely newsworthy. CNN, you recall, is run by Eason Jordan, and not coincidentally they consider Jordan's comments about how Mattis and the entire US military chain of command target journalists for assassination and torture to have no news value whatsover.

Nor is CNN alone. Look at the news agencies that have covered the Mattis remarks:

MS-NBC

NBC San Diego
San Diego Union-Tribune
CBS
Washington Post
New York Times
Los Angeles Times
Fox News

Now, other than one brief mention on Fox, how many of these same outlets are covering the continuing series of allegations by Eason Jordan that their own employees have been targeted for death or torture by the US military? None. Zero. Nada.

Which of the statements cause the most problems for Americans -- the one that has a Marine general taking great satisfaction in killing the enemy, or the one that has the executive of a major news organization making unsubstantiated and repeated allegations of atrocities by the military against reporters?

Now ask yourself why every major news organization bleated Mattis' statements all over the airwaves, if they truly cared about the reception they would get overseas by the millions Mattis and others like him set free through killing the enemy. Does it make sense that the media would replay the clip over and over again if that was the issue, or does it make more sense that the intemperate remarks gave the MSM an opportunity to damage our military's reputation?

And given that Eason Jordan tried to do much the same thing ... does the difference in coverage make a lot more sense and give an indication of the bias in our mainstream media?

You bet it does. (Inspired by Hugh's post.)

Posted by Captain Ed at 10:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Eason's Fables Comes To Video Near You!
The blog Sisyphean Musings has contacted the head of media for the World Economic Forum at Davos, Mark Adams. Sisyphus got Adams to confirm Forumblog's testimony that videotape was taken of the forum where Eason Jordan spoke, and agree to send a copy to Sisyphus:

First, big kudos to Mr. Adams for the quick response! Please pass the word that I'm working this with him so please do not flood him with requests.
Second, he has confirmed that he has the video. He needs to make a copy. I have asked for it to be mailed to me by Wednesday next week. I'll update this post as more information becomes available.

CNN has until Wednesday at the latest to come clean about Jordan. If they allow the blogosphere to get to the finish line first, they're toast. And not just CNN, either; the major media have all gone AWOL over this story. While the media blackout mostly doesn't surprise me, I must admit to being very disappointed in Howard Kurtz, whose work I respect. I understand that Kurtz has a contract with CNN, but his primary obligation is to the Washington Post, and to his readers and the truth. As the leading media critic in the mainstream media, he should hold them accountable, not help hush things up for CNN and Jordan.

I wanted to write him an open letter asking him why not a single word of the long string of Jordan's allegations has made it into his work. Fortunately, the Sundries Shack has already done so:

Mr. Kurtz,
More than 36 hours ago, CNN executive Eason Jordan apparently accused the US military of purposefully targeting journalists in Iraq and killing at least a dozen. The story was reported firsthand on the forum’s blog, spread widely around the forum’s attendees, and was apparently witnessed in part by at least two US Senators. He presented no evidence that this was true and this is apparently not the first time he’s made similar accusations.

To date, the only major media outlet to report anything on this story has been the Washington Times, in an editorial today (http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20050203-094808-5506r.htm). The story has been covered extensively by the Captain’s Quarters blog (http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/) and by Hugh Hewitt
(http://hughhewitt.com/). They’ve done nothing special to get the information they’ve gotten. They’ve contacted the forum blog author, attempted contact with Mr. Eason or his office, and researched similar statements from Eason that tends to establish his Davos comments as a recurring theme.

But we’ve heard nothing from the major media outlets reporting this as a news story in any way. Why?

There are a considerable number of people who believe that the MSM is consistently biased toward the left. This may or may not be true. But this story, and the mystifying lack of coverage, can only lend greater credence to that belief. After all, it could be immensely harmful to CNN if the American public heard that one of it’s top executives and the man responsible for its news division believes that American soldiers are purposefully killing journalists. It would be doubly harmful if we learned that he said this in front of an international audience and received cheers and accolades from some in the crowd.

What disappoints me the most is your silence. I’m sure you’ve heard about the story - you are far too media-savvy not to. But I’ve read nothing that I can recall from you on it - not even to acknowledge that the story exists. I have read that you may be working on a report on the story, and I very much hope you are, but after 36 hours, I’ve grown skeptical. I’ve come to respect you a great deal since I’ve started reading your media column in the Washington Post and I have always enjoyed “Reliable Sources". Right now, though, it looks like this story is just passing you by, and that you’re letting it go. I’d like to believe that’s not the case.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. You may contact me at any time, should you wish to do so. Have a wonderful evening.

Read Jimmie's entire post at the Shack -- and if Jimmie doesn't mind, I'd love to co-sign this letter.

Note: Keep up with all the links at La Shawn Barber, who's detailing the blogswarm with regular updates.

UPDATE: Since the beginning posts on this subject may soon scroll off into archives, now would be a good time to point out that the CNN category has all of the Eason's Fables posts.

Posted by Captain Ed at 08:19 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (2)

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