Sitting on scoops at CNN
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | CNN's chief news executive, Eason Jordan, shocked and awed a lot of people when he confessed that his network suppressed stories of Iraqi brutality.
He also appears to have gratified a lot of fans of the Fox News Channel, CNN's biggest competitor.
the above comes from a Clarence Page piece here, April 21, 2003
In Sept. 2003, Cristiane Amanpour wrote an Op Ed piece in USA Today where she trashed FOX News for bias.
Source: USA Today, September 14, 2003
"CNN's top war correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, says that the press muzzled itself during the Iraq war. And, she says CNN 'was intimidated' by the Bush administration and Fox News, which 'put a climate of fear and self-censorship,'"
I think you guys are being unfair. If you are going to bash Eason, you should have the courtesy to bash Christiane Amanpour as well.
I don't see how Amanpour also being anti-American has much to do with hypocrisy. Hypocrisy to me is the WEF declaring the session off the record after its rules clearly indicate that it was on the record. Hypocrisy is that all of Jordan's defenders, in which I would include Mr. Stephens at this point, ignore that he has made substantially the same allegations before. Hypocrisy is calling what is clearly an accusation innnuendo.
There is no innuendo in saying the military 'targets' (his word) journalists. It may not be quite accusation of murder, but it clearly indicates deliberate intent. And if it was a poor word choice, he could have backed off that word choice with ease...and he didn't. It is clear he used the word target many times. And he is a professional wordsmith he knows darn well what connotation and denotation means.
I think those in the Legacy media see this as them vs. the blogs. I think that is why they are standing firm in their shameful blue wall of silence to defend Jordan. They know this incident further erodes Legacy media credibility, not just CNN's, and increases the value of blogs which broke the story. Even the legacy media that 'breaks' the story wide open has to recognize that they are weeks behind the blogs. They want it to just go away, and they want to keep whatever shreds of credibility they think they have intact.
Just imagine a senior administration official or say, a Marine General, saying something far less inflammatory. Then imagine the press not clamoring for the tape. Think about the screams of coverup when they hide behind an extraordinarily flimsy claim of 'off the record.' Think about all that is missing in this story. Next time anyone in the press screams about 'the public's right to know' about anything, tell them to get the Eason Jordan tape first.