Again, you have hit a salient point. If not for the internet it would have fizzled out. Such a dreadful accusation against the military didn't seem to matter much. What mattered was that one of their own got called on it.
Well, even worse, look at this:
CNN executive Eason Jordan has on two occasions in the past four months accused the US military of targeting journalists for torture and murder. In a November 2004 News Xchange forum in Portugal, Mr. Jordan said the following (quoted by the British newspaper The Guardian):
Eason Jordan, chief news executive at CNN, said there had been only a "limited amount of progress", despite repeated meetings between news organisations and the US authorities."
"Actions speak louder than words. 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," Mr Jordan told an audience of news executives at the News Xchange conference in Portugal.
Two weeks ago, in Davos, Mr. Jordan then asserted that the US military targets journalists for death in Iraq. This has been confirmed by Rep. Barney Frank, who attended the same conference at which Mr. Jordan spoke. Sen. Chris Dodd also attended but so far has refused to comment.
Now, had you heard that before? He's said it twice?
Saturday, February 12, 2005; Page A01
Eason Jordan resigned last night as CNN's chief news executive in an effort to quell a burgeoning controversy over his remarks about U.S. soldiers killing journalists in Iraq.
Even as he said he had misspoken at an international conference in suggesting that coalition troops had "targeted" a dozen journalists and insisted he never believed that, Jordan was being pounded hourly by bloggers, liberals as well as conservatives, who provided the rocket fuel for a story that otherwise might have fizzled.
Fizzled? Of course, he means it would have "fizzled" because the press didn't cover the story at all!
Later in that same article:
As of yesterday, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and USA Today had not carried a staff-written story, and the CBS, NBC and ABC nightly news programs had not reported the matter. It was discussed on several talk shows on Fox News, MSNBC and CNBC but not on CNN.
As of Friday!
So they were in the position of not only having to report his resignation, but having to explain WHY he was resigning.
CNN's Jordan Resigns Over Iraq Remarks
Now I'm wondering what other stories have "fizzled out" that we haven't heard about.