Resignation at CNN Shows the Growing Influence of Blogs

NY Times ^ | February 14, 2005 | KATHERINE Q. SEELYE

[trisham]

Through the latest uproar, the substance of Mr. Jordan's initial assertion about the military targeting journalists was largely lost. Those who worked closely with Mr. Jordan at CNN, as well as on behalf of other news organizations, said he was aggressive and passionate about making life safer for journalists working in Iraq.

****************

Ah, yes. The end justifies the means. Got it, Jordan.

[PfromHoGro]

That's Bill Murry and Harold Ramus's (sp?) "STRIPES" from 1979-1982-ish. A classic to be sure. Rent it today.

And any of you homos.... touch me......and I'll kill you.

[paudio]

The authors didn't mention anything about the Democrats congressmen who were also surprised by Jordan's statement. So, it's not only lunatic conservatives who are on this issue.

[KwasiOwusu]

"Didn't looney albore get a teaching gig at Columbia School of Journalism?"

He did.
'nuff said.

[Eva]

This is hysterical, they are crying because bloggers have dared to challenge the established media elites, claiming that bloggers are not edited. In essence the main stream media wants to silence the competition,or at least censor them. Evidently, Jordan thought that he was among like minded people at Davos and could attack the USA with impunity. The arrogance of the media is astounding.

[neverdem]

Thanks for the link.

[Disambiguator]

That's why I don't do oil changes in the bathroom.

[finnman69]

[NoClones]

so, these liberals are bemoaning free speech & freedom of the new press...

too bad!

[Cannonball Bill]

any of you...journalists..touch me...an' I'll kill ya....

[shellshocked]

The network propaganda machines are fast becoming obsolete.

I'd rather get my news from someone personally involved in the story who will give accurate accounts than some idiot who went and got a liberal arts degree and writes whatever they think the story should be about according to their personal and political viewpoints.

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

God, am I the only person who cringes when people constantly refer to websites as "Blogs"? That is just a red flag for a author or newscaster who doesnt know what the f they are talking about.

[bvw]

Jeff Jarvis, the head of the Internet arm of Advance Publications, who publishes a blog at buzzmachine.com. Mr. Jarvis said bloggers should keep their real target in mind. "I wish our goal were not taking off heads but digging up truth," he cautioned.

Reporters misquote and frame quotes in contexts of their article, rather than the context the quote was made in. So this quote may be.

If accurate in quote and context, than the statement is of itself a falsehood. Who knows my goal? Who knows yours? Do either of us know Mr. Jarvis? Yet somehow he claims to know what he can not.

And whose head was taken off? Did we bloggers fire Eason? No we neither took off his head, even metaphorically, nor did we fire him.

What caused him to be fired? A decision whose reasons we can only guess at by the person responsible for the job at CNN. We do know Eason has made statements in public venues -- that would include Davos -- that brought distrust, scorn and derision upon his own professional demeanor and that of the company he so publicly represented.

Is the metaphor of removing a head valid? Not in my opinion -- it makes too much of Eason's importance.

And if we can be said to have any goal as bloggers, in some aggregate, any aggregated goal at all, that goal would be truth. For constant lies are like itching powder.

[HighlyOpinionated]

For a long time, the news traveled by word of mouth. Then someone took to writing stuff down and having it delivered to others. Runners or men on horseback took the written messages to their destinations. It wasn't too long before written messages traveled by wagon or boat to their destinations. With the industrial revolution came the newspapers as well as teletype and the telephone spreading "news" across town and across boundaries. Eventually the airplane was invented and used to transport written news. With the advent of "movies" came the "news reel" before the main attraction at the "movie theater." With the modern era came the radio, television and now, computers, which convey the news ever faster. News can be accessed nearly at the moment of occurrence.

Somewhere back in the "news reel" and newspaper era the "reporter" was born and developed. He was someone who would report the facts and allow the reader or listener to come to his own conclusions. At first he reported the facts. Then he realized he could make a 'better story' if he slanted the facts toward an objective. Reporters don't like things like "truth" to "cramp their style."

And from humble beginnings were born the big "news conglomerates" operated by CEOs with a bottom line and an agenda to increase that bottom line.

Computers became useful tools in business and in media. As the cost of computers decreased, the number of households with computers increased. The "Internet" became the huge playground of the world. Not only is it the "biggest library" in existence, it's the "biggest source of information" in existence. Some like to call the Internet "the information highway."

As information travels across the Internet, users can check and recheck facts for accuracy. No longer do people have to accept what is in print or on film, video, or instant-television as the "only truth." What is seen or heard on a news program can be researched as easily as clicking a mouse. What is read in a newspaper or magazine can be scrutinized at the click of an 'on' button.

And that, dear Virginia, is why the big news conglomerates started to unravel. They failed to do their own research and failed to consider that there were many people wearing pajamas who had access to the "news" and to the "information highway." And that those pajama clad people were fearless in their quest for Truth, Justice, and the Conservative Way. Plus most of them had their own Web Logs and posted the results of their research on-line so that others could travel down the "information highway" and stop in at their site for a good read.

[BushisTheMan]

"The salivating morons who make up the lynch mob prevail," he lamented online after Mr. Jordan's resignation. He said that Mr. Jordan cared deeply about the reporters he had sent into battle and was "haunted by the fact that not all of them came back."

But Mr. Jordan cares not a wit for the American soldier as he calls them premeditated killers of reporters. Glad the fool is gone. Further, no videotape of the incidend permitted to be shown.

[BROKKANIC]

"CNN had essentially suppressed news of brutalities so the network could maintain access and protect its people in Iraq."

Wow...Too bad CNN doesn't hold the lives of our troops in the same regard when they report "news".

[nothingnew]

That.....was one of the...best rants I've read in a long time. Kudos.

FMCDH(BITS)

[Prince Caspian]

From the article: ...the growing power of rampant, unedited dialogue.

Taliesan: Oh, the horrors. We can't have the little people talking without guidance. These are simply the wailings of the unseated. It is ever so.

Exactly. The Visigoths and Vandals are at the door!

[Alia]

I think it quite possible that CNN is saying correctly: that they don't have the tape. I also think it is possible that the organizing company (of the Davos Conference) may have the tape; and full rights to it as private "property" and available to members.