FURY OVER CNN BIG'S COVER-UP

New York Post ^ | 4/12/03 | MICHAEL STARR and DEBORAH ORIN

[hometoroost]

Does anybody have a copy of the email Rush read about this on the air yesterday? My mother-in-law wants a copy of it to help straighten out my otherwise sensible brother-in-law on this whole topic (too much Jude Wanniski).

[The Other Harry]

CNN is a news-gathering organization (albeit with a leftist bent). Its job is to gather and disseminate news. In order to do that, it needs to be where the news is happening. Sometimes it needs to hold its nose and overlook stuff in order to stay there.

No. That isn't what you do.

I've worked for a newspaper before. I was on the business side, but I was privy to discussions of what would get reported and to how things would get reported.

There is a journalistic ethic about reporting the news. Whatever it is, wherever you find it, and regardless of the consequences.

It is a compulsion. Good journalists all have it. Good news organizations all have it. It isn't something that you compromise.

[ez]

...it was well-known that anyone who failed to do a story right away on how sanctions were hurting Iraqi kids wouldn't get their two-week visas renewed.

And the left, including the erudite Noam Chomsky all bought this crap hook, line, and sinker, in fact, using it as the premise on which to base their false arguments.

[ez]

Eason Jordan needs to be arrested and charged with being an accessory to murder, torture, and terrorism.

That would discourage future whistleblowers from coming forward.

Mr. Jordan needs to be given immunity in exchange for being used as a public display of media deception by appearing for one hour on every newsmagazine on TV.

[SuperSonic]

For further insight into the media cover-up in Iraq, please read this from The New Republic:

http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20021028&s=foer102802

[mickie]

bump

[GUIDO]

NO BLOOD FOR RATINGS is right.

This guy is despicable. With all the sources and access's this corporation has, they could have done the right thing, gotten the translator out of the country and how hard would it have been to tell the brothers in law that they were going to be killed and NOT to ever go back no matter what. This whole thing makes me sick to even think about. If all this and more would have been done he would've been held a HERO, but now he looks like he is no better than one of Saddams soldiers. Now after all is said and done and everyones doing the fighting, he puts down his gun. This a sad story and just solidifies what we here on freerepublic has always said and thought about cnn.

[TechJunkYard]

How about if they came out sooner, it may have prevented more people from being tortured and killed. Maybe the USA wouldn't have had to dance with the UN for a year and a half before getting Saddam.

You're kidding yourself. The UN Dance would have happened anyway, because Powell and Europe wanted to do the "diplomacy thing" first. Don't lay all of this at CNN's feet.

[TechJunkYard]

There is a journalistic ethic about reporting the news. Whatever it is, wherever you find it, and regardless of the consequences.

It is a compulsion. Good journalists all have it. Good news organizations all have it. It isn't something that you compromise.

Well, I never said CNN was a good news organization. ;-)

[TechJunkYard]

Is this it?

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_041103/content/who_s_responsible_for_more_deaths__enron_or_cnn_.guest.html

[Liz]

Presstitute alert.

[mwl1]

CNN, the most distrusted source in the news.

CNN: accomplices to murder. Eason Jordan and others should be indicted.

[tuna_battle_slight_return]

works for me: cnn (lowercase) or communistnewsnetwork (no spaces).

[Crusher138]

Last night we went to dinner at Bennigans. Every TV in the place was tuned to cnn. I asked the bartender if she had seen the news today about cnn. She said she hadn't, so I told her about cnn knowing about the murder and torture going on in Iraq for over a decade, and not reporting on it. I told her it was in the New York Times today. She rolled her eyes and said she couldn't change the channel but would tell the manager. After I walked away she clearly related what I had said to the other bar crawlers and they had a good laugh.

Ten minutes later the channel still hadn't changed, so we asked our waitress to send ove the manager.

We told the manager the same thing we told the bartender. She at least appeared shocked. She then proceeded to tell us that it was BENNIGANS CORPORATE POLICY THAT ALL THEY CAN SHOW IS CNN OR ESPN IN THEIR RESTAURANTS! She did immediately change the TVs over to ESPN.

I think Bennigans needs a good freep to let them know how we feel about their choice of news networks. Their contact info is:

toll-free at 800-727-TELL.

The mailing address is:

Bennigan's
6500 International Parkway, Ste. 1000
Plano, TX 75093
Main Phone No. (972) 588-5000

No e-mail address given on their site.

[TheGrimReaper]

When the war crimes trials begin, Mr. Jordan should definitely be at the defendants' table.

Teddy Turner said that "Christianity was a crutch for the weak-minded"...... perhaps cnn is a crutch for the criminally insane.

[SuperSonic]

Bump

[Cate]

My obvious thought through this story is this: If the CNN dude was that worried about the interpreter, why in world didn't he help him defect after they did this interview? I am sure with CNN's great contacts worldwide, the man and his family could have found a route to a safe country. Sheesh, what a lame excuse.

[blake6900]

NBC staged a Chevy Pick-up bursting into flames on its' Dateline program and the news outlets (including cnn) immediately started wringing its' collective hands about NBC's unethical journalism. Yet it seems to me no single network has had more problems with its' journalistic integrity than cnn itself. And somehow, cnn always has a convenient excuse lurking about. This is no exception. It's as if Eason Jordan is saying, "I witheld information to save lives. Where's my Pulitzer?"

Clearly the only reason Jordan decided it was time to cleanse his soul is devulged in his final paragraph where he mentions that now it is obvious Saddam Hussein is out of power. Jordan almost certainly was hedging his bets that Hussein would actually be able to weather this storm and, if so, Jordan didn't want to eliminate the possibility that his network may never be able to set foot in Iraq again. After all, access is everything and cnn proved that during the Klintong years.

This guy doesn't deserve to do news reporting for Wayne's World, let alone any respectable network. Which may explain why he's still employed by cnn and will more than likely remain so...

[HamiltonJay]

The media will destroy a man with nothing more than speculative rumor and not think twice, yet this guy was covering up for a translator? It may be the truth, but it doesn't pass the smell test.... seems to me, access was more important than reporting... and thus CNN is part of the problem.

[VOA]

Bush Administration I watched CNN during Gulf War I.

Bush Administration II watched FOX News Channel during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

I bet there is at least a doctoral thesis on comparing the outcome of the two scenarios.