CNN takes heat for action, inaction

USA Today/Yahoo ^ | 4-14-03 | Peter Johnson

[JustPiper]

CNN came under attack Sunday on two fronts.

An admission by CNN's chief news executive that he kept quiet for years about government atrocities in Iraq (news - web sites) -- including those against his own journalists -- raised questions about whether CNN committed an ethical transgression: trading silence for access.

And a French media watchdog group says CNN is setting a ''dangerous precedent'' by having a team in Iraq traveling with an armed guard.

Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) made the comments after an incident in the northern Iraqi town of Tikrit in which a security guard with CNN's Brent Sadler fired his machine gun at a checkpoint when the convoy came under gunfire.

Media groups generally stay away from hiring armed guards, saying it can increase confusion. But because Iraq is so particularly dangerous, ''you do what you have to do to protect your people,'' CNN spokesman Matthew Furman says.

In The New York Times Friday, Eason Jordan wrote that CNN never reported that an Iraqi cameraman working for CNN was tortured because it ''would have almost certainly have gotten him killed and put him or his family and co-workers at grave risk.''

He also wrote that he never reported that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s eldest son, Uday, had told him in 1995 that he planned to kill two of his brothers-in-law who had defected as well as the man giving them asylum, King Hussein of Jordan. ''I was sure he would have responded by killing the Iraqi translator who was the only other participant in the meeting,'' Jordan wrote. (He did tell King Hussein, who ignored it, and a few months later Uday ''lured the brothers-in-law back to Baghdad; they were soon killed.'')

''I'm disturbed by (Jordan's actions). It really took the wind out of me,'' Bill Kovach, head of the Committee of Concerned Journalists, said Sunday. ''There were probably strategic business decisions about CNN's relationship with the government, but this seems to me to be allowing the ethics of other endeavors to trump the ethics of journalism: to seek the truth and make it available.''

In Saturday's New York Post, columnist Eric Fettmann wrote: ''It's like saying that the best interests of journalism would have justified suppressing stories on the Holocaust in order to keep a U.S. news bureau in Berlin to tell Nazi Germany's side.''

In his own defense, CNN's Jordan said Sunday, ''I am at peace with myself knowing that I did the right thing and not put the lives of innocent people at risk.''

To anyone who accuses CNN of going soft on the Iraqi government now in tatters, Jordan said: ''No one was kicked out of Iraq more than CNN was. We got thrown out again and again for our tough reporting.''

Harvard media analyst Alex Jones said Sunday that he sympathized with what Jordan went through because dealing with foreign governments -- or dictatorships -- is not easy for any news outfit. ''Protecting your people always has to be the prime consideration.''

Good journalism always has ''tension between judgment and integrity,'' Jones said, and is a ''very hard thing'' for anyone not in Jordan's shoes to ''pass judgment on.''

[CFC__VRWC]

And so the covering of CNN's ass by the rest of the liberal media begins ...

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Re: In his own defense, CNN's Jordan said Sunday, ''I am at peace with myself knowing that I did the right thing and not put the lives of innocent people at risk.''

I hope the anti-American scum will soon Rest in Peace.

[Support Free Republic]

---

Look into my eyes! You Vill not Succeed !
	Donate Here By Secure Server Or mail checks to FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794 or you can use PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com
STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD- It is in the breaking news sidebar!

[Galtoid]

Please define journalism. It is not and never has been a venue for ideology. It is a profession devoted to the reporting of news/facts/events. Whenever a journalistic entity, such as CNN, blurs the line between reporting and opinion/ideology, they usually eventually suffer. CNN is finally learning that integrity in the news business must always be tied to independence and objectivity--two concepts which remain foreign to them as we speak.

[whadizit]

Jordan's got blood on his hands!

I agree that since some reporters were out roaming around without protection of our forces they should be allowed to have security with weapons. What is so dastardly about that?

[Howlin]

FYI.

[chachacha]

We got thrown out again and again for our tough reporting.

They have no shame. I have never turned the dial to CNN durind the Iraq or Desert Storm war with out seeing more of the enemy point of view then ours. This also applies to the Israel and Palestinians.

[Fred Mertz]

CNN is trying to spit-shine a cow plop. It isn't working.

[JustPiper]

How about CNN with bragging rights and then we find this out:

Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) made the comments after an incident in the northern Iraqi town of Tikrit in which a security guard with CNN's Brent Sadler fired his machine gun at a checkpoint when the convoy came under gunfire.

[JustPiper]

CNN is trying to spit-shine a cow plop. It isn't working.

Hope your right Fred.

[mumbo]

The problem that everyone should have with this is: CNN puts statements by the Iraqi officials and a cowed public up against statements made by a free people and free government.

The SOB's will grill Rumsfeld and Ari Fleischer like they are lying through their teeth, and then use Iraqi quotes and statements to rebut them. It is an abomination, and the people who want to use this info against a Republican administration do so in full faith that CNN is telling the truth.

This is a huge story, and NBCABCCBSPBS are letting it die as quickly and quietly as they can. I'm so mad about it I could spit!

[Lawgvr1955]

Can you even begin to imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth if Fox had done anything remotely similar to what CNN has done? There wouldn't be enough trees to make the newsprint for all the editorials or enough electricity for the 24 hour tv coverage of reporters trying to ambush Roger Ailes going into work.

[Right_in_Virginia]

CNN's Jordan said Sunday, ''I am at peace with myself knowing that I did the right thing and not put the lives of innocent people at risk.''

HOW does he sleep at night?

This says it all: ~~ In Saturday's New York Post, columnist Eric Fettmann wrote: ''It's like saying that the best interests of journalism would have justified suppressing stories on the Holocaust in order to keep a U.S. news bureau in Berlin to tell Nazi Germany's side.''

[Lawgvr1955]

Of course the other news outlets are giving them a pass. He who is without sin shall cast the first stone. CNN is probably not the only player in this game.

[Grampa Dave]

Typical Left wing maggot response here:

Good journalism always has ''tension between judgment and integrity,'' Jones said, and is a ''very hard thing'' for anyone not in Jordan's shoes to ''pass judgment on.''

Even if another liberal's actions and in actions have cost lives, we as liberals should never judge them.

Yeah sure!

[Fred Mertz]

This story is being buried by the presstitutes.

I won't let it die.

[Zack Nguyen]

He also wrote that he never reported that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s eldest son, Uday, had told him in 1995 that he planned to kill two of his brothers-in-law who had defected as well as the man giving them asylum, King Hussein of Jordan.

That is just wrong. He could have told the CIA. Uday would probably have had no idea who leaked the info. If he was causally letting journalists know of his plans for assasination, then I imagine he wasn't too choosy about who he leaked to.

Then again, it was probably a surprise only to the brothers-in-law.

[Burkeman1]

CNN's reporting from Iraq has always been suspect (along with many other news outlets.) They were not free to say what they knew and they self edited themselves for years in order to curry favor with this totalitarian regime. Quite frankly- honest reporting cannot be done in a totalitarian regime and thus should not even be attempted. CNN and others are, in no small way, perhaps responsible for the duration of the Sadaam regime in Iraq. CNN was doing "man in the street" interviews in Baghdad while Sadaam was in power as if they didn't know full well that no one could say what they felt honestly to a reporter. I read New York Times articles saying how everyone supported Sadaam in Iraq before the war. IT is disgusting. It is done all the time in reporting on Cuba as well.

[Nick Danger]

since some reporters were out roaming around without protection of our forces they should be allowed to have security with weapons. What is so dastardly about that?

It's the flip side of the Fedayeen shooting out of the windows of hospitals. In wars among countries where the soldiers are not complete savages, the idea is that journalists, medics, etc., are not supposed to be combatants... in return for which they get a certain immunity from gunfire. That's what all the tut-tutting is about -- they are afraid that by shooting from a "media vehicle," CNN has set the precedent that journalists are combatants and can be shot at.

I think that rule works better when the other guys play by Marquis of Queensbury rules. When they are already shooting at the journalists, and planting bombs on pregnant women, and using children as human shields, all bets are off.