Hugh Hewitt: Cross-Examining [CNN's Eason] Jordan

Weekly Standard ^ | 4/15/03 | Hugh Hewitt

[rhema]

Last Friday, CNN's Eason Jordan published an op-ed in the New York Times that contained some admissions that cannot be considered as anything other than astonishing. CNN's "chief news executive" confessed that, among other things, Saddam's crazy son Uday had told Eason in 1995 that he, Uday, intended to assassinate two of his brothers-in-law. The two men were not warned by CNN and were eventually lured back into Iraq where they were murdered.

Jordan said in his Times essay that he felt awful having these stories "bottled up inside me." Not as bad as the brothers-in-law felt, of course, but pretty bad. Jordan went on to confess that during his watch CNN also failed to report other tales of the Hussein regime's towering brutality.

Some observers exploded in outrage at CNN's complicity in the crimes of Saddam Inc. Still others asked why Jordan chose to make his confession now. In fact, there are a series of questions that need answering in short order. CNN is, after all, part of a publicly traded company with obligations to its investors. Jordan's decisions have tainted CNN's reputation, undermining the key asset of a news gathering organization--credibility. (Last October Jordan even misled the New Republic's Franklin Foer on the very subject of CNN's reporting on Baghdad, as Foer recounted in yesterday's Wall Street Journal.) CNN's credibility may be beyond salvage, but any serious effort at holding itself out as a reliable news source will have to follow full disclosure of key questions, some of which the SEC might also be interested in. These questions include:

Did Jordan disclose his decision not to disclose the threat to Hussein's sons-in-law to anyone above him in the CNN/Time-Warner chain of command? If so, when did he do so?

Did the board of directors of Time-Warner approve the policy of non-disclosure? Did they receive a legal opinion on whether such a non-disclosure constituted a breach of reporting duties for a publicly-traded company? Was there ever a discussion on whether such a policy could endanger shareholder value by putting at risk the central asset of a news-gathering and news-reporting company, specifically, its credibility?

Once Jordan was aware of the threats to employees of CNN, who were Iraqi nationals, did he inform prospective employees of those threats before hiring them? Was the policy of exposing Iraqi nationals to risk of torture and death discussed with senior CNN management and Time-Warner management?

Once Uday informed Jordan of his threat to his brothers-in-law, did he ever again mention the subject to Jordan? Did it occur to Jordan that, having secured his acquiescence in their deaths, Uday would consider CNN compromised and thus easily manipulated?

Has Jordan failed to reveal other non-disclosures that reasonable people would consider material?

Did Jordan previously disclose any or all of these revelations to any official from the United States government?

Will CNN be appointing a special counsel to conduct an internal review of the handling of this matter? Will Time-Warner's board be appointing such a special counsel?

Will Jordan appear before any committee of Congress which investigates this matter? Will members of CNN staff and Time-Warner management appear?

Are there any similar non-disclosure deals at work in Cuba, Syria, the Palestinian territories, Burma, or any other country in which CNN maintains a presence?

Will Jordan make himself available for interviews by competing networks and major newspapers?

Those will do for starters.

Hugh Hewitt is the host of The Hugh Hewitt Show, a nationally syndicated radio talkshow, and a contributing writer to The Daily Standard. His new book, In, But Not Of, has just been published by Thomas Nelson.

[uvular]

Excellent questions all! I hope some of them eventually get answered.

[Support Free Republic]

God bless our troops. Come home safe, and soon.

[Lawgvr1955]

Good article. But I can answer most of the questions presented. The answer is a big fat "NO WAY". No interviews, no internal investigation, no nothing. This joker will become the darling of the left. A great case of situational ethics.

[XBob]

boy, the leftist liberal major media is sure ducking this issue. It is getting almost no play.

Confessions of what we conservatives have known for years - that the major media constantly lies, coversup, and spins their stories, contrary to their basic charter.

[annieokie]

If their are found to be criminal, can a stockholder also be held accountable?

[beckett]

Eason Jordan was just on The PBS Newshour and Terrence Smith, a reliably liberal hack who is the "media correspondent" for the show, unsurprisingly asked none of the questions Hewitt very perspicaciously raises, and in fact tried to couch his questions in a way designed to put CNN in the best possible light.

[bonesmccoy]

GO GET 'EM HUGH!

GOD BLESS Ya!

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Let CNN know, that we know, what they knew, and they have the blood of innocent Iraqis on their filthy hands.

Email them here ( cnn@cnn.com ) to let them be made aware they have lost all credibility and are not to be trusted. What are they now (did) covering up in Cuba, China, Russia and etc?

Late at night CNN International becomes absolutely vicious in their attacks on America when they are playing to their third world daylight buds in the Islamist world.

CNN, creeps all.

[narby]

CNN now has a bureau in Havana. I read a report several months ago that a Cuban dissident group pursuaded CNN to come out and video their protest. This group only decided to protest because they felt safe that the CNN video would be broadcast, as promised.

But CNN double crossed them, and said nothing about the protest, and these people were arrested.

I don't know all the details of this, but CNNs Baghdad story is over with. Havana is today.

[Savage Beast]

"Saddam's crazy son Uday had told Eason in 1995 that he, Uday, intended to assassinate two of his brothers-in-law. The two men were not warned by CNN and were eventually lured back into Iraq where they were murdered."

If this be true, then this is complicity in murder.

[Savage Beast]

Isn't it?

[rhema]

boy, the leftist liberal major media is sure ducking this issue. It is getting almost no play.

But thanks to Bill O'Reilly (who's covering it tonight) and others, it'll be exposed to the light.

[rhema]

Isn't it?

Among those who aren't devoid of a conscience (CNN obviously excluded), it surely is.

[rhema]

But CNN double crossed them, and said nothing about the protest, and these people were arrested.

Surely we can't expect CNN to give up those exclusive tete-a-tetes with kindly, avuncular Fidel, can we?

[RonDog]

"...Some observers exploded in outrage at CNN's complicity in the crimes of Saddam Inc. Still others asked why Jordan chose to make his confession now.
In fact, there are a series of questions that need answering in short order. CNN is, after all, part of a publicly traded company with obligations to its investors.
Jordan's decisions have tainted CNN's reputation, undermining the key asset of a news gathering organization--credibility...

...CNN's credibility may be beyond salvage, but any serious effort at holding itself out as a reliable news source will have to follow full disclosure of key questions, some of which the SEC might also be interested in." - Hugh Hewitt

As Hugh noted earlier, should not CNN deserve AL LEAST as much interest as ENRON?

.

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[MeekOneGOP]

Their ratings are going down because of their own problems
internally AND because the competition does such a GREAT job !

[flamefront]

Sure, hit them in the pocket.

But what about treason during a war?

[Victoria Delsoul]

Will CNN be appointing a special counsel to conduct an internal review of the handling of this matter? Will Time-Warner's board be appointing such a special counsel?

That would be the appropriate and responsible thing to do, but I pretty much doubt it.

[XBob]

Mike Reagan, on his radio show tonight,

gave Coverup the News Network an excoriation, particularly for Cuba. He quoted a lot of good stat's on the Lying, and spinning, and how they love dictatorships, give them good marks, and positive stories, and their value in reporting the news is less than Zero.

Here is a link to Mike's site, though this info is not on there yet:

Mike Reagan Show