Posted on 04/18/2003 3:27:58 AM PDT by machman
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - Don't expect Eason Jordan, the top CNN news official, to apologize -- for anything:
* Not for CNN falling behind its archrival Fox News in the widely followed cable television news ratings.
*Not for CNN concealing news of atrocities in Iraq because Jordan feared that Saddam Hussein's regime would have killed CNN's informants if the stories had aired.
* And not, above all, for writing an op-ed in the New York Times on April 11 to explain his point of view. The editorial has sparked a huge controversy.
Media experts were impressed -- if, perhaps, bewildered -- by Jordan's chutzpah during an era when most media executives hide as much sensitive news as possible.
"This was a suicidal editorial," marveled Robert Thompson, the director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University's Newhouse School.
"Jordan exposed something that opened him and CNN up to all kinds of objections and ridicule," Thompson said. "It was a very difficult decision."
It all started when Jordan, 42, wrote the piece, entitled "The News We Kept to Ourselves" in the New York Times. Some critics promptly speculated that CNN, a division of AOL Time Warner (AOL: news, chart, profile), appeared to exchange silence for access -- though that sure wasn't how Jordan viewed the wrenching decision.
"I chose to write the NY Times op-ed to provide a record of one person's experiences with the brutality of the Iraqi regime and to ensure we maintain CNN's long record of reporting on atrocities around the world, even if in these cases we could do so only years later to protect the lives of innocent people," Jordan said in a memo to the CNN staff, a copy of which was obtained by CBS.MarketWatch.com.
Jordan stressed that the atrocities under Saddam were examples of "things that could not be reported because doing so would have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly on our Baghdad staff."
Critics asked whether there was a way that Jordan could have aired the stories without putting his charges' lives in dangers.
Jordan, speaking in an even tone, noted that the criticism was "surprising and disappointing." He said his only regret about presenting the op-ed was creating a "mistaken impression that CNN didn't report the brutality in Iraq. CNN often reported (this) in graphic detail."
Many media people defended Jordan's decision.
"Even though the decision goes against everything you learn in journalism school," Thompson said, "I'm not sure I wouldn't have done the same thing."
Jordan certainly has no regrets. "I think I did the right thing."
Looking ahead, CNN -- and other news organizations -- will likely face similar dilemmas as the U.S. engages in negotiations or conflicts in such hotspots as North Korea and Syria, as well as China and Cuba.
"In any event," said Thompson, "this raises our antennae that news organizations do know things that they just don't tell us."
Ratings problems
Separately, Jordan said he hasn't lost any sleep because CNN -- despite its stellar coverage of the war -- failed to overtake Fox (FOX: news, chart, profile) in the TV ratings.
"We have our own measurements for winning and we feel we did exceptionally well," Jordan said. "We're reaching more people than any news organizations in this country. We're very, very pleased."
Jordan declined to address CNN's competition. But he sure seemed to warm to taking a swipe at his foes.
Remember, Fox's Geraldo Rivera looked foolish after apparently breaking the media's agreement about discussing troop movements.
If that wasn't bad enough, MSNBC (GE: news, chart, profile) looked even worse when Peter Arnett, whose reports it had been airing, blatantly criticized the U.S. war effort in an interview on Iraqi state TV.
"It's clear that we're serious about the news," Jordan said. "People should not confuse a more robust look on the air" with CNN's broadcasts, he summarized.
"We're pleased about where we are, and excited about where we are going," Jordan said.
At the same time, the New York Daily News contended that MSNBC's wartime ratings soared 350 percent -- the biggest increase among the cable networks -- with 1.6 million viewers watching.
Now, Jordan's task is to craft a peacetime strategy that will attract more viewers.
CNN has flirted with contrasting game plans over the past year.
The network tried a show biz touch for a while. Then it decided that the Iraqi war required a somber tone, so CNN dumped the oft-frivolous "Talk Back Live."
It hired Connie Chung a year ago but she was gone before her first anniversary at CNN arrived. To fill Chung's place in the lineup, CNN has shifted Paula Zahn, its ever-cheerful anchor from the morning to prime time.
One outcome, at least, seems likely.
"Larry King," Thompson quipped, referring to CNN's ageless talk-show maestro, "will be on hand to celebrate the arrival of the 22nd century."
He also has no morals, no ethics, and no principles. Jordan certainly has no regrets.
Neither does a murderer, a rapist, or a serial killer. That doesn't let them off the hook with God, though.
and CNN has no viewers either
1. Don't tell anyone... ever. 2. Tell folks at that time... and get an innocent person(s) killed. 3. Wait until the right time and then tell.
And he's convinced that he chose the noble of the three.
I am convinced that there was a 4th option and he didn't have the gut's to recognize it...
he should have got all of the CNN folks out of Iraq immediately and when they were safe, then he could tell the world!
But oh... that would have taken a pretty fair amount of intestinal fortitude and also a willingness to not have any more reports from Bagdad. Apparently he wasn't willing to 'go that far'
There is yet a 5th option:
Hope that, in some fashion, Saddam "wins". And there would never be a need to tell.
I sense that might have been CNN's preferred outcome.
No left wing liberal socialist pinko commie ever does.
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