Posted on 02/05/2005 6:53:16 AM PST by Valin
If you’re following this story, make sure you’re checking the updates at the end of this post. The latest news: The videotape of the forum has surfaced.
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Read the original post and The Eason Jordan Repository I for background on this subject.
This is Day Two or Three of the Eason Jordan blog swarm, and the controversy finally made the papers. Is the Washington Times considered Big Media? So far they’re the only newspaper that picked up on the Eason Jordan fiasco, CNN’s line of fire.
The only blog mentioned is Forumblog.org, which is a good thing, but there’s no reference to Captain’s Quarters, who is in the lead on this and largely responsible for the blog swarm, the reason the story is still alive, or any other blogs (except for Carol Liebau, but they don’t link to her blog.) or the blogosphere in general.
Now that a newspaper has covered this story, I anticipate more media outlets will pick it up. Watch this post for updates throughout the day.
(Hat tip: Captain’s Quarters)
Related links: John Burns: ‘There Is Corruption in Our Business’, Roger Simon, KerrySpot, Michael J. Totten, Day By Day, Sensible Mom ("Where’s David Gergen?")
Speaking of newspapers not linking to blogs, see this post by Patrick Ruffini. A new editorial policy for media: If you cite blogs, you must include hyperlinks.
Read Virginia Postrel’s The Cost of Blogging. As you can tell, I like blogging/writing about blogging. In fact, it’s probably my niche. See The Blogosphere’s Smaller Stars. I plan to write a non-Rathergate but related follow-up to this piece.
Update: Hugh Hewitt interviews Rony Abovitz of Forumblog.org, the man who heard Eason Jordan say that U.S. troops were targeting and killing journalists.
Power Line: “Jordan appears to be more or less in hiding. Where is the videotape? What this story shows, I think, is how badly the left-wing media have damaged the United States with their incessant accusations and over-the-top coverage of stories like Abu Ghraib.”
Agreed.
Update II: Should bloggers boycott CNN? (Via Captain’s Quarters) More information at Slublog, KerrySpot and Uncorrelated, who’s coined “Easongate.”
Interesting article by blogger and writer, Paul Geary.
Update III (around 1:30 p.m.): “UPDATE V, 2/4 12:25 PM CT: Every single search listed above still comes back empty. Every single major media outlet has ignored this story. How much longer can they hold out?” — Captain’s Quarters
How much longer? Anyone? Anyone? The blog swarm surrounding Trent Lott/Strom Thurmond (before my blog-time), along with pressure from other Republicans, forced Lott to step down from his leadership post. Bloggers and posters at Free Republic, along with MSM finally covering Dan Rather’s forged documents story, brought down CBS’s house of cards.
(I blogged on the double standard regarding Lott’s remarks about Thurmond and Sen. Chris Dodd’s remarks about Robert Byrd in Two Old Men, Two Different Standards.)
What will it take to get CNN to react, and more importantly, for MSM to cover this story? Granted, things move quickly in the blogosphere compared to MSM. That’s the “power of the blog,” the reason why blog swarms develop in the first place. Other bloggers are tracking the story and I recommend you follow the links; this post is only a place for links, updates and light analysis. It’s Friday and I can’t wait to get home.
Update IV (around 3:00 p.m.): CNN speaks! But not about Eason Jordan. Check it out. (Via Power Line)
Update V (6:24 p.m.): The Eason Jordan story goes mainstream. The latest from Captain’s Quarters:
Hugh Hewitt has a notice on his blog that he will appear on the Chris Matthews show Sunday evening — and he intends on making Eason’s Fables part of the discussion. Be sure to tune in to CNBC at 6:30 PM CT. Hugh also alerts his readers that Chris Wallace at Fox things that Eason’s Fables will make an excellent topic for his own Fox show at 4 pm CT Sunday, so tune in there as well. By Monday, the mainstream media may have Eason’s Fables forced down their throats.
I don’t get this. Every day the media tell us how bad things are in Iraq. Every day they warn us that we’re losing allies and that the whole world is against the war in Iraq. Yet when a top CNN executive accuses the United States military of assassinating journalists, it merits no media attention. Why? Don’t they want to know if it’s true? Don’t they want to know why Jordan made the accusation in the first place if it’s false? What is going ???
Blogger Sisyphus is about to get a ton of traffic. In a few days he’ll have the video (wish I’d thought of that) of the forum where Jordan Eason said…well, you know what he said.
My fellow Conservative Brotherhood member Michael Bowen comments on Eason Jordan. Check this out: “In the steady disintermediation presaging a major shift in the way industries do business, Eason Jordon is being hoisted on the petard of disclosure. Blogs do it better than major media, and as others in the blogswarm have noted correctly, we are going to hound down and parse the question of journalistic privilege during wartime.”
Too cool.
Here’s another link-worthy post: I Don’t Just Happen To Be Republican. Except for the part about open borders, I like it.
Rathergate.com offers a military perspective on “Eason’s Fables.”
Update VI (9:44 p.m.): The tireless captain updates again, commenting on the videotape we’ll see next week:
The blog Sisyphean Musings has contacted the head of media for the World Economic Forum at Davos, Mark Adams. Sisyphus got Adams to confirm Forumblog’s testimony that videotape was taken of the forum where Eason Jordan spoke, and agree to send a copy to Sisyphus….CNN has until Wednesday at the latest to come clean about Jordan. If they allow the blogosphere to get to the finish line first, they’re toast.
Update (11:16 p.m.): I was about to crash when I received an e-mail from a reader. He’s been in touch with the op-ed editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who says Jack Kelly, their national security correspondent, will touch on the Eason Jordan debacle on Sunday.
Posted by La Shawn @ 8:08 am Permalink
So,,,what's left to do?
The video has not yet surfaced...they just got a commitment that it WILL surface in the middle of next week. What I find interesting is the the WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, who can manage to get an internet livestream of some forums, is copying a VHS tape and dropping it in the snailmail to a blogger. Without a doubt the 'media director' of the WEF has the capability to digitize and post it to the WEF site. The question becomes why isn't he.
The media blackout is the more interesting side of the story, at least to me. The media was playing clips of the Marine LTG Mattis' comments in less than 24 hours. Eason Jordan's comments are 5 days old and nary a peep from anyone in the media. The media version of the blue wall of silence. CNN will soon learn, the coverup is worse than the crime. They could have thrown Jordan under the bus and saved themselves...but now they are complicit in the coverup by failing to cover the news they themselves made. They will soon find the whole of CNN under the bus. And I'm sure Fox is glad to let it go on quite a while...the longer the media blackout, the more damage it does to the MSM as a whole, and CNN in particular.
Bump!
Took Dan Rather 11, 12 days to admit problems with his ANG fable..
Hat tip to all the blogs who pursued this story.
Is FOX still the only MSM outlet covering it?
Hey guys- La Shawn Barber here. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will "touch" on the Eason Jordan story tomorrow. Check my blog for the latest info throughout the day.
When I heard Hugh Hewitt talking about this earlier this week I said "EXCUSE ME! He said WHAT!"
These clowns really haven't figured out that it's not 1973 any more, and anything the say WILL get out and they WILL be called to account for it.
"Nothing to see here, move along please!!" says the MSM.
Ditto that MKM... Thanks LaShawn!
I don't want to be too conspiratorial but that's not a bogus point. Do you have the capability to analyze the tape for "anomalies"?
Hugh Hewitt is pushing hard to get this tape, hopefully early next week....or not.
Jim Geraghty at TKS/NRO (formerly the Kerry Spot) is looking for help identifying CNN advertisers to contact with the story. This sounds like something that the Freepers who don't mind watching CNN could help out with.
It was actually me that wrote that. I don't have any super special ability to look for anomolies, but I could blow it up, look at it frame by frame, look for breaks in the soundtrack. Not proof it is authentic, but also I don't think there is any reason to assume that the WEF would doctor it. After all...it is the most interesting thing to happen at their whiny EUrinal meeting.
I would be interested in seeing the tape. As long as it roughly comports with what 3 eyewitnesses say took place, I think that is a pretty good authentication. Even better if we could one of the 250-250 people who were there to just say, "Yes, that is what happened" That includes several bloggers, David Gergen of Harvard, Sen Dodd of CT and Barnet Frank...who may have an interest in this coming out. It is one of the few times he has stood up, done the right thing, and defended this country. I don't think we need any super special technical analysis to authenticate it...especially if it was posted for the world to see.
New Story mentioning it:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1336826/posts
Yeah I know. I should have quoted you directly but I got lazy.
I don't think we need any super special technical analysis to authenticate it...especially if it was posted for the world to see.
Well, Rathergate's memos prove that "posting for the world to see" doesn't exactly dissuade the MSM from trying to deceive. However, I'm confident that folks like us Freepers and Hugh and the rest of the bloggers will let us know if there's any foolishness.
bttt
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