« Introducing... Operation Return Fire | Main | CNN is Stupid »
February 14, 2005
EasonGate
"Did Eason Jordan, chief news executive of CNN, actually say the American military has deliberately killed journalists covering the conflict in Iraq?"
Someone who was there answers the question:
By chance, I was in the audience of the World Economic Forum's panel discussion where Mr. Jordan spoke. What happened was this: Mr. Jordan observed that of the 60-odd journalists killed in Iraq, 12 had been targeted and killed by coalition forces. He then offered a story of an unnamed Al-Jazeera journalist who had been "tortured for weeks" at Abu Ghraib, made to eat his shoes, and called "Al-Jazeera boy" by his American captors.
Here Rep. Barney Frank, also a member of the panel, interjected: Had American troops actually targeted journalists? And had CNN done a story about it? Well no, Mr. Jordan replied, CNN hadn't done a story on this, specifically. And no, he didn't believe the Bush administration had a policy of targeting journalists. Besides, he said, "the [American] generals and colonels have their heart in the right place."
By this point, one could almost see the wheels of Mr. Jordan's mind spinning, slowly: "How am I going to get out of this one?" But Mr. Frank and others kept demanding specifics. Mr. Jordan replied that "there are people who believe there are people in the military" who have it out for journalists. He also recounted a story of a reporter who'd been sent to the back of the line at a checkpoint outside of Baghdad's Green Zone, apparently because the soldier had been unhappy with the reporter's dispatches.
And that was it -- the discussion moved on.
Will we ever see a transcript? Maybe in ten years one will surface, maybe not. CNN is very good at covering their tracks. So, Eason Jordan is unemployed. Ward Churchill, on the other hand is still employed on the speaking circuit. Lynne Stewart is convicted of what amounts to but is not called treason. John Kerry is free. Howard Dean is the DNC Chair.
George W. Bush is in the White House.
and... There is still time to vote.
Posted by LindaSoG at February 14, 2005 06:41 AM