NEWS: CNN Chief News Executive Eason Jordan Falls on Sword

CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan quit Friday amid a furor over remarks he made in Switzerland last month about journalists killed by the U.S. military in Iraq. Jordan said he was quitting to avoid CNN being "unfairly tarnished" by the controversy.

During a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum last month, Jordan said he believed that several journalists who were killed by coalition forces in Iraq had been targeted.

But the damage had been done, compounded by the fact that no transcript of his actual remarks has turned up. He was the target of an Internet and Web site campaign that was beginning to rival the one launched against CBS's Dan Rather following the network's ill-fated story last fall about President Bush's military service.

A Web site, Easongate.com, was created and distributed a petition this week calling on CNN to find a transcript and fire Jordan if he said the military had intentionally killed journalists.

The Web site had been preparing Friday to post information to help its supporters contact CNN's advertisers. A message posted on the site after Jordan's resignation said its authors were pleased with the outcome but still want a videotape of the economic forum released.

"To every reader, commentator, e-mailer and blogger that committed to this cause, thank you," a message on the Web site read. "This is a victory for every soldier who has honorably served this nation. To you we devote this victory."

s5 said:
"Easongate.com" "Rathergate.com"

i'm surprised no one at indymedia or democratic underground has figured out the formula and started preemptively registering the domains.

LAWRENCE KUDLOW (host): We got a couple of seconds before the break when you guys are all going to come back, but, Ann, I just want to give you first whack at this. Eason Jordan, top news executive at CNN -- I mean, to me, this is absolutely incredible -- this guy says at a big conference in Davos that the U.S. military is deliberately targeting and assassinating American journalists. Huh? He still has a job, huh? You got a take on that?

COULTER: Would that it were so!

KUDLOW: Would what were so?

COULTER: That the American military were targeting journalists.

smithers_jones said:
I'm sure the repeated targeting of journalists in Iraq and Afghanistan was an accident.
We also tageted journalists Kosovo.

Anne Coulter, for one, thinks killing journalists is a great idea.

LAWRENCE KUDLOW (host): We got a couple of seconds before the break when you guys are all going to come back, but, Ann, I just want to give you first whack at this. Eason Jordan, top news executive at CNN -- I mean, to me, this is absolutely incredible -- this guy says at a big conference in Davos that the U.S. military is deliberately targeting and assassinating American journalists. Huh? He still has a job, huh? You got a take on that?

COULTER: Would that it were so!

KUDLOW: Would what were so?

COULTER: That the American military were targeting journalists.

BillHaverchuck said: the "blogosphere" bullied him into resigning.

louys said:
Wow, just wow. She really is a psycho.

Michael_J_Totten said:

Well, you could chalk it up to one more point for the blogosphere. Then again, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who also "bullied" him, aren't bloggers. But they were there when he said what he reportedly said. And they weren't happy.

s5 said:
or chalk up another point for the new political correctness.

if anything you say even remotely sounds like you're suggesting that bush or the US military might have done something nasty, your career is over.

Michael_J_Totten said:

Well, you could chalk it up to one more point for the blogosphere. Then again, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who also "bullied" him, aren't bloggers. But they were there when he said what he reportedly said. And they weren't happy.

Eason Jordan has officially resigned as executive vice president and chief news executive of CNN. The Staff of Easongate.com is pleased with Mr. Jordan taking responsibility for his actions and statements. However we still feel the World Economic Forum should release the tape of the Davos conference forthwith to settle this matter. A cloud will hang over this issue until the tape is viewed to confirm what has been reported in this affair.

The purpose of this blog from the very beginning was as follows:

· Act as a clearinghouse for information related to Mr. Jordan's recent and past statement concerning the United States military.
· Provide analysis and commentary on the developing situation.
· Advocate CNN to take real and meaningful disciplinary action against Mr. Jordan.
· Create a petition expressing the public's displeasure with Mr. Jordan's statements.
· Gather information on CNN's advertisers and make this information available to the public.

Easongate.com has achieved every single goal on this list. The CNN advertiser database and email program was prepared to go online this evening. Every person on this site worked professionally, with skill and devotion, and covered every angle of the developments.

However we are still not fully satisfied with the outcome. The tape should be released for public review, and Mr. Jordan should apologize for his remarks.

To every reader, commentor, emailer and blogger that committed to this cause, thank you. This is a victory for every soldier who has honorably served this nation. To you we devote this victory.

s5 said:
or chalk up another point for the new political correctness.

if anything you say even remotely sounds like you're suggesting that bush or the US military might have done something nasty, your career is over.

Michael_J_Totten said:

Depends on whether it's true or not. No one gets canned for talking about what happend at Abu Ghraib, for example.

But anyway, he didn't lost his job for mouthing off. Like they say, it's not the "crime," it's the cover-up.

[Edited on Feb 12, 2005 6:22PM]

stockula said:
The coolest thing about this is that the bloggers got Jordan without the big newspapers and tv news spreading the story. Those outlets, even Drudge, were completely ignoring this story. If you didn't read blogs, chances are Jordan's resignation would be the first you ever heard about his slander of the military in Switzerland.

He could have done a swift apology, said that American troops AREN'T trying to kill journalists, and that would be the end of it. But like Rather, he dug in his heels and made lame non-apologies, too arrogant to let himself be criticized by pissant bloggers. Now he's going to have to find a network more in line with his paranoid anti-Americanism. I hear al-Jazeera's hiring.

s5 said:
but republicans hate the red cross now. the red cross!

reprobate said:
What is happening is that he is being targeted by people like Pat who hate his politics and see anyone who disagrees with them as an enemy to be destroyed.

Michael_J_Totten said:

Bill O'Reilly doesn't seem to like the Red Cross. Who else doesn't like it? First I've heard of it. It seems to me you'd have to be a pretty serious wing-nut to hate the Red Cross. I have absolutely no idea what the complaint might be.