There’s an article by Howard Kurtz in today’s Washington Post on Eason Jordan’s claim that the American military had targeted journalists in Iraq:
What CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan said, or didn’t say, in Davos, Switzerland, last month has become a burgeoning controversy among bloggers and media critics.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who attended the World Economic Forum panel at which Jordan spoke, recalled yesterday that Jordan said he knew of 12 journalists who were killed by coalition forces in Iraq. At first, said Frank, “it sounded like he was saying it was official military policy to take out journalists.” But Jordan later “modified” his remarks to say some U.S. soldiers did this “maybe knowing they were killing journalists, out of anger. . . . He did say he was talking about cases of deliberate killing,” Frank said.
Jordan denied that last night, saying he had been responding to Frank’s comment that the 63 journalists who have been killed in Iraq were “collateral damage” in the war. “I was trying to make a distinction between ‘collateral damage’ and people who got killed in other ways,” Jordan said last night. “I have never once in my life thought anyone from the U.S. military tried to kill a journalist. Never meant to suggest that. Obviously I wasn’t as clear as I should have been on that panel.”
(hat tip: Instapundit)
No, according to Gergen, Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, and Massachusetts Congressman Barney Franks, he didn’t suggest it—he said it outright. At this point the preponderance of the evidence suggests that Jordan is lying.
As Warner Wolfe used to say, “Let’s go to the videotape”.
UPDATE: Submitted trackback to LaShawn Barber’s Corner
re: As Warner Wolfe used to say, “Let’s go to the videotape”. –
I and many others are saying it now. – Has it gone the way of the blank spots on Nixon’s tapes?
Its owner has refused to make it public. So until he succumbs to pressure the preponderance of the evidence is what we have and that doesn’t favor Eason Jordan.