BY DAN
KENNEDY
Serving the reality-based community since 2002.
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Saturday, February 12, 2005
THE STRANGE DEPARTURE OF EASON
JORDAN. The CNN chief news executive has resigned because of his
remarks
in Davos, which have been
characterized as accusing US troops of deliberately firing on
journalists. Yet we still don't know exactly what he said; neither a
transcript nor a tape has been released.
Howard Kurtz has a full
account in today's
Washington Post. I was not surprised to learn that Jordan's
influence has been waning of late, and that his bosses were getting
sick of the controversy. Kurtz is often criticized for his dual roles
as an employee of both the Post and CNN, but in this case that
seems to have provided him with more insight into what's going on at
CNN than most reporters would have.
Jay Rosen has a roundup
of blog commentary, mostly
from the right. I have to agree with Jordan critics such as
Glenn
Reynolds, who say that
releasing the tape could only have made things worse. I mean, what
else are we to think?
On the other hand, can we please
interrupt the self-congratulatory hooting from conservative bloggers
for a moment in order to offer some kudos to two liberals,
Congressman Barney Frank and Senator Chris Dodd? It was their outrage
that lifted this out of the usual left-right paradigm.
I meant to link to this the other
day, but Danny Schechter's got a useful
perspective on this,
too.
Finally: I still want to see the
tape.
posted at 9:49 AM |
4 comments
|
link
4 Comments:
To repeat what I said the other day: Dodd and Frank are to the left but less so than the MSM. Unlike the MSM, they are at least intellectually honest.They never denied having an agenda, which is more than can be said of the Eason Jordans of the world. The gulf grows wider between those writing and those reading....
The mainstream media is to the left of Barney Frank?
Wow. Some delusions are hard to kill, aren't they?
More coverage, Interesting analysis by Robin Burk at Winds Of Change, "What Makes Someone a Journalist, Anyway?? turns out Eason Jordan's credentials as a professional journalist are rather thin".
-- Bill R
Missing the Big StorySo Eason Jordan quits because he made a stupid, offensive comment during a panel discussion... snore... Goodbye and good riddance.
Now the real scandal:
An apparant GOP political operative and possible male prostitute set-up a fake news web site and was given press passes to White House press briefings for over a year. He also was shown CIA documents exposing the identity of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame just days after getting his first press pass!
The operative did this using a fake name after failing the vetting process for a press pass in Congress (because they determined he wasn;t a real journalist).
James Guckert, who posed as a reorter for the web site TalonNews.com under the fake name "James Gannon," was exposed as a fraud by several Bloggers after he recently asked George W. Bush a flagrantly biased question that referenced a phony quote by Democrats.
Transcripts of past press briefings showed Guckert frequently was used by Scott McClellan as a reliable "lifeline" for softball questions whenever the WH spokesman McClellen faced tough grilling by reporters.
When his scam was exposed by Bloggers --as well as his ties to apparant gay escort services-- Guckert abruptly resigned from TalonNews.com and all of his articles were scrubbed from their web site.
Though the White House claims he was given passes under his real name "Guckert," Scott McClellan knew to address him by his fake name "Gannon."
In the wake of several recent White House propaganda scandals, member of Congress are calling for an investigation.
Come on, Dan, when are you going to pick-up on the real news???
~ Anthony G.
MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
