Here is an AP Story. Here is CNN's account. And Howard Kurtz's. See Instapundit.
This is the statement Eason Jordan released tonight around 6:00 pm EST: After 23 years at CNN, I have decided to resign in an effort to prevent CNN from being unfairly tarnished by the controversy over conflicting accounts of my recent remarks regarding the alarming number of journalists killed in Iraq. I have devoted my professional life to helping make CNN the most trusted and respected news outlet in the world, and I would never do anything to compromise my work or that of the thousands of talented people it is my honor to work alongside. While my CNN colleagues and my friends in the U.S. military know me well enough to know I have never stated, believed, or suspected that U.S. military forces intended to kill people they knew to be journalists, my comments on this subject in a World Economic Forum panel discussion were not as clear as they should have been. I never meant to imply U.S. forces acted with ill intent when U.S. forces accidentally killed journalists, and I apologize to anyone who thought I said or believed otherwise. I have great admiration and respect for the men and women of the U.S. armed forces, with whom I have worked closely and been embedded in Baghdad, Tikrit, and Mosul, in addition to my time with American soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen in Afghanistan, former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the Arabian Gulf. As for my colleagues at CNN, I am enormously proud to have worked with you, risking my life in the trenches with you, and making CNN great with you. For that experience, and for your friendship and support these many years, I thank you. I told Howard Kurtz I was surprised and didn't know of any firing offense. Of course I haven't seen the tape. 11pm: Kurt'z story is out: "Eason Jordan resigned last night as CNN's chief news executive in an effort to quell a bubbling controversy over his remarks about U.S. soldiers killing journalists in Iraq." Read it. He quotes me correctly: Jay Rosen [said] he didn't think Jordan "had engaged in a firing offense." Bloggers "made a lot of noise" about the Jordan flap, Rosen said. "But there was basic reporting going on finding the people who were there, getting them to make statements, comparing one account to another along with accusations and conspiracy thinking and the politics of paranoia and attacks on the MSM, or mainstream media." Here's one try at an explanation. The primary sources are my earlier post on Jordan's job being political and diplomatic (the Colin Powell of the news division but very definitely a journalist by tribal affiliation); plus the comments of Rebecca MacKinnon; and this comment from a "veteran journalist" in tonight's thread, otherwise nameless. It also picks up from the terse Glenn Reynolds: "I think we know what the video would have shown, now." It's only a possible explanation, but plausible in my view. The tape had to be a disaster. But what kind? When Jordan and others at CNN looked at it, they must have seen a man making statements that went beyond what the network had been able to prove in its news reporting. He had wandered into the territory of assertion, some hearsay, and of things you feel you know are true even though you can't get anyone on the record to say it. By speaking in this way before an audience of influentials, Jordan allowed there to be (some) daylight between the military reporting the rest of the world had seen on CNN and the "report" that Jordan, its chief news executive, was willing to offer the in crowd in Davos. But there can never be that daylight. As "veteran journo" said: "If the standard of proof wasn't good enough to get it on CNN, it's not good enough to discuss at a forum in Davos." Ordinarily the lapse would not be noticed, and would not become public. That was before the WEF created a participants' blog. Rebecca MacKinnon, who once worked for Eason Jordan at CNN (bio): "I think Eason Jordan resigned because he knew that if the Davos tape came out it would make the situation worse, not better." (Worse because the "lower standard of proof" is plainly in evidence at certain moments.) Her post is a must. I know there are a number of people involved with the World Economic Forum who think the WEF needs to completely re-think its media/blogging and on/off record policies. It was a great thing that the WEF started a blog this year, inviting conference participants to post their impressions and thoughts. I encouraged them to do this. Unfortunately, the WEF's operating norms are not compatible with the age of the blog. Jordan's demise is the frightening result. Complete archives at http://www.sitbot.net/ Please let us stay on topic and be civil. OM Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cia-drugs/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
