This AM Hugh Hewitt wrote about the discussions now taking place in the MSM, talk radio and cable news shows on the bloggers’ role in the resignation of Eason Jordan. Jordan is the former number two guy at CNN who resigned (was fired?) last Friday in response to the growing pressure put upon him and CNN over the remarks he made in Davos Switzerland where eye-witnesses reported that he told the conference attendees that the U.S. military was targeting and assassinating journalists in Iraq.

What Hugh is bringing to the forefront is that in these discussions, the MSM contingent is stressing that Jordan backed off his comments immediately upon being challenged by liberal Democratic Representative Barney Frank, who was also on the panel, thereby challenging the reputability of the center-right bloggers who have been pressing for release of the tape, which would have clarified “exactly” what Jordan had said, and in what context. These same MSM supporters are either uninformed about or are unwilling to acknowledge that Jordan has made remarks very similar to those at Davos before, even as recently as in last November’s Guardian. Hugh sums up the Blogosphere’s true role in this affair:

It wasn’t a lynch mob. It wasn’t “one mistake.” It was a demand for accountability fueled by legitimate and still unanswered questions based upon unrepudiated past statements by a senior American news executive that slandered the American military. Even at this late hour, it would be useful if commentators on the controversy became familiar with its basic facts.

From what I am seeing, these commentators are less concerned about getting facts straight on Eason Jordan and are mostly in a lather over the bloggers once again “going after” and “getting” one of their own. Dan Rather and the Ra™ergate episode was a concern, but with declining ratings and him being “long in the tooth” anyway, CBS was ready to find a reason to oust Dan sooner “rather” than later! (Sorry, couldn’t help myself!)

But Eason Jordan is another case entirely. He was a twenty-some-odd year veteran of the CNN news organization, risen to the number two spot, riding high and seemingly untouchable. Even his written confessions in the op/ed piece he wrote for the New York Times last April didn’t faze his CNN bosses. In this piece he admitted that CNN had covered up Saddam Hussein’s tortures and atrocities to keep a CNN office in Baghdad and protect his employees, even as we were debating as a nation whether or not to invade Iraq. Keeping the American public in the dark as to the atrocities of Saddam was OK with the CNN hiearchy, so we could assume that they wouldn’t mind promoting him to even higher positions within the company even if his actions showed that he did seem to hate the American military.

The MSM is circling the wagons. The bloggers have them scared, ah — witless! Just last night, on FOXNews’ Hannity & Colmes show, Fox News contributor Bob Beckell was on to give the “liberal” take on the Eason Jordan resignation. He had no response to questions about Jordan’s actions. All he wanted to talk about were the non-accountable, off-the-reservation “bloggers” that were out of control and had gone after and nailed their prey, Eason Jordan. Shaun Hannity kept trying to get Bob to comment on topic, but this “was” his topic. Consider it an early shot across the bow to us bloggers, and get ready for the broadsides that surly will come.

Uh, oh! A hit! Michelle Malkin posts about the Tulsa World going after a blogger for copyright infringement. She presents a part of the letter this blogger received from my previous home town’s daily rag:

Therefore, we hereby demand that you immediately remove any Tulsa World material from your website, to include unauthorized links to our website, and cease and desist from any further use or dissemination of our copyrighted content.

Michelle responds to the paper’s actions with, “Can you spell U-N-H-I-N-G-E-D?”

Deacon at Powerline finds another MSM volley and weighs in with comments about an article on Chris Matthew’s Harblogger blog site:

Chris Matthews’ Hardblogger site takes a shot at bloggers for their role in the demise of Eason Jordan, and in the process exhibits a profound misunderstanding of free speech. Moran believes that it was unwise “for CNN to provide the enemies of free expression, critical thinking and The First Amendment with a victory” over Jordan due to his “controversial (but hardly blasphemous) statement” that the U.S. military has been targeting journalists in Iraq for death. For good measure, he claims that, during this affair, bloggers showed “all the interest in the truth shown by the Gang of Four.”

What he is commenting on is easily represented by the first paragraph of the Hardblogger post:

By now, the blog— and pundit-fueled fire that consumed Eason Jordan, head of newsgathering at CNN, is old news. Jordan’s resignation made his head the latest to be mounted on the wall of a nastiest subset of the “Blogosphere:” those who think the Internet’s self-publishing technology (and free-wheeling definition of “fairness”) has anointed them as the Taliban of the American media.

More volleys! According to Captain Ed @ Captain’s Quarters (taking time away from the hospital to blog a little — Congrats on the First Mate’s successful surgery!) today in the Washington Times: Salivating Morons Trump Media Elites — Again:

The Washington Times runs two opinion pieces in today’s edition on the media reaction to Eason’s Fables and the bloggers who pushed the story to the surface. First, in its unsigned editorial, the Times scolds the Wall Street Journal for its reaction to bloggers and their role:

On Hugh Hewitt’s radio show yesterday, a caller stated:

“The blogosphere is to the media what internal affairs is to any law enforcement agency. Nobody likes them, and they are absolutely necessary.”

In regards to maintaining watch on the MSM, perhaps another analogy would apply. The center-right bloggers are more akin to “Sweepers”, those deep undercover, black-ops agents whose job it is to go after, and either bring back into the fold or eliminate agents that have gone “rogue”. The liberal-biased Mainstream Media is beyond rogue, and they are running scared, and are starting to fire back. Hope the bloggers are ready for a firefight, cause it’s a comin’! (db)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 15th, 2005 at 12:18 pm and is filed under Focus On Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

Recently Posted:

• “Young Mattie Fein” Political Ad — Hot Linkage & More . . .
• Just Bloggin’ Around: VJ Day Video, Ground Zero Mosque, Obaminations & More . . .
• We The People — An Open Letter To President Obama
• Remembering Annie & Some Hard-Life Lessons
• Obama’s Nightmare In The Gulf
• Obama’s Exectuive Order Banning Federal Funding of Abortion Proves To Be Just More B.S.
• American Women — Takin’ Names, Kickin’ Butt!
• Now Obama’s F’ing Up NASA!
• Happy 4th of July Y’all!
• VOTE!