Two magazines in one! Here’s Newsmax in February of 2005 on Eason Jordan’s career-destroying meltdown in Davos:
A top Democratic senator is calling on CNN executive Eason Jordan to release a videotape of his remarks at the World Economic Forum last week in Davos, Switzerland, where, according to multiple witnesses, Jordan accused U.S. troops of deliberately killing 12 journalists.
“It seems to me that he ought to be the first one to say, ‘Let’s get the tape out,’ so we can put an end to these rumors if, in fact, his interpretation of what he was trying to say is accurate,” Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., told radio host Don Imus on Thursday.
Dodd said WEF officials always videotape the events like the one Jordan attended, but they’re usually reluctant to make the tapes public. “But when you have a controversy like this,” Dodd said, the CNN executive’s request could make a difference.
“I presume Eason Jordan’s job may be on the line over this,” added the Connecticut Democrat, who was in the audience when Jordan spoke. “The best answer for him is to get that information out so you and others can watch it and draw your own conclusions about it.”
The next day, Newsmax ran AP’s report on Jordan’s ignominious departure from CNN:
CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan quit Friday amidst the furor over remarks he made in Switzerland last month about journalists killed by the U.S. military in Iraq.
As Michelle Malkin wrote at the time — in Newsmax — “CNN Slimes Our Troops:”
For the past week, Internet weblogs (“blogs”) around the world have been buzzing about outrageous comments regarding American soldiers reportedly made by Jordan, the head of CNN’s news division, at a World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland. (My reporting on the controversy, with extensive links to other bloggers, is at www.michellemalkin.com.) According to several eyewitnesses, Jordan asserted on Jan. 27 that American military personnel had deliberately targeted and killed journalists in Iraq. (Jordan has since disputed the characterization of his remarks.)
In April of 2003, Newsmax ran an op-ed from former New York Mayor Ed Koch titled “Iraq War Media Bias,” which concluded:
The press should realize that what it decides not to report can have serious consequences as well. CNN’s chief news executive, Eason Jordan, in a recent New York Times op-ed article, confessed that CNN had not publicly reported a conversation he had with the son of Saddam Hussein, who told him he was going to assassinate three people.
Jordan wrote, “I knew that CNN could not report that Saddam Hussein’s eldest son, Uday, told me in 1995 that he intended to assassinate two of his brothers-in-law who had defected and also the man giving them asylum, King Hussein of Jordan. If we had gone with the story, I was sure he would have responded by killing the Iraqi translator who was the only other participant in the meeting.”
The two brothers-in-law were, in fact, murdered as announced. Isn’t Eason Jordan morally responsible for their deaths, not having warned them by making the interview public?
Doesn’t sound like a guy who would be on Newsmax’s A-list of TV producers, right?
Wrong! A press release last night at Newsmax titled, “Former CNN Chief Heads Up Newsmax ION Debate,” makes you wonder what the heck are they thinking?
Eason Jordan, Executive Producer — Jordan worked for 23 years with CNN, where he served as chief news executive and president of news gathering and international networks. Jordan’s journalistic honors include Emmy Awards, Peabody Awards Edward R. Murrow Awards, Headliner Awards, ACE Awards, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the Vanguard Award, and the Livingston Award. He is the founder and CEO of Poll Position, a news, polling, and social media company. He is also a member of the Council of Foreign Relations.
Two questions:
1. Will any of the candidates drop out after word of this announcement hits the Blogosphere? Whatever his other issues, Newt has become beloved once again by the GOP base in recent weeks for his brilliant responses to the loaded questions he’s received from the very biased MSM debate questioners. Will he make a stand here?
2. Why isn’t Ron Paul participating? It seems like he would be right at home in a debate produced by Jordan.
(H/T: Michelle Malkin on Twitter.)
Update: Michelle now has a post up on this debacle on her blog: “Trump-ed up: You won’t believe what Eason Jordan’s up to now.”
As it thus inevitably must be, truth is invariably stranger than satire — it’s the law.
(Originally posted at Ed Driscoll.com.)
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