By sending their rather opaque email yesterday it is evident that CNN is a bit nervous about the blogs, as well they should be — Congratulations, Charles! None of us will be satisfied until we see a transcript and/or a video tape of the session. The fact that it has not been produced as yet is highly suspicious. It is almost incomprehensible that verbatim records of events at the World Economic Forum are not readily available to CNN. Eason Jordan’s admitted previous behavior cozying up to the Saddam Hussein regime for news access means that he is an admitted liar of a sort and not to be trusted. Full disclosure, please. That means transcripts and video to understand the context which is under debate.
UPDATE: Some psychoanalysis of Mr. Jordan from Posse Incitatus.
I hate to edit a world famous author and all, Roger, but that “Otherwise” there at the end was unnecessary.
Just kidding, big guy.
CNN’s pathetic PR campaign only confirms to me that Eason Jordan said something stupid and indefensible. Keep up the good work discrediting yourself, CNN!
Not to worry. CNN has now had plenty of time to create all the “fake but accurate” transcripts of the session they might need.
After all, for this they won’t need a typewriter to make the transcripts look authentic….
I’m still waiting for my form e-mail from CNN.
“Otherwise, CNN as a news organization is essentially useless.”
I agree….the word ‘Otherwise’ is not needed in the above sentence. I realized several years ago that the ‘C’ in CNN stood for Communist, and they were part of the TSM (Terrorist Supporting Media). I haven’t watched them (or their sponsors for that matter) for several years. I’m finding out that I’m not alone anymore.
I dug up a 2002 interview that Jordan gave to a journal run by the American University in Egypt in which he discusses CNN’s big plans to expand in the Middle East. It sheds some light on his more recent comments. The details are here:
http://philomathean.blogs.com/philomathean/2005/02/eason_jordan_bu.html
CNN is not a news organization, in that “news” is not what it is selling.
Like all commercial television, CNN sells viewers to advertisers. You are the product.
The purpose of CNN is to flash lights and get you to watch.
The purpose of CNN is to flash lights and get you to watch.
Hey, well put! No wonder I feel sleepy when I watch.
And crave buffalo burger when you wake up?
It is almost incomprehensible that verbatim records of events at the World Economic Forum are not readily available to CNN.
How long would it have taken to get the video on CNN if Cheney had said he told Bush to invade Iraq so Halliburton’s profits would go up?
QUESTON????
Why is the rest of MSM not reporting on this? It is like a non event to them.
I really do not understand this.
The more I hear those of Jordans persuasion the more I am convinced that this is their default world view.In the company of co-religionists, Jordan’s accusations would not raise an eyebrow since this is what they all believe.Any calumny would be greeted as a proclamation of the true faith,the more outragious the claim the greater the piety exhibited.
Joe, as I’ve become slowly aware, there have been quite a few stories that were uninteresting to the MSM (or uninteresting for inexplicably long periods of time):
Oil for Food scandal (1st internet rumors in April 04, IIRC; no MSM coverage until summer, even then scanty)
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (press conf. in May 04; zero MSM coverage until late August; coverage never accurately presented the SBVT’s own claims)
CBS’s forged memos (forgery caught instantly on the internet; no MSM coverage for days)
The list of these things goes on and on and on. Those are the ones that most p*ssed me off.
***
My sister is catching on. She too is noticing things that the MSM treats as non-events. Once you start noticing them, they’re easy to spot.
Bostonian:
She too is noticing things that the MSM treats as non-events. Once you start noticing them, they’re easy to spot.
I suppose those events are simply not interesting to the MSM. They don’t fit anywhere into the conventional narrative, so they are just noise. They are like the purloined letter, hidden in plain site.
WichitaBoy:
From the Purloined Letter,
… as mere mathematician, he could not have reasoned at all,
Guess that puts us in our place!
Knowing of the high ethical standards for which journalists are rightly famed, I expected Rathergate to be a once in a generation event. Now it seems we can look forward to two per year. Who’ll be left by 2008?
What do these people have to do to get fired? Get naked and speak in tongues or what?
“I suppose those events are simply not interesting to the MSM. They don’t fit anywhere into the conventional narrative, so they are just noise.”
It’s more than mere disinterest.
These types of stories are either threatening, embarrassing, or both to the MSM.
After years of monopolistic control over the flow of information they have cultivated the singular strategy of suppressing the stories that fly in the face of the message they wish to inculcate the benighted with.
This strategy is no longer sufficient in the face of repeated unmaskings by the watchdogs of the new media but it’s the only one they’ve got, so expect then to continue to lie, cover up, and dissemble, and expect the new media to continue to expose and discredit them.
This is interesting. Type “Eason Jordan” into Google news and up comes a bunch of blogs and magazines, including Power Line, PoliPundit, National Review, Front Page and others. Nothing at all from the MSM.
Looked at another way, if the story were covered by the MSM, would you like it? It is unsubstantiated vitriol…something I don’t like to see given credibility. If it were reported, would the MSM report that “a bigwig of a major ‘news’ network is saying crazy things, what a nut” — or would they say “a bigwig is saying appalling things, and because of his position, we may have reason to believe they are true.” And it’s difficult to believe that any subsequent exculpatory facts would make Page 1. There are worse things than ignoring him. In a perfect world, it would be nice that everyone see his stripes but, alas, it is not.
She too is noticing things that the MSM treats as non-events. Once you start noticing them, they’re easy to spot.
Fnord
Randall g,
I have heard that news companies keep themselves out of Google, so such a search might turn up empty no matter what. You might have to search the news company’s own web site (or use Lexis-Nexus if you have access).
(I did this already on some sites like NYT, and turned up the same deafening silence, though.)
***
Wyok, I want a congressional hearing. I’m tired of news execs getting away with defamatory statements and suffering no consequences. And this is quite a lot more severe, in what’s said, than the CBS forgery scandal. There should be consequences.
randall g,
Remember that Google News only goes back 30 days.
And yet the MSM does not understand why the military doesn’t:
A. like them
B. trust them
C. restpct them
D. all of the above.