Too little, too late: CNN’s comment on what its ex-news chief said won’t help

The CNN news chief, Eason Jordan, has done an about face. CNN now says that Jordan does not believe the U.S. military intentionally targets journalists in Iraq.

The turnaround is too little too late.

Jordan obviously made the statement as it was reported — that U.S. soldiers intentionally killed reporters. That is the sort of thing that terrorists and other enemies of the United States love to hear. It is made to order for their propaganda, and CNN’s backtracking now will do no good.

A CNN spokesman is saying Jordan misspoke, that he didn’t mean that any deaths of journalists in the war zone had been intentional.

But such an anti-U.S. statement would be consistent with CNN’s history. Furthermore, two liberal politicians said Jordan made the statement as it was reported. They are Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts.

Both were present when Jordan made the statement last month at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, and both have said they were outraged.

Accusations like Jordan’s not only aid the enemy but they savage the morale of American service men and women who are putting their lives at risk.

Jordan resigned over the weekend. If only CNN’s biased reporting could go with him.

Published in Editorials on February 14, 2005 10:57 AM