CNN: Jordan 'not clear' in Iraq remarks
CNN clarifies
Feb 11, 2005
NEW YORK -- CNN on Thursday sought to quell the media frenzy enveloping executive Eason Jordan over remarks he made during a conference last month in Davos, Switzerland, suggesting that he believed U.S. troops were deliberately firing on journalists in Iraq.
CNN tried to ease the controversy by clarifying Jordan's remarks. "Unfortunately, he was not clear enough in explaining his assertion," a CNN spokesman said Thursday. The network said that Jordan, CNN executive vp/chief news executive and an advocate for protections for journalists overseas, had responded to a comment that the 63 journalists killed in Iraq were collateral damage. CNN said that most of the journalists were killed by anti-U.S. forces but that the Pentagon has acknowledged killing some journalists accidentally.
During a Jan. 27 session at the World Economic Forum, Jordan reportedly said that 12 journalists had been targeted and killed by U.S. troops in Iraq. While Jordan was challenged about the figure and the assertion itself -- and according to a witness, he backpedaled and clarified -- Jordan's remarks have caused a firestorm of criticism that has moved from hundreds of blogs through the conservative press and into the mainstream media.
"Mr. Jordan emphatically does not believe that the U.S. military intended to kill journalists and believes these accidents to be cases of 'mistaken identity,' " the CNN statement said.
But one witness, Florida businessman Rony Abovitz, said that he was shocked by Jordan's initial claim and asked him to prove it.
"I was quite surprised, especially by his passion for what he was saying," said Abovitz, who wrote an entry detailing Jordan's comments on a blog from the World Economic Forum that was later picked up by others. "I thought that this was a huge story, very damning to the U.S. if true."
Abovitz said that others in the room, including Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., joined in the debate, which became heated before being broken off. But Abovitz, who co-founded a medical technology company in Hollywood, Fla., said that he felt impelled to blog it after realizing that others weren't going to report on it.
Abovitz, who has been deluged by requests for interviews, said both the right and the left have used this as a way of moving forward their agendas. He said that wasn't his intention.
"My real interest is in this concept of transparency, accountability and objective fairness in media," Abovitz said. "These were values discussed at the WEF, and right in front of my eyes they were being put to a serious test."
Meanwhile, there have been calls for Jordan's resignation. One CNN competitor, former Florida congressman and current MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, wrote in his blog that Jordan should be fired.
CNN wouldn't make Jordan available for comment Thursday. Jordan is a 22-year veteran of CNN, an Emmy and Peabody winner and oversaw the coverage of many of CNN's biggest stories of the past 16 years including both Iraq wars, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
CNN tried to ease the controversy by clarifying Jordan's remarks. "Unfortunately, he was not clear enough in explaining his assertion," a CNN spokesman said Thursday. The network said that Jordan, CNN executive vp/chief news executive and an advocate for protections for journalists overseas, had responded to a comment that the 63 journalists killed in Iraq were collateral damage. CNN said that most of the journalists were killed by anti-U.S. forces but that the Pentagon has acknowledged killing some journalists accidentally.
During a Jan. 27 session at the World Economic Forum, Jordan reportedly said that 12 journalists had been targeted and killed by U.S. troops in Iraq. While Jordan was challenged about the figure and the assertion itself -- and according to a witness, he backpedaled and clarified -- Jordan's remarks have caused a firestorm of criticism that has moved from hundreds of blogs through the conservative press and into the mainstream media.
"Mr. Jordan emphatically does not believe that the U.S. military intended to kill journalists and believes these accidents to be cases of 'mistaken identity,' " the CNN statement said.
But one witness, Florida businessman Rony Abovitz, said that he was shocked by Jordan's initial claim and asked him to prove it.
"I was quite surprised, especially by his passion for what he was saying," said Abovitz, who wrote an entry detailing Jordan's comments on a blog from the World Economic Forum that was later picked up by others. "I thought that this was a huge story, very damning to the U.S. if true."
Abovitz said that others in the room, including Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., joined in the debate, which became heated before being broken off. But Abovitz, who co-founded a medical technology company in Hollywood, Fla., said that he felt impelled to blog it after realizing that others weren't going to report on it.
Abovitz, who has been deluged by requests for interviews, said both the right and the left have used this as a way of moving forward their agendas. He said that wasn't his intention.
"My real interest is in this concept of transparency, accountability and objective fairness in media," Abovitz said. "These were values discussed at the WEF, and right in front of my eyes they were being put to a serious test."
Meanwhile, there have been calls for Jordan's resignation. One CNN competitor, former Florida congressman and current MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, wrote in his blog that Jordan should be fired.
CNN wouldn't make Jordan available for comment Thursday. Jordan is a 22-year veteran of CNN, an Emmy and Peabody winner and oversaw the coverage of many of CNN's biggest stories of the past 16 years including both Iraq wars, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
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