Thursday, April 17, 2003

Unfair to CNN's Jordan. Reader KH writes that the Washington Post editorial page -- and, thus, Media Log -- was unfair to CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan on Tuesday.

KH asks me to look again at this section of the Post editorial:

If the network had also told its viewers that Mr. Jordan dealt with an Iraqi official whose teeth had been pried out for upsetting his boss, Uday Hussein, then those watching the electoral story might have felt differently about that report, about the election result and about a regime that terrified its citizens into proclaiming their unanimous support.

Next, KH quotes this passage from Jordan's memo to the CNN staff, a copy of which Jordan had sent to Media Log and which I ran in full in the very item that KH takes issue with:

When an Iraqi official, Abbas al-Janabi, defected after his teeth were yanked out with pliers by Uday Saddam Hussein's henchmen, I worked to ensure the defector gave his first TV interview to CNN. He did.

KH asks: "[D]o you see the contradiction here?" Well, yes. Media Log is glad to set the record straight, and awaits word on when the Post will do the same.

Meanwhile, Boston Globe columnists Ellen Goodman and Jeff Jacoby let Jordan have it today.

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