A former top CNN executive who accused U.S. troops in Iraq of attempting to murder reporters will produce a Republican debate to be hosted by Donald Trump. As Michelle Malkin noted, a press release touted the "prestigious" and "top notch" job Eason Jordan will do.
The debate is being sponsored by the Ion network and the conservative Newsmax magazine. In November of 2004, Jordon said this about the American military: "Actions speak louder than words. The reality is that at least 10 journalists have been killed by the US military, and according to reports I believe to be true journalists have been arrested and tortured by U.S. forces." These egregious comments resulted in him resigning in February of '05.
Malkin, in a post on her website, summed him up this way:
Former CNN head Eason Jordan is the disgraced journalist who admitted in a 2003 New York Times op-ed piece titled “The News We Kept to Ourselves” that he deliberately and intentionally whitewashed Saddam Hussein’s atrocities and regurgitated Hussein propaganda for a decade in exchange for access. Let me underscore that: In 2003, after the U.S.-led Coalition invasion of Iraq and the fall of Saddam Hussein, Jordan confessed that CNN had deliberately reported Baathist propaganda during the Saddam era because it was more urgent to keep their Baghdad bureaus than to tell the truth about that brutal regime.
Most journalists and media outlets ignored Eason's resignation, leaving it to blogs to cover. As the MRC's Brent Bozell put it at the time, "But what the bloggers did here was deliver information and accountability, the same things the major media purport to be providing – unless it’s one of their own in the hot seat."
The question must be asked: Why are Ion, Newsmax and Donald Trump giving Jordan a platform?
