CNN turns its back on its own

Danny Schechter describes his experience appearing on Fox news yesterday to talk about "Easongate."  His film WMD has a section asking whether U.S. forces targeted journalists in Iraq. An excerpt of his latest blog post:

I was hoping CNN might call and we reached out to Lou Dobbs and Aaron Brown to no avail.

I guess CNN was not interested in taking on this fight.

But Fox News was. Fox is always at war with CNN which it brands as a liberal network, a label CNN does not want or like. And so Fox scheduled a segment and asked if I was interested. When I told them I had a film documenting the attack on the Palestine Hotel, they were doubly interested. Frozen out by CNN and most TV networks who we bombarded with Info on WMD (save Court TV) I entered the Fox arena the way Christians were fed to the lions.

Needless to say Fox wanted to trash Eason, not the killing of journalists. They showed a very clip of my film with the sound muted but I did get to make a few points and plug the movie the best I could expect in circumstances of hostility..

Sean Hannity took some predictable whacks along with Brent Bozell but I held my ground and was still standing at the bell. I would score the round as a draw.

It was hard to shift the conversation back to the real issue – the killing of journalists and not what Eason Jordan said or didn't say – no one there seemed to know or really care in what was really a bash CNN exercise.

I got an e-mail from Fox yesterday afternoon asking me to call them. I did not respond. I have issues with CNN and the way it operates, which is why I left, but I'm not a big Fox news fan, either. Nor do I want to be used any further in an effort to bring down my former boss, for whom I continue to have a lot of personal respect (and to whom I owe a great deal career-wise), despite his unfortunate choice of words at Davos, which he has said repeatedly he did not mean. 

What makes me sick is how a lot of people are going to benefit from this whole thing personally, and in some cases financially. On the right, Hugh Hewitt gets tons of book publicity in what is turning out to be a textbook case of the "blog swarm" phenomenon his book describes. On the left, Danny has an opportunity to plug his film. Lots of bloggers are making names for themselves. Yes, there are very legitimate issues on all sides that need to be discussed. I'm not trying to deny or belittle that fact. But most of these issues are not black-and-white. Unfortunately shades of grey aren't as interesting or useful for most people's purposes.

I remain disappointed in the many journalists who have spent lots of time on the ground in Iraq, and who have failed to do anything to shed light on the substance and facts of this issue - one way or the other. I am disappointed in their editors for not assigning them stories on this issue. 

I'm especially disappointed with CNN for the way they're running away from the story, hoping it will go away. It won't. CNN has done itself more harm than good over the last several years by being horribly afraid to stand up for any particular set of principles. It tries very hard to please everybody and offend nobody - but ends up offending everybody and pleasing nobody. No wonder internal morale is low and ratings are bad.

Comments

[Sisyphus]

Rebecca,

Did you have a chance to read Jay Rosen's post with Richard Sambrook?

I commented on the Palestine Hotel incident there.

[Rebecca MacKinnon]

Sisyphus,
Yep I read the post but didn't catch your comment. Very useful links. Thanks.

[p.lukasiak]

I'm especially disappointed with CNN for the way they're running away from the story, hoping it will go away.

don't you mean the non-story that you are legitimizing? because the real story here is not what Jordan said or did not say, its how people like you and Jay Rosen legitimized this non-story, making it fodder for the mainstream media despite the fact that Rory's original post made it obvious that Jordan did not mean what he (may have) said.

People like you--- so-called "progressives" -- are a very large part of the problem. You remain in denial about the nature of the right-wing media, and try to deal with "issues" as if the right wing was not setting the agenda with regard to which "issues" should be discussed. You actually take rightloons like Hewitt, Jarvis, Reynolds, Cox, and "Hindrocket" seriously.

These people are NOT interested in civil discourse, because the first and most important element of civil discourse is intellectual honesty. But you'd prefer to deal with well-mannered propagandists than people who honestly and vehemently express their opinions. (I understand that Goebbels was consider very well mannered....)

[Tom Grey]

Please Please Rebecca, bring up the issues.

I already know I think Mr. Jordan should be fired, just as I think Mr. Rather should have been; and that Mr. Trent Lott should have been ... and that Pres. Nixon should have been impeached and gone to jail (and I voted for Carter to hold Ford accountable).

One of the main issues is this: when you take a picture, you're on one side or the other. There is no fence to be on, no true third party.

You can be for America/ Bush/ the invasion of Iraq/ democracy -- and STILL criticize specific acts. Or you can be anti-American, and still criticize the terrorist beheadings. But everybody is on one side or the other.

Mr. Jordan is anti-American, like most CNN, but trying to hide it.

Another issue: it MIGHT even be true that one or two or three of the journalists killed by coalition fire were "knowingly" killed; but almost certainly any such charge would have too little evidence.

p.luka -- intellectually honesty -- ha! The Left has long played Gotcha with every Rep politician -- but the powerful, non-voted for Jordan already confessed that CNN lied and kissed up to Saddam to get stories (April 2003); he should have been fired then. Jordan already claimed the US military was torturing journalists. (Off with his job!)

But OK, intellectual honest. Where is the tape??? Trent Lott lost his power for a comment about an old friend who, long ago, was almost as racist as Sen Bryd (former KKK Kleagle). The Left is NOT asking for the tape, for the truth. THAT is a story.

Unlike Dawn Eden, who lost her job at NY Post for editing in some true pro-life facts in story. She shouldn't have lost her job for that; unless it's the paper policy.

[Hairy]

Where was the "media" when Eason first made the comments in November 2004? http://whatshappeningatcnn.blogspot.com/2004/11/cnn-exec-accuses-military-of-not.html

[metapod]

I would expect news directors of prominent news agencies to possess some semblance of capacity to manage their words and to self-monitor their comments in the context of political sensitivities inasmuch as we would expect from our politicians, particularly regarding subjects which involve American troops who are IN THE MIDST of performing dangerous operations AND DO NOT NEED more stress or ill-repute to follow each and every one of them around unjustly due to the careless behavior of a single "crusader" for journalistic truth. Eason Jordan should have had his facts in order before leaking his theory or his intuitive impression of what maybe might possibly have been going on. Maybe he's just a lousy journalist.

[Kelly Ronald]

Your site is a very nice source of info. Fantastic blog: http://www.cosmicbuddha.com/blog/archives/001169.html , Small brain blog