Over the last dozen years I made 13 trips to Baghdad to lobby the government to keep CNN's Baghdad bureau open and to arrange interviews with Iraqi leaders. Each time I visited, I became more distressed by what I saw and heard—awful things that could not be reported because doing so would have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly those on our Baghdad staff.
Oh man, does this story get my blood running. I first heard about this while listening to Rush Limbaugh on my lunch hour. Interestingly enough, a friend of mine also sent me the article via e-mail. Eason Jordan is the Chief News Executive and Newsgathering President for the CNN News Group. This means he has control over the direction CNN decides to report it's news. As you can read, he's decided to let you view the news as Saddam wanted to let you see it. He decided to become part of the Saddam Propaganda Machine. And you've just got to read this interview from October of 2002 where he claims CNN isn't hiding anything: Interview w/Eason Jordan October 25, 2002.
If this article is true, which I believe, then this means that CNN chose to be a propaganda machine for Saddam—in essence supported the regime. I thought a reporters first duty is to report the truth and to report the news. Mr. Jordan made a conscious decision not to report the news. If CNN would have had the stones to report on this twelve years ago, how many Iraqi citizens would have been spared their life? How many citizens would now be living free, in a democratic Iraq?
For a news company who know claims to know just how evil Saddam is/was, I sure didn't pick this up when watching CNN in the past 12 years.
Go read Bill Hobbs has to say. I think he makes lots of good points. You also have to listen to: Interview w/Eason Jordan October 25, 2002.
Here are some other opinions from around the web:
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