Jordan conquered

Eason Jordan has stepped down from his post at CNN. Score this one for Captain Ed, Michelle Malkin and Jim Geraghty.

Jordan's action says it all -- CNN did not request that the Davos World Economic Forum videotape of Jordan's comments be made public, did not ask for a transcript of his remarks to be made public and no one ever presented a credible counterpoint to the accounts of Jordan's remarks by Rony Abovitz (not a right-wing nut), Barney Frank, David Gergen or Christopher Dodd.

Jordan keeps saying he did not mean to imply ill intent by US forces, but let's be honest -- there was no implication, Jordan made an outright ASSERTION that US forces deliberately targeted journalists; he also made no comment about his previous statements alleging US forces had targeted journalists, as the Captain notes:

Jordan's track record, extensively detailed in my CNN category, shows that his performance at Davos was no fluke or simple misstatement. Jordan has a long track record of unsubstantiated allegations of atrocities by the US military (and Israel's) that only became an issue after the blogosphere finally caught up to it. His dishonesty reflects the increasing awareness of CNN as a seriously flawed news organization.

The Easongate blog that started shortly after his remarks became public through Malkin's, the Captain's and Geraghty's efforts is somewhat satisfied but still wants the video and transcript made public. That would be nice and is preferable, but Jordan's resignation is a clear indicator that the video would not have absolved him: he slandered the US military in a public forum that was hostile to the US invasion of Iraq, gave credence to lies about US troops and later accepted congratulations from European and Arab journalists for having the "courage" to corroborate their beliefs. I said before that he should be sacked unless the Forum tapes controverted Abovitz's and Frank's accounts. That controversion was not going to happen.

There should be consequences for uttering heinous slanders accusing the US military of committing war crimes. And thankfully, there are. Too bad Dan Rather and Andrew Heyward lacked the integrity to fall on their swords like Jordan did.

More here, here and here.