Craven Calumny at CNN

 
At the risk of adding our voices to an already crowded chorus, we protest a CNN executive's repeated portrayal of US soldiers as murderers and torturers of journalists. According to the WEF blog,

During one of the discussions about the number of journalists killed in the Iraq War, Eason Jordan asserted that he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by US troops in Iraq, but they had in fact been targeted. He repeated the assertion a few times, which seemed to win favor in parts of the audience (the anti-US crowd) and cause great strain on others.

...Eason seemed to backpedal quickly, but his initial statements were backed by other members of the audience (one in particular who represented a worldwide journalist group).

It turns out that this was not the first time that Mr. Jordan has slandered the American military; last November he accused the military of torturing journalists:

"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 US forces," Mr Jordan told an audience of news executives at the News Xchange conference in Portugal.

Coming from the man who admitted that CNN censored itself in its coverage of Saddam's Iraq in order to maintain its access in Baghdad, this is adding insult to injury.

Like many Americans who spend a lot of time abroad (and especially among Europeans), Mr. Jordan seems to have become accustomed to badmouthing his country with little fear of any consequences. But this time is different.

Hugh Hewitt is right: it is time for CNN to come clean and either present its evidence for these charges, or repudiate Eason Jordan's claims and fire him.