US Soldiers Targetting Journalists?

http://www.nationalreview.com/tks/054944.html

http://www.nationalreview.com/tks/055019.html

http://hughhewitt.com/#postid1338

http://hughhewitt.com/#postid1339

This is the story so far: Eason Jordan, CNN's Chief News Executive, makes the claim at an international economic forum that journalists are being specifically targetted by US soldiers in Iraq. After being challenged on the claim, he backs down without disavowing it.

CNN's response? He was misinterpretted.

I don't know why people aren't concerned about this. This is big, big stuff. Probably the largest news organization in the world (well, at least one of the most important) has one of their highest men going around the world telling stories about the US military in Iraq, stories that if true are absolutely despicable, and nobody cares? News organizations can't just lie about stuff to pander to an international audience hungry for Anti-American news! Similiarly, if this is true, we need to find out the evidence now!

I ran this story off of one of the "I hate Bush and everything he stands for" liberals off of CARM, and his reaction was predictable but disappointing: "No, it's not big news. It's no more newsworthy than anything Rush spouts daily and probably just as reliable. Until and unless some evidence appears, ala the photos of the Abu Ghraib Graner/England party, it's just some guy flappin' his gums.We KNOW the US military has abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. We KNOW the commander-in-chief of those military personnel calls the Geneva conventions "a bunch of legalisms". We KNOW the Attorney General heir-apparent calls the same conventions "obsolete" and "quaint". We KNOW the president wants to hold both foreign AND AMERICAN citizens in prison indefinitely without charges and without access to counsel."

We'll ignore, for now, the supposed knowledge about these events. It's not just about being outraged, or finding out about bad things happening. This is about holding people accountable for their actions, be it the US military personnel ordering and performing these deeds, or the news executives who seem to think that they can create news to please an audience.

UPDATE: Apparently, CNN is sending emails out to some of the bloggers, telling them that Eason Jordan has been "misinterpretted." Nobody has said anything big (yet), but I get the feeling MSM will be on this one by tomorrow, or as late as Friday, perhaps. Rony Abovitz, the blogger who originally broke this story, is getting peppered by requests for interviews from MSM and bloggers. Keep your eyes peeled, especially to TKS and Hugh Hewitt for more details on this.