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Eason Jordan
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NEW YORK - CNN chief news executive Eason
Jordan quit Friday amidst a furor over remarks he made
in Switzerland last month about journalists killed by
the U.S. military in Iraq.
During a panel discussion at the World
Economic Forum last month, Jordan said he believed that
several journalists who were killed by coalition forces
in Iraq had been targeted by U.S. soldiers.
He quickly backed off the remarks, explaining
that he meant to distinguish between journalists killed
because they were in the wrong place where a bomb fell,
for example, and those killed because they were shot at
by American forces who mistook them for the enemy.
"I never meant to imply U.S. forces
acted with ill intent when U.S. forces accidentally killed
journalists, and I apologize to anyone who thought I said
or believed otherwise," Jordan said in a memo to
fellow staff members at CNN.
But the damage had been done, compounded
by the fact that no transcript of his actual remarks has
turned up. There was an online petition calling on CNN
to find a transcript, and fire Jordan if he said the military
had intentionally killed journalists.
(Tony's Note: this is a very classy
move by a journalist who I trust and give the benefit
of the doubt. By admitting to an on-air error and absorbing
the consequences, he is extremely honorable.)
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