On The Media on Eason Jordon

Eason’s Fables
"Blog swarm" is the term applied to a critical mass of blogosphere chatter that forces a story into the mainstream media. Lately the phenomena hasn’t simply been claiming column space, it’s been claiming high profile media careers. It happened to Dan Rather, to Jeff "James Gucker" Gannon and most recently to CNN executive Eason Jordan - who misspoke last month at the World Economic Forum. After the resulting "blog swarm" Eason was forced to resign. Bret Stephens, reporter for the Wall Street Journal, joins Bob to suss out the damage done by the swarm.
Longtime Reader, First Time Inciter
Rony Abovitz also attended the World Economic Forum, invited as a “technological pioneer.” But when he arrived in Switzerland, he was asked to write his impressions as a first-time attendee in the forum’s web log. In his first-ever blog entry, Abovitz described his shock at Jordan’s charge against the U.S. military. If true, he wrote, “it would make Abu Ghraib look like a walk in the park.” Eleven days later Jordan had resigned and Abovitz was credited with igniting the storm that ended his long career at CNN. Bob speaks with Abovitz about inadvertently inciting the blogs.
Target Practice
So it seems that, without ample evidence, CNN’s Eason Jordan made damning insinuations about the U.S. military … and, without knowing precisely what he said, right-leaning bloggers made damning insinuations about Mr. Jordan. But what about the actual substance of Mr. Jordan’s claims? The Committee to Protect Journalists tracks documented cases of aggression against reporters in conflict zones. Bob speaks with Joel Campagna, CPJ’s program coordinator for the Middle East.