Friday, 25 April 2008

Eason Jordan

Eason Jordan
His actual blog is; http://www.iraqslogger.com/

After 23 years at CNN, I have decided to resign in an effort to prevent CNN from being unfairly tarnished by the controversy over conflicting accounts of my recent remarks regarding the alarming number of journalists killed in Iraq.

I have devoted my professional life to helping make CNN the most trusted and respected news outlet in the world, and I would never do anything to compromise my work or that of the thousands of talented people it is my honor to work alongside.

While my CNN colleagues and my friends in the U.S. military know me well enough to know I have never stated, believed, or suspected that U.S. military forces intended to kill people they knew to be journalists, my comments on this subject in a World Economic Forum panel discussion were not as clear as they should have been.

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. I have great admiration and respect for the men and women of the U.S. armed forces, with whom I have worked closely and been embedded in Baghdad, Tikrit, and Mosul, in addition to my time with American soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen in Afghanistan, former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the Arabian Gulf.

As for my colleagues at CNN, I am enormously proud to have worked with you, risking my life in the trenches with you, and making CNN great with you. For that experience, and for your friendship and support these many years, I thank you.

I told Howard Kurtz I was surprised and didn’t know of any firing offense. Of course I haven’t seen the tape.

11pm: Kurt’z story is out: “Eason Jordan resigned last night as CNN’s chief news executive in an effort to quell a bubbling controversy over his remarks about U.S. soldiers killing journalists in Iraq.”

Jay Rosen [said] he didn’t think Jordan “had engaged in a firing offense.” Bloggers “made a lot of noise” about the Jordan flap, Rosen said. “But there was basic reporting going on — finding the people who were there, getting them to make statements, comparing one account to another — along with accusations and conspiracy thinking and the politics of paranoia and attacks on the MSM, or mainstream media.”

Wednesday, 16 April 2008

A right royal scandal

Yesterday 2 men were accused of trying to blackmail the royal family after they tried to sell a story to the news of the world. the story was that the 2 men had recordings of a sex scandal involving an unnamed 'extended' member of the royal family. Now we're pretty special here in Britain because we have a royal family and the tourists who come over seem to think its cool so obviously we made international news.

At the last count I'd found 527 articles about the 'Royal sex scandal' and although many of the stories were from English newspapers, websites and blogs there were still quite a few international ones:
1) The Canadian Press
2) New York Daily News
3) Sify News (India)
4) Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
5) Scotsman.com

Although most of the pieces are headed as 'scandal' there is not actually much detail of what actually took place (god bless censorship) most of the articles in fact concentrate their coverage on the two men who made the initial accusations. The stories focus on how the two men tried to black mail the royal family before been caught by an under cover police man posing as a spokesperson for the royal family. The plot thickens...

Google news and google reader

Over the past week I have been playing with both Google news and Google reader, overall I feel that it's easier for me to find my own information by myself and that it's more enjoyable t do it that way. However, that been said, i did come across some articles that i wouldn't have read if the site hadn't suggested them to me.

I think that the sites are good for people who haven't got ti me to look for information and who just want to be updated quickly every day. Or maybe busy parents who want to stay in touch with the world but still have time to chase around the children!!

I did find a blog that hs been amusing me though, it's called four in a row about a woman with four children under 5. Nightmare!