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Discussion Membership
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Legacy of Jordan and his peersIs there a legacy of which CNN's Eason Jordan and his counterparts should be proud? Help me find one. They are the ambulance chasers of Iraq, where the too-easy reporting of the body count of American soldiers elbows out the breadth of what has been happening. To quote Chrenkoff from his 19th such column: It has been a mission of this fortnightly column, now in its nineteenth edition, to bring to readers' attention all that "gets overlooked if not ignored" in Iraq: the advancements of the political and civil society, the rebirth of freedom, economic growth and reconstruction progress, generosity of foreigners and positive role played by the Coalition troops in rebuilding the country, and unremarked upon security successes. Contrary to some critics, the intention has never been to whitewash the situation in Iraq or to downplay the negative; the violence, bloodshed, disappointments and frustrations are all there for everyone to see and read about in the mainstream media on a daily basis. But to point out positive developments is not to deny the bad news, merely to provide a more complete picture. As voters faced with the defining foreign policy issue of the new millennium we owe it to ourselves to be fully informed about the state of affairs in Iraq. And that means both the car bombs and rebuilt hospitals.Then there has been the narrow, relentless, repetitive hammering of Lou Dobbs on outsourcing. Apparently, of little concern to Dobbs, insourcing has been happening at the same time. Nor has he apparently addressed the influx of foreign investment. Nor has Dobbs apparently spent much time addressing underlying reasons why a company might consider outsourcing. Nor do I recall the major media covering putting the national debt in perspective using graphics like National Debt thermometer and the full history of the national debt burden but then, presented this way, they don't instill the fear that makes for a good teaser. Then there is the propensity to manufacture the Unique and Telling angle, regardless of the news itself, like ABC's search for a military funeral for someone killed in Iraq who was to be buried on the day of Bush's inauguration. And we needn't go in to CBS's creative endeavors. Decorate this with the Absolute Need MSM that compelled reporters to set the adgenda to try to get George Bush to admit to a mistake at last April's press conference. They missed the focus on liberty that would take them until the recent inaugural address to perceive. Survey the wreckage and the solid reporting accomplished elsewhere is eclipsed. Survey the wreckage and what should the Bush White House trust? Survey the wreckage, and it is all that much harder to hold Bush's White House accountable for bad behavior for which they ought to be taken to task. Is this the legacy of Eason Jordan and his peers? [Macro error: Can’t call the script because the name “commentIt” hasn’t been defined.] [Macro error: Can’t call the script because the name “commentIt” hasn’t been defined.]
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