Blogosphere Nails Another Hide to the Wall

Eason Jordan, head of CNN News, has resigned suddenly in the wake of a blog swarm over his comments about the U.S. Military at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland a couple of weeks ago. Jordan stated something to the effect that journalists had been targeted for assasination by our forces, much to the shocked surprise of the attendees...and the glee of the America haters.

This was not the first outrageous comment from Jordan. A couple of years ago he stated that a CNN journalist had been purposely shot by Isreali forces. Even the report of the shooting on his own network didn't back up that claim. Captain Ed and Hugh Hewitt have been leading the charge on the whole Eason affair.

Until today the mainstream media ignored the story, but the blogs ran full speed ahead and the heat finally drove Jordan out of office. Here's the release from CNN:

CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan resigned Friday, saying the controversy over his remarks about the deaths of journalists in Iraq threatened to tarnish the network he helped build.

Jordan conceded that his remarks at the January 27 World Economic Forum were "not as clear as they should have been." Several participants at the event said Jordan told the audience U.S. forces had deliberately targeted journalists -- a charge he denied. ...

The resignation sent shock waves through CNN -- with Jordan long admired by his peers, from executives to the rank-and-file. Jordan joined CNN as an assistant assignment editor in 1982 and rose through the ranks to become CNN's chief news executive.

Frankly, I didn't join the blog swarm because I didn't really think anything was going to come of this. Even as outrageous as the comments were, I fully expected the mainstream media to ignore the story and paint his critics as a bunch of right-wing wackos. I never expected the attention from the blogs to force a resignation.

There's no doubt about it - the new media is changing the way news flows and the impact it has.