After the meltdown of Eason Jordan in 2005, we expected him to disappear into academia. After almost two years, though, Jordan has returned with his own small news organization. Iraqslogger, named after one of Donald Rumsfeld's remarks, promises to aggregate all of the news stories that others miss, as well as providing original reporting from Iraq:

For the past four years there has been no shortage of news and views on Iraq and the long-running war there. What’s been missing: a one-stop-shopping clearinghouse for nonpartisan information, including material coming out of Iraq itself from natives of that country, not from foreign correspondents.

Now that need is finally being addressed in the form of IraqSlogger, in Beta at www.iraqslogger.com, but due to be officially launched next week. Its director is the former CNN news division chief, Eason Jordan, who quit that post suddenly in 2005 after 23 years with the company. The name of his new venture, he says, was inspired by a Donald Rumsfeld reference to this war being a “long, hard slog.”

You have to read the Editor & Publisher column by Greg Mitchell to believe it. He makes one mention of Jordan's departure from CNN in February 2005: "He exited CNN in the wake of the uproar over his off-the-record comments (which he insisted were misinterpreted) at a Davos meeting concerning U.S. military involvement in the accidental deaths of several journalists in Iraq." That's not what Jordan said, and Mitchell knows it. Jordan accused the US military of deliberately assassinating journalists in Iraq:

During one of the discussions about the number of journalists killed in the Iraq War, Eason Jordan asserted that he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by US troops in Iraq, but they had in fact been targeted. He repeated the assertion a few times, which seemed to win favor in parts of the audience (the anti-US crowd) and cause great strain on others.

Due to the nature of the forum, I was able to directly challenge Eason, asking if he had any objective and clear evidence to backup these claims, because if what he said was true, it would make Abu Ghraib look like a walk in the park. David Gergen was also clearly disturbed and shocked by the allegation that the U.S. would target journalists, foreign or U.S. He had always seen the U.S. military as the providers of safety and rescue for all reporters.

Eason seemed to backpedal quickly, but his initial statements were backed by other members of the audience (one in particular who represented a worldwide journalist group). The ensuing debate was (for lack of better words) a real "sh--storm". What intensified the problem was the fact that the session was a public forum being taped on camera, in front of an international crowd. The other looming shadow on what was going on was the presence of a U.S. Congressman and a U.S. Senator in the middle of some very serious accusations about the U.S. military.

To be fair (and balanced), Eason did backpedal and make a number of statements claiming that he really did not know if what he said was true, and that he did not himself believe it.

Later, of course, we found other Jordan statements of the same nature, always outside the United States, and always without any supporting evidence. CNN refused to allow the Davos forum to produce the video of Jordan's remarks, which would have cleared up any misunderstandings of Jordan's accusations. A CQ investigation into the incident revealed other CNN executives with histories of such unsupported accusations against Western militaries, and CNN never bothered to respond to any of the information that the blogosphere found.

You can find all of my reporting on this subject here.

It's interesting that Jordan chose Iraq as the subject for his return. After all, Jordan admitted to selling out CNN to Saddam Hussein to keep its Baghdad bureau open. He had his reporters read talking points written by Saddam's henchmen as independent news stories. Mitchell doesn't bother to ask about this, even though it goes straight to the question of Jordan's credibility on any reporting he does on Iraq.

Jordan's return proves that anyone shameless enough can push his way back into the national spotlight after destroying his credibility. E&P made itself an unwitting pawn in this manipulative stunt, and it abandoned any sense of journalistic ethics in running this puff piece on a discredited partisan.

Jules Crittenden has a good roundup on this, and Jordan's offering a free trip to Michelle Malkin.

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