Eason Jordan Resigns from CNN

Fri, Feb 11, 2005 at 4:29:50 pm PST

CNN News Executive Eason Jordan Quits.

NEW YORK - CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan quit Friday amidst a furor over remarks he made in Switzerland last month about journalists killed by the U.S. military in Iraq.

Jordan said he was quitting to avoid CNN being “unfairly tarnished” by the controversy.

During a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum last month, Jordan said he believed that several journalists who were killed by coalition forces in Iraq had been targeted.

He quickly backed off the remarks, explaining that he meant to distinguish between journalists killed because they were in the wrong place where a bomb fell, for example, and those killed because they were shot at by American forces who mistook them for the enemy.

“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,” Jordan said in a memo to fellow staff members at CNN.

UPDATE at 2/11/05 5:43:38 pm:

I have to believe this sudden resignation means Mr. Jordan’s superiors had a chance to review the World Economic Forum video and realized (especially after Rathergate) that their position was untenable, and that further stonewalling could be disastrous.

I’d still like to see the video.