Eason Jordan

There is a blogswarm gathering around Eason Jordan’s comments about journalists being “targeted” in Iraq by the US military. Most of the blogging rightfully attacks the comments he makes and has spurred Mr. Jordan to make a quasi-apology.

“To be clear, I do not believe the U.S. military is trying to kill journalists in Iraq. I said so during the forum panel discussion. But, nonetheless, the U.S. military has killed several journalists in Iraq in cases of mistaken identity. The reason the word “targeted” came up at all is because I was responding to a comment by Congressman Franks, who said he believed the 63 journalists killed in Iraq were the victims of “collateral damage.” Since three of my CNN colleagues and many other journalists have been killed on purpose in Iraq, I disputed the “collateral damage” statement, saying, unfortunately, many journalists — not all — killed in Iraq were indeed targeted. When someone aims a gun at someone and pulls the trigger and then learns later the person fired at was actually a journalist, an apology is appropriate and is accepted, and I believe those apologies to be genuine. But such a killing is a tragic case of mistaken identity, not a case of “collateral damage.” That is the distinction I was trying to make even if I did not make it clearly at the time. Further, I have worked closely with the U.S. military for months in an effort to achieve a mutual goal: keeping journalists in Iraq safe and alive.”
Mr. Jordan does what most leftys do when they get caught in an outlandish statement. They start parsing words. In the apology, Mr. Jordan attempts to say he didn’t really mean “targeting” but he didn’t like the words “collateral damage”.

Apparently collateral damage to him means something other than an innocent person accidently killed. To be honest, I guess I am not smart enough to understand the hairs he is trying to split.

Of course, we have grown to expect this hair splitting, as we are constantly reminded that no WMDs have been found in Iraq. No matter that WMDs were in Iraq at some point and that it is entirely possible that they were moved. No, the leftys argue, if they aren’t their now, they never were.

So we shouldn’t be so surprised when leftys split hairs. It is what they do.

See La Shawn Barber's Round Up

My buddy at Okie on the Lam also chimes in. Okie on the Lam

Wonder if Eason realizes he is "collateral damage" of the blogosphere?