CNN/Le dimissioni di Jordan. Per Senza Bavaglio il commento di Robert Wiener
Robert Wiener è l'ex senior producer della CNN la cui storia è stata
immortalata nel film "Live from Baghdad". Robert era interpretato da Michael
Keaton.
Il film e stato presentato in anteprima italiana al congresso di Senza Bavaglio
a Breuil-Cervinia l'anno scorso. Robert - che alla CNN viene consideraro
ancora
un mito per le sue memorabili corrispondenze durante quasi tutte le guerre
dal
Vietnam (allora lavorava per l'Associated Press) in poi - in una lettera
inviata a Senza Bavaglio, aveva spiegato perche si fosse dimesso a sua volta
dalla CNN un paio d'anni fa.
( http://www.senzabavaglio.info/PDF/Wiener/Wiener_Tradux.pdf ).
Ora gli abbiamo chiesto un commento sulle dimissioni di Eason Jordan, capo
delle news (praticamente il direttore) della CNN.
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From Robert Wiener
To Senza Bavaglio
I worked with Eason Jordan for twenty years at CNN covering some of the most
challenging and dangerous news stories of the past two decades.
Like all journalists, we sometimes had a difference of opinion but Eason was
the only top US news executive to leave company headquarters to join his
staff
in the field. He traveled to Baghdad, Bosnia, Somalia, Kabul and other
hell-holes taking the same risks we did to better understand the challenges we
faced
and to give us the best support he could.
Under CNN's old structure, Eason would still be around today....but media
organizations today are sadly overly concerned about making
big money and consequently under greater pressure to please stockholders and
not offend many in power.
Although Eason said he mis-spoke in Davos and tried to clarify his remarks,
the outcry that followed was almost like McCarthyism
in the 1950s....a witch-hunt, if you will.
Eason is a dedicated, hard charging and truthful journalist and his leaving
CNN is ultimately bad news for our profession.
Robert Wiener
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Questa la notizia delle dimissioni diffusa dalla Reuters:
CNN EXECUTIVE JORDAN QUITS OVER IRAQ REMARKS
WASHINGTON, FEB 11 (REUTERS) - CNN'S CHIEF NEWS EXECUTIVE
EASON JORDAN QUIT ON FRIDAY OVER REMARKS HE MADE IN SWITZERLAND
LAST MONTH ABOUT JOURNALISts killed in Iraq, possibly by U.S.
forces, the television network said.
CNN said on its Web site that Jordan conceded his remarks
at last month's World Economic Forum in Davos 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.
Jordan quickly explained that some journalists were killed
because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and
were struck by a bomb, while others died because American
forces who mistook them for the enemy.
But his comments erupted into a controversy that he said
threatened to tarnish the network he helped build, according to
CNN.
"After 23 years at CNN, I have decided to resign in an
effort to prevent CNN from being unfairly tarnished by the
controversy over conflicting accounts of my recent remarks
regarding the alarming number of journalists killed in Iraq,"
Jordan said in a letter to colleagues.
The controversy gained steam last week, with Internet
bloggers posting their accounts of what transpired at the
Switzerland forum, an event attended by political, economic,
academic and media figures from around the world, the CNN site
said.
The Davos organizers have said the session, like most at
the forum, was off-the-record, and they have refused to release
a transcript to preserve their commitment.
The resignation sent shock waves through CNN, the network
said, because Jordan has been 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.
REUTERS
(14 febbraio 2005)