Blogs sound death knell

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The credibility of the liberal segment of the mainstream press was dealt a mortal blow by the partisan and fabricated attack launched against President Bush by Dan Rather and CBS News. The death knell was just rung because that same liberal wing (meaning the vast majority) deliberately ignored a hugely important story that called into question their very motivations and judgment.

The story revolves around the disgusting -- and some would say, treasonous -- remarks made by Eason Jordan, CNN's now former chief news executive. According to a number of sources, including Rep. Barney Frank, and Sen. Christopher Dodd, while at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr. Jordan let it be known that he believed it was official U.S. military policy for U.S. troops to target and kill journalists.

A jaw-dropping, defamatory accusation to be sure, and yet almost all of the mainstream media deliberately ignored the story. Fortunately, as in the Rather fiasco, numerous bloggers, cable and radio talk-show hosts and columnists, almost immediately jumped all over this grievous insult to our armed forces. So much so, that Mr. Jordan either just resigned on his own, or was more than likely pushed out by the "leadership" of CNN.

I put leadership in quotes, because the conduct of CNN during the last week of this controversy was nothing short of unethical, unprofessional and ultimately damaging to "The Most Trusted Name in News," the tag-line that, as "journalists," they have given to themselves. Even though CNN is at the center of the very storm their news president created, they chose to ignore the story. Why? Isn't the Eason Jordan case "news"? Wouldn't CNN have covered it if a competing news president had made such irresponsible and inflammatory remarks? In a New York minute.

I have a number of friends at CNN whom I know to be honest, ethical and hard working. I have to believe that they are horrified and ashamed that their own network ignored a major story about their own news president. It is for that reason that the death knell for the liberal mainstream press has been sounded. CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and the major left-leaning newspapers -- such as The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, USA TODAY and many others -- made a conscious decision to keep a major news story away from the American people.

Fortunately, the bloggers have once again pulled the curtain back to reveal that the feeble old man controlling the make-believe world of "unbiased" media is a fraud, and a dangerous one at that. The fraud in this particular case being Mr. Jordan. Least anyone forget, this is the same CNN news executive who in April 2003 admitted that he willingly withheld information about the abuses of Saddam Hussein. Mr. Jordan said that Uday Hussein, the crazed and murderous son of Saddam, had personally told him of his plans to kill his two brothers-in-law. The two men were eventually assassinated, and Mr. Jordan, the confidant of Uday, was proven correct.

With his very words, Mr. Jordan indicts himself as someone who aided and abetted the Adolph Hitler of our time. Mr. Jordan may be many things, but journalist is certainly not one of them.

The "eye" of CBS News, and the rest of the liberal mainstream press, has just been replaced by a much more powerful eye. It is the eye of the American people. Through thousands of blogs, they check, analyze and expose the misdeeds of the mainstream press.

And through this eye, we have all just witnessed the passing of the credibility of the left-leaning mainstream press. Let the new era of journalism begin.

Douglas MacKinnon served as press secretary for former Sen. Bob Dole. He is also a former White House and Pentagon official, and an author.