PRESTOPUNDIT

EASON JORDAN QUITS!! According to ABC News:

Jordan said he was quitting to avoid CNN being "unfairly tarnished" by the controversy [surrounding Jordan's widely quoted statement -- later denied -- that U.S. soldiers had "targetted" journalists in Iraq].

This from WaPo's Howard Kurtz:

Jordan was being pounded hourly by bloggers, [leftists] as well as conservatives, who provided the rocket fuel for a story that otherwise might have fizzled.

When the blogosphere has lock-on, journalists tremble. The AP story is here and here. And here is CNN's version of the story.

Reactions: Hugh Hewitt ; Michelle Malkin 1; Michelle Malkin 2; Captain Ed 1; Captain Ed 2; EasonGate; Mickey Kaus; Jeff Jarvis, Jay Rosen; InstaPundit.

Additional blogosphere reactions at Memeorandum and Technorati as well as here and here.

Media critic and blogger Jeff Jarvis will appear on Howard Kurtz' CNN program "Reliable Sources" this Sunday. That ought to be fun.

More from Kurtz:

Blogs operated by National Review Online, radio talk-show host Hugh Hewitt and commentator Michelle Malkin were among those that began slamming Jordan last week after a Davos attendee posted an online account, but the establishment press was slow to pick up on the controversy. The Washington Post and Boston Globe published stories Tuesday and the Miami Herald ran one Thursday. Also on Thursday, Wall Street Journal editorial board member Bret Stephens, who was at Davos, published an account accusing Jordan of "defamatory innuendo," and the Associated Press moved a story. As of yesterday, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and USA Today had not carried a staff-written story, and the CBS, NBC and ABC nightly news programs had not reported the matter. It was discussed on several talk shows on Fox News, MSNBC and CNBC.

Not much more needs to be added to that.

It seems that the NY Times was tracking the Eason Jordan scandal from inside CNN headquarters, even as it failed to let its readers in on the story:

When reports of Mr. Jordan's more recent remarks began reaching the United States via the Internet, some of his colleagues, citing the previous controversy, responded with palpable irritation and mystification, though not with comments they would permit to be attributed to them by name ..

Hugh Hewitt:

At this hour, if you type "Eason Jordan" into the search engine of the Los Angeles Times, there will be no matches. None. The Times is not alone in having utterly failed its readers. A senior news executive has been forced to resign from an international news powerhouse for remarks he made about the military, the story is two weeks old, and the "paper of record" of the West Coast does not have story on it in its archives, which probably means no stories at all ..

History teacher Betsy Newmark:

Wow! Eason Jordan has resigned from CNN .. I hate to contribute to the blogosphere's triumphalism, but I don't see how this can be viewed as anything else but a victory for the blogs. It was a blogger, Rony Abovitz, who first posted the story and it grew from there .. I have a feeling that history textbooks 50 years from now will cover the effect of blogs much the same way they cover the advent of the radio or television and how they influenced culture in the 20s and 50s.

Michelle Malkin:

The shock waves that have overwhelmed CNN started with a single blogger and reverberated worldwide. I agree with Rony Abovitz that there should be no joy in watching Eason Jordan's downfall. But there is certainly great, unadulterated satisfaction in seeing the collective efforts of the blogosphere--citizens and professional journalists among them--produce the one thing the MSM has for too long escaped in its walled-off world: accountability.

Wizbang:

The extend to which blogs have shaped news events is often up for debate. Let there be no mistake... This was a clean kill. Even 5 years ago, he would have gotten away with it. The relentless pressure of the blogosphere made it clear that he had some explaining to do. When a sitting United States Senator called for him to release the tapes, it was all over.

The LA Times:

CNN drew scrutiny from on-air cable commentators, radio talk-show hosts and Internet petitioners, some of whom called for a release of Jordan's exact words. On the network's cable rivals, MSNBC and Fox News, talk-show hosts Joe Scarborough and Sean Hannity took Jordan to task. Also, a website called Easongate.com .. offered a clearing-house of criticism related to Jordan's statements. The website linked to 25 other sites in its "Blogroll," with mainstream columnists such as Roger L. Simon and more obscure bloggers such as "Red State Rant" and "Winds of Change."

Blogger Nationals Review nails the Times:

There are two people named Roger Simon. One is a columnist for U.S. News and World Report. The other is a popular blogger who I read regularly. The latter is more informative, but the LA Times automatically calls him "mainstream" because they assume he's employed by a mainstream media company. Winds of Change is hardly an obscure blog, but since the LA Times doesn't keep up with the blogs, they're well behind.

InstaPundit comments:

If, as many suspect, this will be spun by some Big Media outfits as a baying mob out for the blood of conscientious journalists, that spin will lose force when it becomes apparent that many of those describing the "mob" have only the vaguest idea of what they're describing.

Posted by Greg Ransom