PRESTOPUNDIT

HOWARD KURTZ -- bloggers strike and journalists go down:

The blogosphere, with its lightning speed and rough-edged sense of justice, seems to be claiming more victims more quickly. Three dramatic departures in recent days have highlighted the one- strike- and- you're- out nature of trial by Internet. Eason Jordan quit under pressure as CNN's chief news executive Friday night over his remarks on U.S. soldiers killing journalists in Iraq, following a relentless campaign by online critics but scant coverage in the mainstream press. In past episodes, journalists have been forced to resign, or news organizations to admit error, after Web commentators helped push a controversy into newspaper and television reports. In Jordan's case, the middle step was all but skipped ..

The only problem, of course, is that this was at least strike three for Eason Jordan, who two years ago admitted covering up the crimes of Saddam Hussein at CNN in exchange for access in Iraq, and who just last fall claimed that journalists were being tortured by U.S. forces. Can't Howard get his facts straight? More Kurtz:

Is the rise of crusading bloggers a healthy development, as many media analysts maintain, or the creation of a new Wild West with no rules or responsibilities? Hours after Jordan stepped down, Steve Lovelady of CJR e-mailed his verdict to NYU professor and blogger Jay Rosen: "The salivating morons who make up the lynch mob prevail."

Abovitz, the Davos participant whose own blog (is there anyone left in America who doesn't have one?) is called Fix the World, says the "pack of wolves" online should adopt an ethics code. "Before Eason is stoned," he wrote before the resignation, "are we sure that we are all without sin? Right wing bloggers: are you holding our leaders to the same standard of accountability that we are now holding Eason Jordan (see George W. Bush, reasons for invading Iraq)?"

Posted by Greg Ransom