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February 9, 2005

Easongate Discussed on Fox's Special Report with Brit Hume

The Eason affair has hit Fox. Johnny Dollar has the transcript: 'The Crime Here Is Intellectual Cowardice.' Even NPR's Mara Liasson calls for the videotape's release!

HUME: Wasn't there some story, Saddam Hussein's sons had some assassination plans in mind, and they were revealed to him, I guess, and to CNN journalists who knew of them. And they were afraid to report it because they were afraid it would come back on them.

MARA LIASSON [NPR]: They were also afraid--

KONDRACKE: In order to get interviews.

LIASSON: He also said that he didn't report certain things because he felt it would endanger the safety of some of CNN's personnel over there.

HUME: Right, and some of the things that he knew about happened, and some people got killed.

LIASSON: Yeah, but I agree with Mort. If he has evidence of this he should come forward. I mean, this is an explosive charge. Now, he was--

HUME: Question is, what do you believe about what he, based upon who you've heard on this, who said--

LIASSON: Two people, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank, who are liberal Democrats, both said that he said this. David Gergen said that he seemed to walk it back, and a BBC executive who was there said that he seemed to clarify his remarks on the spot. The best thing to do would be to release the videotape and see what he said.

Krauthammer says Frank is an honest source:

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER [COLUMNIST]: Look, Dodd and Frank are not liars. They heard him say that American targeted journalists.

HUME: Do you mean that they're not liars, or do you just mean that they're not liars about this in your opinion?

KRAUTHAMMER: Well generally speaking. I know Frank and I think he actually, when he got into his scandal you remember some years ago, he was incredibly honest about it.

HUME: He told the truth, yeah.

Mort Kondracke questions the tenor of CNN's entire war coverage:

KONDRACKE: I mean, he is the news director of CNN, and it also raises questions about whether this is an attitude that informs all the reporting of CNN. I mean, he's said other things in the past too, that the Israelis have deliberately targeted CNN personnel. Everybody sort of knows, I think, that the Palestinians under Yasser Arafat at least, put pressure on correspondents from all networks. He seems to have a bias against Israel in this case.

The blogosphere might have been a little quiet on this story today, but it is still gathering steam in major media. Fox has just called out CNN on the air. No doubt some interesting phone calls are being made right now at very high levels.

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