You may know the name Eason Jordan. As the chief news executive at CNN, he made headlines a couple years ago by admittting in a New York Times op-ed piece that CNN deliberately ignored atrocities committed under Saddam Hussein so that the network could maintain a staff in Iraq:

Over the last dozen years I made 13 trips to Baghdad to lobby the government to keep CNN’s Baghdad bureau open and to arrange interviews with Iraqi leaders. Each time I visited, I became more distressed by what I saw and heard — awful things that could not be reported because doing so would have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly those on our Baghdad staff.

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I came to know several Iraqi officials well enough that they confided in me that Saddam Hussein was a maniac who had to be removed. One Foreign Ministry officer told me of a colleague who, finding out his brother had been executed by the regime, was forced, as a test of loyalty, to write a letter of congratulations on the act to Saddam Hussein. An aide to Uday once told me why he had no front teeth: henchmen had ripped them out with pliers and told him never to wear dentures, so he would always remember the price to be paid for upsetting his boss. Again, we could not broadcast anything these men said to us.

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Then there were the events that were not unreported but that nonetheless still haunt me. A 31-year-old Kuwaiti woman, Asrar Qabandi, was captured by Iraqi secret police occupying her country in 1990 for “crimes,” one of which included speaking with CNN on the phone. They beat her daily for two months, forcing her father to watch. In January 1991, on the eve of the American-led offensive, they smashed her skull and tore her body apart limb by limb. A plastic bag containing her body parts was left on the doorstep of her family’s home.

I felt awful having these stories bottled up inside me. Now that Saddam Hussein’s regime is gone, I suspect we will hear many, many more gut-wrenching tales from Iraqis about the decades of torment. At last, these stories can be told freely.

Nearly two years after admitting that CNN covered up Saddam Hussein’s atrocities, the network still hasn’t covered them extensively. And now, instead of trying to correct CNN’s journalistic fraud, The New York Sun reports that Eason Jordan is committing more:

The head of CNN’s news division, Eason Jordan, ignited an Internet firestorm last week when he told a panel at a World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland, that the American military had targeted journalists during operations in Iraq.

Mr. Jordan, speaking in a panel discussion titled “Will Democracy Survive the Media?” said “he knew of about 12 journalists who had not only been killed by American troops, but had been targeted as a matter of policy,” said Rep. Barney Frank, a Democrat of Massachusetts who was on the panel with Mr. Jordan.

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Mr. Jordan’s comments — prompted by a broader discussion of the dangers of covering the war in Iraq, in which some 63 journalists have been killed — left Mr. Frank, usually an outspoken war opponent, speechless.

“I was agog,” he said. “I took a few seconds and asked him to basically clarify the remarks. Did he have proof and if so, why hadn’t CNN run with the story?”

Good point. If CNN has evidence to back up Jordan’s claims, they should run the story. And if CNN doesn’t run the story, it amounts to an admission that Jordan’s assertions have no basis in fact, in which case Jordan owes one huge retraction and apology.

Congressman Frank wasn’t the only one to be taken aback by Jordan’s shocking accusation:

The panel’s moderator, Harvard University professor and columnist David Gergen, did not return a call seeking comment, but he told online columnist Michelle Malkin yesterday that the remarks left him “startled.”

“It’s contrary to history, which is so far the other way. Our troops have gone out of their way to protect and rescue journalists,” Mr. Gergen said. He told Ms. Malkin that the remarks could have been due to Mr. Jordan’s recent return from Iraq, where he was likely “caught up in the tension of what was happening there.”

The office of Senator Dodd, a Democrat of Connecticut who attended the panel, released a statement that said he “was not on the panel but was in the audience when Mr. Jordan spoke. He — like panelists Mr. Gergen and Mr. Frank — was outraged by the comments. Senator Dodd is tremendously proud of the sacrifice and service of our American military personnel.”

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Mr. Jordan’s remarks might have shocked the American attendees, but they certainly played well among some in the audience. The Wall Street Journal’s Bret Stephens, who covered the panel for his paper, told the Sun that after the panel concluded, Mr. Jordan was surrounded by European and Middle Eastern attendees who warmly congratulated him for his alleged “bravery and candor” in discussing the matter.

So, not only does it appear that Eason Jordan lied, but his lie is now being embraced by America’s opponents and will undoubtedly be used as anti-U.S. propaganda. Jordan had the chance to cover Saddam Hussein’s actual atrocities, and he declined to do so. Instead, he’d rather falsely accuse the United States of imaginary atrocities.

Is it any wonder why some people believe the establishment media not only distorts the news to suit a left-wing agenda, but actively opposes the actions of the United States?