Goodbye, Mr. Jordan.

Wow. Eason Jordan has announced his resignation from CNN.

Here’s his statement.

“After 23 years at CNN, I have decided to resign in an effort to prevent CNN from being unfairly tarnished by the controversy over conflicting accounts of my recent remarks regarding the alarming number of journalists killed in Iraq,” Jordan said in a letter to colleagues.

“I have devoted my professional life to helping make CNN the most trusted and respected news outlet in the world, and I would never do anything to compromise my work or that of the thousands of talented people it is my honor to work alongside.

“While my CNN colleagues and my friends in the U.S. military know me well enough to know I have never stated, believed, or suspected that U.S. military forces intended to kill people they knew to be journalists, my comments on this subject in a World Economic Forum panel discussion were not as clear as they should have been.”

Am I happy? Well, yes and no.

Jordan’s gone, which is a good thing because he’s not running CNN. But his apology is pretty weak and self-serving and he’s still not authorized the release of the Davos videotape, which would tell us for sure what he said and under what context.

What I really want to know is this: what the hell did he mean to say in Davos? He made a specific accusation, then backed off of it, then backed off a little more. Now he’s backed away from it completely. So what does he actually believe and what was he actually trying to say? The only way he could make it “clear” is by actually telling us what he meant instead of what would play well in front of an international audience.

And I still want the videotape.

Am I being cruel and petty. Nope. Jordan made an unfounded accusation about our soldiers while we’re fighting a war in front of people whom he had to know would be able to make good propagandistic use of his statements. He got busted for it hard and now he wants us to believe that it was all a misstatement and not what he really believes. Well, maybe this is what he believes and maybe it isn’t. I’m not inclined to be so charitable. AFter so many days of veritable silence from Jordan, I don’t exactly believe what he’s saying now. His explanation is insufficient and I’m not letting him off the hook.

But that’s just me.

And don’t even get me started on what I see as the MSM’s absolute incompetence or outright negligence in letting this story pass largely unreported.

Am I happy about this? Well, again, yes and now. I’m happy that the blogosphere kept this story in front of people – especially several elected officials – and got the attention of a few choice media outlets who were willingto actually cover the story. I’m also happy the blogosphere caught the public’s attention, especially in the form of Easongate’s online petition.

But I’m not happy that this is no doubt going to cost someone completely unrelated to this their professional reputation. The Jeff Gannon dogpile run by Kos and Atrios was, I believe, a direct response to Memogate. After Jordan’s reputation, the lefty-blogs are going to want a big scalp and, given the money they have available to them (thanks to George Soros’ paid mercenaries at Media Matters), I have no doubt that they’ll get it. The folks at Fox News had better watch themselves carefully for the next few weeks.

I’m also not happy that this story had to end this way. None of this had to happen. Had Jordan been equivocal at any point before today about what he now says he believes, this storywould ahve withered on the vine. The righty-blogosphere may be tenacious, but we’re also largely forgiving. We know that people are capable of saying really stupid things at times. Had Jordan come out, apologized, and been as firm as he past part of his apology is tonight, there wold have been no story. The comments back and forth between blogs would have run hot for a couple days, but that’s it. There would have been no talking to Senators or Congressmen and getting them on the record about what they heard. There would have been no online petition. There would have been no reason to press CNN on this at all. Noone of that would have happened had Jordan acted like a responsible professional. But he didn’t and now there’s media blood on the floor.

Goodbye, Mr. Jordan. Please don’t try to latch on with another news service. I, for one, won’t forget this past week.

As usual, LaShawn Barber has all the linkage you’ll need on this latest development.

(ht: Ramesh Ponnuru at The Corner)