Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) called the comments by Eason Jordan, the head of CNN's news division, "outrageous and wrong," and said he wants to see the videotape of Jordan making the comments.
"I guarantee if any other official or person, a public official, made a statement like that, even if they were retracting it, they would say 'Hey, this is recorded, this is taped.' I think we ought to see what he said," Allen told Cybercast News Service.
The precise nature of Jordan's comments, made January 27 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is unclear because videotape of the meeting has not been released. But others who attended the session have quoted Jordan as saying he knows of 12 reporters killed by allied troops in Iraq.
At a Wednesday night press dinner in Washington, D.C., Allen worried about the impact that Jordan's allegations may have around the globe. "Now the troops are going to read this, they are going to know about it. This is in the blogsophere," Allen said.
When asked how international media and enemies of the U.S. may react to Jordan's allegations, Allen said, "I don't know what Al Jazeera or any of these terrorists or any of them have done with this, but you can be sure that any of the folks that are enemies of freedom, enemies of the United States, enemies of the right of Israel to exist, will use this to say, 'Oh, look at these Americans, look at how awful they are, they are not for a free press, they shoot them.' Which of course is an absolute falsehood, but there is the potential for that."
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) heard Jordan make the comments last month. In an interview with the New York Sun earlier this week, Frank recalled Jordan saying that "he knew of about 12 journalists who had not only been killed by American troops, but had been targeted as a matter of policy."
"It sounded like [Jordan] was saying it was official [U.S.] military policy to take out journalists... He did say he was talking about cases of deliberate killing," Frank told the Sun .
Dodd issued a statement earlier this week saying he was "outraged by the comments" Jordan made. "Senator Dodd is tremendously proud of the sacrifice and service of our American military personnel," the statement read.
Jordan has since disavowed the comments, but a firestorm of criticism has erupted over the issue, with coverage in major newspapers, cable channels, online news services and blogs.
World Economic Forum Media Director Mark Adams did not respond to repeated contacts seeking a videotape of Jordan's comments, and the Forum has not released the videotape because it maintains that the panel discussion where Jordan made his remarks was considered off the record.
'A lot of explaining to do'
Actor Ron Silver, co-founder of the Hollywood-based Creative Coalition, said he believes that Jordan did say what's been attributed to him "because Chris Dodd and Barney Frank were there -- they said he said it."
Silver also mentioned Jordan's comment in 2003 that CNN withheld some reporting on Iraqi abuses to obtain better media access in Iraq.
"I think this is a big, big story and I think he has a lot explaining to do," Silver said, adding that Jordan "should release a transcript or a tape about what he said because he occupies too important a position in the American media to just sweep this under the rug."
While Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) called Jordan's reported comments "too bizarre for words," other Members of Congress said they didn't have enough information to comment.
'Not clear enough'
In defense of Jordan's remarks, CNN spokeswoman Megan Mahoney said in a statement to Cybercast News Service on Wednesday, "Eason was speaking out on an issue that is important to news organizations all over the world. Unfortunately, he was not clear enough in explaining his assertion. He was responding to an assertion that all 63 journalists killed in Iraq were 'collateral damage.'"
"While the majority of the 63 journalists killed in Iraq have been killed by insurgents, the Pentagon has acknowledged that the U.S. military on occasion has killed people who turned out to be journalists," Mahoney's statement continued. "Mr. Jordan emphatically does not believe that the U.S. military intended to kill journalists and believes these accidents to be cases of 'mistaken identity.'"
In addition, a source inside CNN who spoke with Cybercast News Service on condition of anonymity said on Wednesday that Jordan feels passionately about protecting reporters and has been very distressed about the deaths of two CNN employees who were killed in Iraqi in 2004.
The source did not comment specifically on Jordan's statements in Davos, but the source did say that Jordan's focus is on protecting journalists in war zones and that he has made this issue one of his chief missions.
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