Where’s the video tape?

That was the question emanating from the blogosphere all last week. As many have pointed out, while we’ll take scalps occasionally, the Eason Jordan affair wasn’t about taking scalps (though I plead guilty to calling for his head if the tape showed the allegations to be true). It was about honesty and accountability.

Somehow, now that the chum of Jordan has been thrown to the sharks of the web, there may be a hope among many that the calls for the release of the tape, or a transcript (which may be much less damaging, for reasons I’ll explain in a minute) will die down.

Many are noting that if the tape exonerated, or mitigated Jordan’s alleged comments, it would have appeared by now. That’s true, but it misses a big part of the story. I don’t think that this was just about the MSM protecting one of their own. I think that it may be about protecting itself, or at least many members of it.

I have to wonder if that tape would show (and perhaps more starkly and much more graphically than a black and white transcript) not just Jordan’s words, but the approving reception of them by his Davos cohorts? The nods of recognition, the lack of any challenge, perhaps even murmurs of appreciation, until Rony Abovitz and Barney Frank spoke up. Gergen may have appeared concerned, and eventually changed the subject, but how long did it go on, and who was cheering Eason on? Was Iowahawk closer to reality than we thought? Who else will this tape embarrass (or should embarrass), and reflect poorly on?

Somehow, I suspect that if we were to see that video, it would provide much more than a brief glimpse into the soul of Eason Jordan. It might reveal the depths of the anti-military (and anti-American, or at least anti-Bush) sentiment in his colleagues as well, in an unguarded moment when they forgot that others were watching. And perhaps it’s their hope that by sacrificing Jordan, the rest of them can continue, incognito and unharried, in their undeclared war against the hyperpower.

Whether my speculation is correct or not, I don’t think that we should take Jordan’s resignation as a victory–it’s perhaps a distraction, and we should continue to demand the tape.

[Update at 2:30 PM EST]

A commenter claims that the remarks were off the record. How strange, then, to have an official videotape of a meeting that was supposed to be “off the record.”

[Another update a couple minutes later]

Bill Roggio has similar thoughts.