A letter from Eason Jordan, Chief News Executive, CNN, to Jim Romenesko’s Media News:

The suggestion that CNN used 10-year-old images to illustrate Palestinians celebrating the terrorist strikes in the U.S. [which I mention below –FmH] is baseless and ridiculous. The videotape was, in fact, shot Tuesday in East Jerusalem by a Reuters TV crew and included comments from a Palestinian praising Osama Bin Laden, who was not a Gulf War player. The more interesting story — it has the added value of being true — is that Palestinian officials have threatened journalists for taking pictures of these Palestinian celebrations.

Romanesko’s letters column is also full of outraged responses to Salon’s June 12, 2000 lampooning of the recent report from the National Commission on Terrorism on the threat of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Other useful comments on media coverage of Tuesday’s events and their aftermath.

Thanks to readers who pointed me to the information on the Palestinian issue. At any time, but especially this time, our emotional reactivity can’t be allowed to swamp the need for sober assessment of the information…