Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon is a 41-year-old career military officer. He is the chief spokesman for the most controversial outpost on the planet, the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base.
And, if you're to believe a letter he sent to the Miami Herald last week, veteran Miami Herald reporter Carol Rosenberg so scandalized poor Jeffrey that he considers himself sexually harassed and can't go on with life unless Rosenberg is barred from reporting from Gitmo.
What a load of shit.
If you want to read Gordon's full letter to Herald editor Anders Gyllenhaal, it's posted here. But trust us, Gordon's complaints basically add up to this: "Waahh, Carol made a mean joke about us torturing detainees. Sob, sob, Carol made a joke about how ugly I am. Booo-hooo, Carol isn't nice to the CNN reporters."
Surely, the letter has nothing to do with the fact that Rosenberg has been a thorn in Gitmo's side for more than four years. She has broken more news from the tightly controlled base than anyone else, including her scoop two weeks ago about a prisoner protest. (You can read all of her Gitmo coverage here.)
On a personal note, I had to laugh at Gordon's complaint about "Carol's attempts to bully other reporters and establish dominance" on the base. When I traveled to Gitmo in January for our story about the base's final days, Rosenberg helped me from start to finish with my reporting and asked nothing in return.
Carol hasn't responded to an email I sent her about the dustup, but she declined to comment in other stories. Anders Gyllenhaal told the Washington Post that "obviously we're trying to sort this out. We're not going to comment on a personnel matter like this until we figure out what it's all about."
I'll save you some time and effort, Anders. It's about asking too many questions, demanding too much access, and refusing to go along with the dog-and-pony show that Gordon wants reporters to write about.
Let's hope Gordon's desperate ploy doesn't work. We all need Carol Rosenberg in Gitmo.
