After the fall of Saddam Hussein, CNN’s Eason Jordan apologized for his network’s self-censorship in its reporting from Iraq.

Over the last dozen years I made 13 trips to Baghdad to lobby the government to keep CNN’s Baghdad bureau open and to arrange interviews with Iraqi leaders. Each time I visited, I became more distressed by what I saw and heard — awful things that could not be reported because doing so would have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly those on our Baghdad staff.

Today, CNN is reporting the Iranian election as though the state-run news media and Ahmadinejad’s vote counters are beyond reproach.  Nowhere is a hint that the opposition claims widespread fraud, or that the government has been interfering in communication all day.  Instead it sounds like some election here in the US, down to the man-on-the-street interviews (no Greg Packer, though).

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) — Defying many predictions, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held a commanding lead in the presidential vote count early Saturday.

With 72 percent of ballot boxes counted, Ahmedinejad had 65.7 percent of the vote while his chief rival Mir Hossein Moussavi had 31.4 percent, election officials with Iran’s Interior Ministry said.

Looks like CNN is up to its old tricks.  And they wonder why their ratings continue to decline.  If you aren’t going to actually report the news, wouldn’t it be safer for all if you just came home?

UPDATE:  Better now.  [Link added above, too]

Remember Michael Cohn, the psychologist who sued the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for denying him a tote bag on Mother’s Day? 

Well now we’ve got another loser with too much time on his hands.  ESPN.com reports on the case of Alfred G. Rava, who sued the Oakland Athletics for their 2004 Mother’s Day promotion to support breast cancer research.  There was a 5K run, free mammograms, and the A’s offered free floppy plaid sun hats to the first 7,500 women.  Rava sued because the hats weren’t offered to men.

In the Cohn case, a state appeals court ruled in favor of the Angels, noting that Cohn deliberately went to the game with the intent to sue.  Rava, like Cohn, has long history of litigious behavior, having filed over 40 male-discrimination lawsuits.  The San Diego lawyer wouldn’t tell the ESPN reporter why he would be at an Oakland-Minnesota game on Mother’s Day.

Alas, it appears that the A’s have caved in, as there is a $510,000 settlement in the works.  The A’s will provide $50 cash, 2 for 1 A’s tickets, and a $25 Macy’s gift certificate to any male who can prove that he was one of the first 7500 fans at the game in question.  It doesn’t appear as if anyone else is interested in collecting. One A’s fan suggested that the entire settlement should be donated to breast cancer research and noted, “No good deed goes unpunished.”