Is anyone following the Gannon story?

[rlbgbc]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 10:54am

Very, very interesting, is it not? I think it's getting legs with the mainstream media now.

Brief re-cap (and correct me if I'm wrong in any of this):

"Jeff Gannon" was a "reporter" for Talon News, an ultra-right "news agency" (funded by a wealthy Texan). He had white house press clearance, and was at the WH press conferences with the president. He also had access to a top secret CIA document that "outted" an operative. He asked a pointed question to Bush the other day about liberals "who have no grasp on reality", which raised the ire of some out in the blogworld.

After some digging, they found that his real name is John Guckert, he owe's $20,000 in back taxes to the state (I think Delaware), and to top it off, he's an escort with nude pictures of himself plastered all over the Internet. Now how did he get access to the WH press briefings, when people like Maureen O'Dowd couldn't? Hmmmm.... Updated On: 2/17/05 at 10:54 AM

[WindyCityActor]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 10:58am

....which is why we are starting to get warned about terrorist attacks again.

Let's try to avoid looking at the elephant in the living room.

[Jacques_Clouseau]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 11:00am

Is there a link? I'm not sure what you're talking a-boot?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 11:01am

Following? I'm obsessed! Read Rich's piece in the times today or yesterday's Boehlert piece in Salon. I can't understand why this hasn't been front-page news from the start: If for no other reason than, in a post 9/11 world, a non-journalist using an assumed name was getting daily, unrestricted access to the White house and the President. I'd be VERY curious to find out who got him his daily press pass.

Of course, the bigger issue is the Bush White House contempt for the press. He won't answer Helen Thomas's questions, but "Jeff Gannon" from "Talon News" gets called on at every press briefing for a year? And who showed him top-secret documents regarding Valerie Plame?

Sorry, like I said, I'm obsessed!

[robbiej]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 11:14am

Obsessed??? I'm DISTURBED BEYOND BELIEF!!!

And Jacques, I'm absolutely gobsmaked. You have heard nothing about this???


Read ye this, Republican friend

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 11:20am

I've been following it closely but was loath to post here.

But it seems that the White House arranged for a male prostitute to be given unprecedented access and part of the press briefings simply so that he could ask questions that would antagonize liberals.

The link, which I don't think I can post here, has various shots of him displying his erect penis, including several depicting him engaged in his specialty: "watersports."

[WindyCityActor]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 11:23am

http://toolz.blogs.com/toolz_of_the_new_school/2005/02/who_is_jeff_gan.html Updated On: 2/17/05 at 11:23 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 11:28am

http://www.nypress.com/18/7/news&columns/signorile.cfm
New York Press, February 16, 2005

The Gist

Calling Out Guckert

You, in the back, with the greased abs and sailor hat

By Michelangelo Signorile

When it rains exposed hacks, it sure pours exposed hacks! First there was Armstrong Williams, the dimwit who took money from the Bush administration to push its education policies on television and in his columns. Then there was Maggie Gallagher, the one-time single mom who believes everyone should be made to marry--—except for gays, who should be prevented from doing so through a constitutional amendment—--and who was paid to write administration policy on the subject for government brochures while hawking herself as an independent pundit. Gallagher was followed by Michael McManus, an "Ethics and Religion" columnist who certainly wasn't being ethical when he took money from the Bush administration, though he did it religiously.

The latest "journalist" with a curious relationship to the White House is James Guckert, aka Jeff Gannon, who wrote antigay screeds and gay-baited John Kerry—--possibly the first "gay president," he said in one of his leading questions during press conference--—but who now looks to have been associated with gay-hustler-themed websites while mysteriously gaining access to daily White House briefings.

To listen to the arrogant and suddenly pious anchors and reporters of the corporate press corps—--who've hardly been guardians of privacy in recent years--—it's all just so unseemly. The hand-wringing over liberal bloggers' supposed revelations about the fake White House reporter's "personal life" has been comical; and no matter what they say, it certainly does not reflect any newfound regard for privacy. It looks more like the media got beat, again, on a story that was sitting right under their noses. Playing catch up, they had to create a back-story that also acted as an alibi. Thus all the talk about the brutality of the bloggers who beat them to the punch.

Like bratty kids made to eat their greens, CNN, the Washington Post, New York Times and other news organizations were eventually forced to report on how a fraud using a false name and working for a right-wing web site owned by a Republican Party operative in Texas —Talon News—--gained access to daily White House press briefings for two years. Guckert even appears to have seen or known about (he declined to tell Editor & Publisher when asked) a memo that outed Valerie Plame, Ambassador Joe Wilson's wife, as an undercover CIA agent.

Guckert's escapades came to light only because liberal websites and blogs shined a bright light on him and began investigating his background. David Brock's site, Media Matters for America (Media Matters.org), pointed to the guy's habit of plagiarizing material from Republican press releases. Daily Kos and Atrios were also on the case, looking into his phony name, his background and how he was often called upon by Spokesman Scott McClellan, seemingly to deflect attention. At first, the corporate press was silent. This possibly served to embolden Gannon, who actually dared the bloggers to come and get him, writing on his own website, JeffGannon.com, that he was "hiding in plain sight."

But soon thereafter the blogs revealed that a company Gannon owned also ran websites with military gay-hustler themes, including hotmilitarystud.com and militaryescortsm4m.com and others. A photo of Guckert in his America Online profile also surfaced, showing him in only his briefs and military dog tags, suggestively positioned in a "let's f**k" pose, above the caption, "Still sexy after all these years." Within hours, Guckert announced on his website that his "voice" was now "silent," and that he had resigned from Talon News. Talon then scrubbed their site of anything to do with the guy. That's when the corporate press was forced to cover this story, choosing to portray it as one in which liberal bloggers--—as opposed to the "responsible" media—--went overboard.

On CNN, the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz asked Wolf Blitzer, if these "liberal bloggers" went "too far...in dragging in some of this personal stuff."

Of course, Kurtz thought the answer was a resounding Yes, even though the websites suggested a connection to the prostitution of military personnel, something Kurtz failed to mention. On CNN's Newsnight, Aaron Brown, who often romanticizes the "craft" of journalism, seemed to be grasping for ways to excuse his and other news organizations for not reporting on a guy who had been in their midst for two years. The first question he asked John Aravosis of Americablog, which was at the forefront of exposing Gannon, was: "There is, I think here, a kind of 'so what' quality. Here's this guy, everyone knows what he is, the only people honestly who read the web site are people who believe what he believes to begin with. So why the fuss?"

Brown also floated the White House line that White House staffers don't decide who gets into the White House briefings, to which Aravosis simply replied, "That is the biggest bunch of hogwash I've ever heard." We know how much this White House controls press briefing and who asks questions. Brown also lamented, "[there's] something a little unseemly about the way... people went after this guy's personal life." Aravosis cut through that one too, noting that the websites--—which Guckert himself told CNN were sites he created for clients when he was trying to launch a software company--—were about his "business" life, not his "personal" life, and showed a connection to escort services. Brown seemed not to want to go near the Plame angle at all—which gives major legitimacy to the story—--deciding to end it right there in hopes the story just goes away.

The story, like many, may in fact go away. Or, if Democrats continue to call for investigations (Sen. Frank Lautenberg demanded records from Mclellan while two Democratic House members demanded the special prosecutor on the Plame case investigate Guckert), it may have legs. But why, in addition to the general free ride the media has given Bush on a host of issues, was the press corps so reluctant to go after this story? Because they didn't want to upset the apple cart that is the White House press briefing room.

Just like the Pentagon press briefing room, White House reporters are fed little morsels of information. Anybody who causes trouble—by exposing, say, a White House plant in the room—is going to get punished, and thus be denied access and get scooped by the competition. So someone like Gannon operated among them for two years without being exposed, even though they all knew, and were clearly embarrassed by, the truth.

Michelangelo Signorile hosts a daily satellite radio program on Sirius OutQ 149. He can be reached via his website, www.signorile.com

[robbiej]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 11:34am

Oh Pal Joey...I'm DYING to see that...COME ON!!!!

Hit me w/ a PM if ya really don't want to post!

[rlbgbc]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 11:36am

Have any of you seen THE DAILY SHOW's report on this? There's a link out there somewhere...I'll see if I can find it. HILARIOUS...and cuts to the chase.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 11:48am

the right-wing blogs get eason jordan to resign, the left-wing blogs get jim guckert naked. what's not to love about america in the internet age?

scroll down until you find the link to the daily show...

http://www.americablog.org/

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 11:50am

Don't say I never did anything for ya, Robbie. Ya got a PM.

I wonder which side Dubya wears his yellow hankie?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 11:51am

And of course, in typical fashion, Guckert is now playing the victim. Victim-hood is, of course, the thing that right-wing blowhards use to make fun of the left all the time, but when the fit hits THEIR shan, it's another story entirely.

From Jeff's website:

Jeff Gannon
A Voice of the New Media

The voice goes silent.

Because of the attention being paid to me I find it is no longer possible to effectively be a reporter for Talon News. In consideration of the welfare of me and my family I have decided to return to private life.

Thank you to all those who supported me.

The voice goes silent? Hahahahaha. That phrase should only be invoked when talking about the late Mel Blanc or Julie Andrews.

Twitter @NamoInExile Instagram none

Updated On: 2/17/05 at 11:51 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 11:55am

His "victim" cries will fall on deaf ears.

But how did a gay hooker get so chummy with Bush's minions?

Who first found him?

And how?

[WindyCityActor]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 11:55am

Here's another link to the Daily Show clip:

http://www.comedycentral.com/mp/play.jhtml?player=realplayer&type=v&quality=high&reposid=/multimedia/tds/headlines/10015.html

[robbiej]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 11:57am

Holy mutherf*cking sh*t, Pal Joey!

My goodness gracious!!!

I mean...I've done some nasty sh*t in my time...but REALLY...this is too much!

Maybe Republicans do have hotter sex.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 12:05pm

well, gee, there's mehlman, banning and gurley (he never had a chance with that name) off the top of my head. maybe dreier hooked him up before he had to concentrate on winning his re-election bid which he did thanks to a district that probably won't last if arnold has his way.

[rlbgbc]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 12:30pm

Well, I'm shocked (read sarcasm)...

I now understand that Gannon/Gluckert is using the "Jesus" defense, i.e. "I've found the Lord and all that stuff is in my past."

How convenient. How touching. How....so-very-Bush. Updated On: 2/17/05 at 12:30 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 12:35pm

Speaking of which, I found Jesus in the San Juan bathhouse. As you can imagine, I knelt right down. (He actually insisted on using the English pronounciation.) Later, my friend came by and said, "I just had sex with Jesus," and to this day I have plans to get him a t-shirt that says, "I Had Sloppy Seconds with Jesus!"

So, did Ari get Guckert in or was it bachelor Scott McLelland?

[WindyCityActor]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 12:49pm

"I'm still mystified by this story. I was rejected for a White House press pass at the start of the Bush administration, but someone with an alias, a tax evasion problem and Internet pictures where he posed like the "Barberini Faun" is credentialed to cover a White House that won a second term by mining homophobia and preaching family values?"

"At first when I tried to complain about not getting my pass renewed, even though I'd been covering presidents and first ladies since 1986, no one called me back. Finally, when Mr. McClellan replaced Ari Fleischer, he said he'd renew the pass - after a new Secret Service background check that would last several months."

Maureen Dowd, The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/17/opinion/17dowd.html

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 12:54pm

if i read it correctly, and i probably don't but that's never stopped me before (how long before that quote ends up as someone's signature?), he got in under ari. which makes perfect sense as ari was at that time in the process of starting that sham marriage to hide his continued to this day illicit affair with helen "i had sloppy seconds with lincoln" thomas, so he was in no position to deny someone press privileges simply because they were a gay hooker. in some seriousness, i believe that he was getting in on continued day passes. so in some ways i guess the bush white house press room is really the disneyland of the journalistic beat, only every day is party day if you can produce naked pictures of yourself wearing dogtags.

[robbiej]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 1:03pm

Well...considering the stories I've heard about Ms. Fleischer, nothing about this is surprising.

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 1:05pm

"if you can produce naked pictures of yourself wearing dogtags"

Hell, papa! Half this board just became eligible!

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 1:09pm

another shining example of the karl rove/ken mehlman "big tent" policy. who knew they were talking about pants??

[Jacques_Clouseau]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 1:16pm

Ah yes. I had heard the story, in fact it was from this august board.

Very funny stuff.

I think though, that this reeks of one of two things, possibly a combo platter of both:

A) An overzealous, and somewhat stupid political appointee had a "bright idea" and acted pretty much on his/her own in terms of getting this guy in the door and asking questions. I've heard some very stupid ideas from people when they are jacked up and heavily partisan. In fact, I once told Hillary's campaign manager that if she came to my school, and my budget had to pay for the visit, I'd slit the b*tches tires. That got me in some trouble.

i.e. Not Bush's fault because they would have preserved deniability.

B) A conspiracy orchestrated by an enemy of the GOP. Come on, it is just as easy to believe that this is a left-wing conspiracy, as is to believe it's right-wing.

i.e. Let's chip at these guy's credibility. The more sensational the better. What? We can't get John Holmes... OK... next!?