Jeff Gannon - Fake news, fake reporter, gay porn provider?

[RickSp]

After the revelations that the Bush administration paid commentators to push Bush policies, it appears that they also gave press credentials to a fake reporter who lobbed only softball questions and was paid by a conservative millionaire with close ties to Karl Rove.

Why was a partisan hack, using an alias and with no journalism background, given repeated access to daily White House press briefings? When President Bush bypassed dozens of eager reporters from nationally and internationally recognized news outlets and selected Jeff Gannon to pose a question at his Jan. 26 news conference, Bush's recognition bestowed instant credibility on the apparently novice reporter, as well as the little-known conservative organization he worked for at the time, called Talon News. That attention only intensified when Gannon used his nationally televised press conference time to ask Bush a loaded, partisan question -- featuring a manufactured quote that mocked Democrats for being "divorced from reality."

Fake news, fake reporter
Online Reporter Quits After Liberals' Expose

"Jeff Gannon" is a pseudonymn. His real name is Jim Guckert. His writing has been stridently pro- "family values" and anti-gay. In a wierd twist to an already strange story, it appears that Jim Guckert owns several gay porn domains. (You just can't make this stuff up.)

Bush press pal quits over gay prostie link
Loose 'Gannon'

What does it say about an administration that pays journalists to flack for them and allows a phony pro-Bush reporter into the White House press pool to toss only softball questions? The implications for press freedom aren't pretty.

[Mr.Vicchio]

I'm not defending this guy, or the like, but if you think Bush is the only president, or politician whose had "soft ball reporters" or paid pundits to tout their ideas/programs...

Your naive.

And the gay angle.. that's just humor right there.

[Samildanach]

Agreed, been done b4 will happen again. Hahaha the gay angle is funny.

[RickSp]

Quote by: Mr.Vicchio I'm not defending this guy, or the like, but if you think Bush is the only president, or politician whose had "soft ball reporters" or paid pundits to tout their ideas/programs... Your naive. And the gay angle.. that's just humor right there.

Others have done it. The Bush administration just does more of it and does it very badly.

The gay angle - I have often wondered how many of the most rabid anti-gay fundamentalists are really secretly in the closet.

[Samildanach]

Probably most of them.

[Milton Bradley]

Welcome to Prject Mockingbird.


Squawck, Polly wants to be lied to, squawck.

[Scribbler1]

I see a recurring theme here. Almost every time something controversial points to Bush it is dismissed as "happens alla time."
It probably DOES, and HAS happened all the time, but does this mean it's OK because somebody you like does it?
Outrage for one side's actions should evoke outrage for the other side as well.

Back on topic:
Does anyone routinely screen the White House Press Corps' members credentials?

[RickSp]

Quote by: Scribbler1 I see a recurring theme here. Almost every time something controversial points to Bush it is dismissed as "happens alla time." It probably DOES, and HAS happened all the time, but does this mean it's OK because somebody you like does it? Outrage for one side's actions should evoke outrage for the other side as well. Back on topic: Does anyone routinely screen the White House Press Corps' members credentials?

The "it happens all the time" arguments suggests, what is to me anyway, a high tolerance for corruption. It gives the politicians a "get out of jail free" pass and just encourages this sort of thing.

I understand that getting a permenant press pass into the White House is very tough and usually only available to major media. Day passes are supposed to be relatively easy, requiring only a security check. Not sure how Gannon even got day passes as "Jeff Gannon" isn't his real name.

[PatrickHenry]

Brought down by the bloggers! Bloggers rule!!

What a sick piece of chicken offal "Gannon" is. And the White House admits fake name reporters to feed the POTUS softball questions. *shakes head*

Scum at the top and trickling down...

[RickSp]

If you can't trust the reporters in the press pool it is great that the bloggers are watching & typing.

The Democrats, Representatives John Conyers Jr. of Michigan and Louise M. Slaughter from Rochester, wrote yesterday to Patrick Fitzgerald, the independent prosecutor appointed in the Plame case, seeking an investigation into how the reporter, James D. Guckert, who used the name Jeff Gannon, had access to classified documents that revealed the identity of Ms. Plame. ..... Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, told reporters yesterday that Mr. Bush did not know who Mr. Guckert was. Mr. McClellan said that Mr. Guckert entered the White House under his real name and "like anyone else, showed that he was representing a news organization that published regularly, and so he was cleared two years ago to receive daily passes, just like many others are." Mr. Guckert was denied credentials to cover Capitol Hill, where press gallery workers said that his application indicated Talon was not his main source of income and that they could not verify its legitimacy. Karl Frisch, a spokesman for Ms. Slaughter, said: "This is a guy who could not get credentialed by the House or the Senate press galleries, and yet managed to get into the White House and question the president" and have access to a top-secret document. He added: "To imply he has no connection to the White House is just not credible."

Democrats Want Investigation of Reporter Using Fake Name

To claim that the Bush administration didn't know who Gannon/Guckert was is just crazy.

[rmnunez]

Another journalist with an agenda:

CNN's chief news executive Eason Jordan has resigned, saying he wanted to protect the network from controversy over remarks he made during the World Economic Forum last month about the death of journalists in Iraq. According to some participants -he denies it- Jordan told an audience at the gathering in Davos, Switzerland, that US forces had deliberately targeted journalists. In a letter to colleagues Friday, cited on CNN's website, Jordan said his remarks from January 27 were "not as clear as they should have been." "After 23 years at CNN, I have decided to resign in an effort to prevent CNN from being unfairly tarnished by the controversy over conflicting accounts of my recent remarks regarding the alarming number of journalists killed in Iraq," Jordan's letter said. http://sg.news.yahoo.com/050212/1/3qj4h.html

Question for those who subscribe to a Chomskian perspective with a conservative plutocratic elite controlling the media, would this be an example of that? Is it held CNN is part of the plutocracy's media? If so, wouldn't Mr. Jordan be out of character in impugning the conduct of the US armed forces?

[RickSp]

Quote by: rmnunez Another journalist with an agenda: Question for those who subscribe to a Chomskian perspective with a conservative plutocratic elite controlling the media, would this be an example of that? Is it held CNN is part of the plutocracy's media? If so, wouldn't Mr. Jordan be out of character in impugning the conduct of the US armed forces?

Yes, which is why they fired him.

[Scribbler1]

To claim that the Bush administration didn't know who Gannon/Guckert was is just crazy.

And the fact that he worked for Talon News , which is owned by a conservative website known as GOPUSA ought to tell you something.
The whole thing is just a dog and pony show for the saps who STILL believe anything that comes out of the White House. Once in a while a REAL question is asked of this empty suit and all he does is dodge or ignore it and nobody takes him to task for it.
Maybe Sam Donalson should be drafted to be the chief WH correspondent for ABC once again.

[rmnunez]

Mr. Jordan resigned, firing is something else.

[RickSp]

Quote by: rmnunez Mr. Jordan resigned, firing is something else.

Sure, he jumped, he wasn't pushed. Yah, that's it.

I'm sure he was given the choice of resigning or being fired. Best for all concerned and all that. All means the same thing. He told the truth and was forced out.

[Gorgo]

First of all, "the media" would mean that this remark was published in some newspaper or broadcast on some TV program. It was not.

Second of all, the guy's not working after whatever the remarks were.

Third of all, we don't know what the exact remarks were.

And finally, the corporate media allows for a range of discussion among the elite. There are factions. Bush works for "the elite." Certainly you'll find a certain amount of criticism of Bush and others in the corporate media, within a certain range.

Nixon was a criminal, not because of his mass murders in Southeast Asia, but because he stepped on the wrong toes in the "elite," just as a for instance.

Quote by: rmnunez Question for those who subscribe to a Chomskian perspective with a conservative plutocratic elite controlling the media, would this be an example of that? Is it held CNN is part of the plutocracy's media? If so, wouldn't Mr. Jordan be out of character in impugning the conduct of the US armed forces?

[castille]

Well if you think THIS is bad, you'll probably hate the Japanese government.

Governments all over the world do this. Its called painting themselves in a better picture. Some governments simply tell reporters what to write about them, other governments write it themselves, and a few governments use fake reporters.


Of course Bush was very stupid getting caught. Maybe he should pay his CIA operatives more money or something.

[RickSp]

Maureen Dowd in this morning's NY Times on Gannon/Guckert. Amusing.

I am very impressed with James Guckert, a k a Jeff Gannon. How often does an enterprising young man, heralded in press reports as both a reporter and a contributor to such sites as Hotmilitarystud.com, Workingboys.net, Militaryescorts .com, MilitaryescortsM4M.com and Meetlocalmen.com, get to question the president of the United States? Who knew that a hotmilitarystud wanting to meetlocalmen could so easily get to be face2face with the commander in chief? It's hard to believe the White House could hit rock bottom on credibility again, but it has, in a bizarre maelstrom that plays like a dark comedy. How does it credential a man with a double life and a secret past? "Jeff Gannon" was waved into the press room nearly every day for two years as the conservative correspondent for two political Web sites operated by a wealthy Texas Republican. Scott McClellan often called on the pseudoreporter for softball questions. Howard Kurtz reported in The Washington Post yesterday that although Mr. Guckert had denied launching the provocative Web sites - one described him as " 'military, muscular, masculine and discrete' (sic)" - a Web designer in California said "that he had designed a gay escort site for Gannon and had posted naked pictures of Gannon at the client's request." And The Wilmington News-Journal in Delaware reported that Mr. Guckert was delinquent in $20,700 in personal income tax from 1991 to 1994. 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?

Bush's Barberini Faun

[Richard 23]

Quote by: Mr.Vicchio I'm not defending this guy, or the like, but if you think Bush is the only president, or politician whose had "soft ball reporters" or paid pundits to tout their ideas/programs... Your naive. And the gay angle.. that's just humor right there.

Quote by: Samildanach Agreed, been done b4 will happen again. Hahaha the gay angle is funny.

Yeah, that's it. "I'm not defending X, but Y is ok because of Z." You're good, maybe even cracker jack good. And yeah, screw any laws that outlaw American government propaganda. And screw the liberal GAO. Besides, it was only "touting" and these are good born-again Christian Republicans, not commie loving, America hating, baby killing, crime coddling, secular humanists.... Manufactured news is good for the whole family. Bribery is the free market in action, nothing like, say, the black market, which isn't. You are out there, dude! And I'm from Neptune.

Some arbitrary politician might have manufactured their own softball questions at some period in the history of some planet in the known universe. Sure. And that magically makes everything ok. Neat logic! Let's not wallow in the mud and cite the litany of obvious examples. They're "common knowledge." Better yet, tell the one that starts with "Some say...." and ends with some wacko factoid pulled out of Fox's ass. I love that joke! "I'm outraged at the outrage." "Some of my best friends are <expletive>." Ha ha ha ha!

Megadittos! Smoke another bowl, Samildanach.
Is the "gay angle" related to the sinister gay agenda?
And could you really mean "ha ha hyprocisy?"
That primo "war on terror" smack must've already hit the street. Good stuff, eh, fellas?
Sanity's for suckers. Madness reigns!

Aren't gays the #1 threat to marriages nationwide? Or was that yesterday?
Now they're harmless comic relief: "just humor right there?"
Are we still going to amend the Constitution...someday?
Honestly I can't keep up with you guys....

That some of the loudest gay bashers sometimes turn out to have a sweet tooth for big hard cocks is nobody's business. There's nothing wrong with preaching the evils of gaity on one hand while jerking off hot studs with the other. How open minded -- how liberal! Ha ha ha!
The self hatred of angry closeted queers populating the Republican party is so funny to us real men, right?

Pretend the issue is limited to Gannon's soft balls. Mmm. Whatever gets your rocks off.
So what if the White House doesn't do background checks, or thought a male prostitute moonlighting as a reporter would somehow be more qualified than a Helen Thomas. Great!

Simple Scottie likes hanging in gay bars? Super! He's no gloryhole queer boy, dammit. He's might even be married ... to a woman ... of the female gender ... not a transexual. So what if he maybe found Gannon kinda cute. He is hung. You've seen the hardon pictures, right? And some say....

But this kind of stuff is irrelevant. Republicans are entitled to their private lives. They aren't Demo Rats, right?

Technically the private life jizz doesn't fly for Gannon. Prostitution isn't a hobby, it's the oldest profession, after all. But that's splitting hairs.

It's about perjury, not a sloppy Oval Office blowjob, forget the cumstains [smirk] and implied Presidential [giggle] cum shot. "High" crimes, folks. Ha ha ha ha! Wait, that's so nineties.

It's about a man had such reverence for the Oval Office that he always kept his jacket on, never mind that he sat behind the big desk when he gave a big thumbs up for death squads, arms for hostages, drug running and that other minor junk. Wait, that's the eighties!

Man, I wonder how this would have played out under Clinton.
Damn, Republicans are hypocrites!

It would be painfully ironic if a sex scandal brought down the "moral values" Bush regime.
Americans have no problem that it is responsible for blowing away 100,000 civilians based on lies.
No problem with torture either, the Geneva Conventions are warm, fuzzy and quaint. An electrode for every scrotum! Leave no fingernail unpulled! Frat hazings are good clean fun.

But nothing like a little sex scandal to inspire American puritans to outrage.
But it would only happen in a movie. Suddenly the corporate media gets all high and mighty about protecting the privacy for male prostitutes? Who cares about yet another example of government attempts at blatant propaganda.

The story so far: Republicans continue to demonstrate unwavering support for the Republican Administration in the face of any and all possible contingencies (for which they would have happily crucified fellow President Clinton, a fellow Republican) while the Democrats keep forming circular firing squads and vote with the majority after expressing their reasons for withholding support. Patrick Henry would be proud of us.

The irony is killing me. The Bush Administration is a laugh a minute.

[Richard 23]

Shop as usual. Watch TV. Drink. This is a non-story. Nothing to see here. Keep moving.
I know. I read it in the <strike>liberal</strike> corporate media.