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Another Right Wing Media Scandal
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| wolverine16 |
| quote: | White House reporter's credentials questioned
-- A New York congresswoman asked the White House to explain Wednesday why a man who worked for a news Web site owned by a GOP activist was able to obtain White House press credentials under an assumed name.
James Guckert, who reported from the White House for the Talon News Service under the name "Jeff Gannon," announced he was quitting the business "in consideration of the welfare of me and my family."
"Because of the attention being paid to me, I find it is no longer possible to effectively be a reporter for Talon News," he said in a statement posted Wednesday on his Web site.
In a letter to President Bush, Rep. Louise Slaughter, a Democrat, questioned why Guckert routinely received credentials for White House news briefings.
Slaughter linked Guckert's case to recent revelations that two conservative columnists who supported Bush administration policies had received government money.
"It appears that 'Mr. Gannon's' presence in the White House press corps was merely as a tool of propaganda for your administration," Slaughter wrote.
The White House had no comment.
The House and Senate press galleries declined Guckert's request for credentials in 2003.
Julie Davis, chairwoman of the Senate press gallery's executive committee, said Guckert could not demonstrate any separation between Talon News and GOPUSA, a Republican consulting group.
Both organizations are run by Bobby Eberle, a Texas GOP activist. Many Talon News articles also appeared as news releases on the GOPUSA Web site, said Davis, a reporter for The Sun newspaper of Baltimore, Maryland.
In a statement on the Talon Web site, Eberle referred to "Gannon's" resignation and said, "I understand and support Jeff's decision."
Slaughter said she was writing at the request of senior editors of the Niagara Falls Reporter in her Buffalo-area district.
The newspaper ran an open letter questioning "how a partisan political organization and an individual with no credentials as a reporter -- and apparently operating under an assumed name -- landed a coveted spot in the White House press corps."
During White House press secretary Scott McClellan's regular briefings, Guckert routinely offered administration-friendly questions.
He became the focus of liberal and media Web sites after Bush called on him during his news conference January 26.
Guckert asked Bush how he could deal with Democratic congressional leaders "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality."
Guckert told The Washington Post in an article published Tuesday that his political leanings were "admittedly" conservative "and that point of view is not represented in the briefing room at all."
"Call me partisan, fine, but don't let my colleagues off the hook," he said. "They're partisan too, but they don't admit it."
Slaughter said ideology had nothing to do with the dispute.
"It doesn't matter whether he's a conservative reporter. The question is, is he a reporter?" she said.
She told CNN that she believed the White House gave Guckert credentials to get a friendly questioner into the room during White House briefings.
"I don't want to be fed propaganda from this White House," she said. "I don't want people to be paid to give it to me. We deserve the facts, or this democracy will suffer."
Last month, conservative commentator Armstrong Williams apologized for not disclosing that his company had received $240,000 from a public relations agency hired by the Department of Education to promote Bush's No Child Left Behind education overhaul.
Syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher also apologized to her readers for not disclosing a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help create materials used to promote Bush's $300 million initiative encouraging marriage to strengthen families.
At the January 26 news conference, Bush said he disapproved of such practices and wanted them to stop.
"There needs to be independence," he said.
"All our Cabinet secretaries must realize that we will not be paying ... commentators to advance our agenda. Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet," Bush said. (Full story)
HHS later disclosed that a third conservative columnist, Mike McManus, had received $10,000 to promote Bush's marriage initiative, according to an Associated Press report. His weekly column appears in about 50 newspapers.
Several congressional Democrats have introduced a bill to stop what they termed taxpayer-funded "covert propaganda campaigns" that violate a provision included in annual appropriation acts since 1951.
Under the new bill, dubbed the Federal Propaganda Prohibition Act of 2005, the prohibition on propaganda would become a permanent part of federal law.
Federal agencies would also have to notify Congress about public relations, advertising and polling contracts, and the funding sources of all federally funded public relations materials would have to be disclosed. |
This story is just starting to break, so it's getting A LOT more interesting. Apparently it turns out that this guy went after John Kerry in his crazy right wing writings, accusing him of possibly being gay, yet he personally had registered some male prostitution websites and posed for pictures for them. Additionally he was given exclusive access to the CIA information that leaked the name of Valerie Plame and has recently testified before the grand jury investigating that criminal act.
Something is really fishy when a guy with a fake name writing for an illegitimate news organization repeately gets White House press passes and is frequently called on to ask biased softball questions and also gets access to classified CIA information that gets leaked causing a criminal investigation. Why haven't they been reporting about this in Scarborough Country yet?
Another story with a different angle than CNN found here |
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| MisterOpus1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by wolverine16
This story is just starting to break, so it's getting A LOT more interesting. Apparently it turns out that this guy went after John Kerry in his crazy right wing writings, accusing him of possibly being gay, yet he personally had registered some male prostitution websites and posed for pictures for them. Additionally he was given exclusive access to the CIA information that leaked the name of Valerie Plame and has recently testified before the grand jury investigating that criminal act.
Something is really fishy when a guy with a fake name writing for an illegitimate news organization repeately gets White House press passes and is frequently called on to ask biased softball questions and also gets access to classified CIA information that gets leaked causing a criminal investigation. Why haven't they been reporting about this in Scarborough Country yet?
Another story with a different angle than CNN found here |
Damn, you beat me to it. I was just about to post some info on this, but the NYDaily had by far the best story on this.
This is really amazing, and if this doesn't open up an investigation I'll be shocked as hell. John Aravosis at http://americablog.blogspot.com has been all over it, as well as some DailyKos bloggers who uncovered this whole fiasco from the start. It's truly amazing just how much they uncovered through some simple investigative tactics, and just how ing lazy our mainstream media is by not doing the same. Even the conservative websites are chiming in:
http://www.theconservativevoice.com...hp?storyid=2770
This really does open up some serious questions about this Administration - how the did this douchebag slimeball ever get into the Press Conferences under a false name? There's only 2 possibilities, and both aren't good for this Administration:
1. Too lazy to background check the guy
2. They KNEW who he was and let him in anyway.
How many here would seriously think #1 is true? Access to the President and the Press Secretary, and they're too lazy to background check? Highly unlikely, and I doubt anyone from the Press would agree with #1 either.
So that leaves option #2 - and that's not good.
And what's worse, what the was THIS douchebag doing with highly classified CIA material, if it was truly authentic material in the first place? I'm referring to the CIA memo on Valerie Plame. This connection with Plame and Wilson is what's really the interesting stuff here. There's a number of diaries on Kos that give an interesting timeline with Gannon and the Plame issue. Here's a good general summary:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/9/191334/0754
Here's a terrific interview landed by a Kos blogger with Joe Wilson:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/9/94615/61143
The story just got picked up on Yahoo:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=sto...whreportingpost
Lameass Kurtz has a story in the WaPost, though it mentions no connection to the Plame investigation (really shocked by this omission:rolleyes: ):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...0-2005Feb9.html
This is wonderful. |
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| MisterOpus1 |
Some updates:
Rep. Slaughter (D-NY) is demanding an investigation:
| quote: | Dear Mr. President:
In light of the mounting evidence that your Administration has, on several occasions, paid members of the media to advocate in favor of Administration policies, I feel compelled to ask you to address a matter brought to my attention by the Niagara Falls Reporter (article attached), a local newspaper in my district, regarding James "JD" Guckert (AKA Jeff Gannon) of Talon News.
According to several credible reports, "Mr. Gannon" has been repeatedly credentialed as a member of the White House press corps by your office and has been regularly called upon in White House press briefings by your Press Secretary Scott McClellan, despite the fact evidence shows that "Mr. Gannon" is a Republican political operative, uses a false name, has phony or questionable journalistic credentials, is known for plagiarizing much of the "news" he reports, and according to several web reports, may have ties to the promotion of the prostitution of military personnel [...]
And just this morning we have learned that "Mr. Gannon" has resigned his post at the, so called, Talon News amid growing concerns over his controversial background and falsified qualifications. In fact, it appears that "Mr. Gannon's" presence in the White House press corps was merely as a tool of propaganda for your Administration.
http://www.louise.house.gov/HoR/Lou...oom+Scandal.htm |
And Sen. Lautenberg (D-NJ) wrote to Scott McClellan:
| quote: | Dear Mr. McClellan,
I am writing to request that you immediately release documents to my office relating to the White House press credentials of James D. Guckert, a.k.a. "Jeff Gannon." Specifically, I am seeking documentation related to the question of which name Mr. Guckert/Gannon used when applying for credentials, and which name was on the official White House press credentials he received. Additionally, I am seeking documents indicating whether Mr. Guckert/Gannon received a "hard pass" or daily passes from your office. Despite your assertions to the contrary, at least one White House reporter has revealed that Mr. Guckert/Gannon appeared to have "hard pass" credentials.
As you may know, Mr. Guckert/Gannon was denied a Congressional press pass because he could not show that he wrote for a valid news organization. Given the fact that he was denied Congressional credentials, I seek your explanation of how Mr. Guckert/Gannon passed muster for White House press credentials.
I have led the effort in the Senate to investigate a number of instances of troubling propaganda efforts by the Administration. The Government Accountability Office has agreed to my requests to investigate various attempts at media manipulation: fake television news stories touting both the new Medicare law and the "No Child Left Behind" education program; a study rating individual journalists on their "favorability" to Republican education policies; and the payment to journalist Armstrong Williams.
Since the Armstrong Williams controversy became public, Administration payments to two other journalists, Maggie Gallagher and Michael McManus, have come to light. Given the backdrop of these scandals, coupled with Mr. Guckert/Gannon's role in recent White House press briefings and press conferences, it is understandable that the circumstances of Mr. Guckert/Gannon's credentialing have raised suspicion.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely, Frank R. Lautenberg
http://lautenberg.senate.gov/~laute...2005210903.html |
And in regards to my #1 scenario earlier - that the WH was just too lazy to background check this turd - Bruce Bartlett dispels that notion:
| quote: | Having worked in the White House, I can assure everyone that not only would it be impossible to get a White House pass using an alias, it is impossible even to get past the gate for an appointment using an alias. Thorough FBI background checks are required for the former and a picture ID is necessary for the latter. Therefore, if Gannon was using an alias, White House staff had to be involved in maintaining his cover.
http://poynter.org/forum/?id=letters |
This propaganda bull is slowly wreaking the "F" word.
(that's Fascism, just in case you didn't guess it yet). |
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| MisterOpus1 |
Another update-
Looks like the WH somehow missed this in his background check - a $20K problem with the local courts:
http://billmon.org/archives/001676.html
So how did this guy get Press access to the White House and the Press Secretary within 5 days after his website was up and running again? |
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| wolverine16 |
| He's now claiming he used his real name to obtain access, then would only be referred to using his alias. Even if that's the case, how on earth did this guy & GOP site get access and get to ask frequent questions when many legitimate news organizations are unable to? It's good that there's people looking into the allegations he may have had a permanent pass. |
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| wolverine16 |
| Ah, here's a good Court TV discussion to explain what's up with this story. I admit I'm a progressive and disagree with most of Bush's policies, but this is clearly wrong for any administration from any party to be trying to manipulate the media and it's starting to look worse than Armstrong Williams by the day. Yesterday Keith Olbermann's show played a lot of ridiculous questions he's asked over the last 6 months, but even more important WHY DID THIS GUY HAVE ACCESS TO CLASSIFIED CIA INFORMATION THAT WAS "COINCIDENTALLY" CRIMINALLY LEAKED? |
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| occrider |
| What's the big deal? You people seem to be suffering from some kind of "conservative" delusion that accountability has any meaning nowadays. Ownership society my ass. It's all about the ideaology. Let's get with the program folks. |
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| wolverine16 |
| quote: | Originally posted by occrider
What's the big deal? You people seem to be suffering from some kind of conservative delusion that accountability has any meaning nowadays. It's all about the ideaology. Let's get with the program folks. |
:stongue: Sorry, I forgot about that. I wonder if I can get press credentials as a member of the Tranceaddict.com Political Forum? My first question to get in good with Scott will be, "Mr. Press Secretary, do you fear that your boss, who should be considered the closest thing we've had to Jesus on this earth in the past 2000 years, will be risking his life by holding his next press conference, since all these liberal elites surrounding me in the press corps are proven to cause cancer?" All I need is a good alias and maybe they'll grant me secret access to the Bush twins' cell phone #'s or where the WMDs are.
P.S. Brit Hume's 'Fair & Balanced' take on this is "Well the use of a pseudonym for writing is a time honored tradition, including even Mark Twain, right?"
EDIT: Talon "News" has taken down every single one of "Gannon's" stories, but they are still cached on google.
EDIT AGAIN: Hmmmm...what I wrote about an hour ago regarding Brit Hume seems awfully similar to this "“Jeff Gannon” is a pseudonym. So what? Pseudonyms have been used by writers, for years. Do you remember Mark Twain?" which is from Mensnewsdaily.com, a site linked on Talon. Looks like there's some talking points being sent out by the GOP to spin this story into a non-issue, but it has legs and is starting to pick up the pace. |
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| MisterOpus1 |
My wife bought me Sirius Radio for my car for Christmas (did I ever tell you guys how much she ing rocks!?!), so I get to catch both Lefty and Righty news radio. Weell, the Morning Sedition on Air America caught something pretty damn interesting and ironic about Bush's White House Press Q&A, where Gannon threw that telling softball question that raised eyebrows. The interesting irony is the question and answer immediately preceeding the Gannon question. Here ya go:
| quote: | Q Mr. President, do you think it's a proper use of government funds to pay commentators to promote your policies?
THE PRESIDENT: No.
Q Are you going to order that --
THE PRESIDENT: Therefore, I will not pay you to -- (laughter.)
Q Fair enough. Are you ordering that there be an end to that practice?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I am. I expect my Cabinet Secretaries to make sure that that practice doesn't go forward. There needs to be independence. And Mr. Armstrong Williams admitted he made a mistake. And we didn't know about this in the White House, and there needs to be a nice, independent relationship between the White House and the press, the administration and the press. So, no, we shouldn't be going for it.
Yes, sir.
Q Well, Mr. Williams made a mistake --
THE PRESIDENT: Who?
Q Mr. Williams made a mistake. Did the Department of Education make a mistake?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. They did.
Q What will happen to the people that made this decision?
THE PRESIDENT: We've got new leadership going to the Department of Education. But all our Cabinet Secretaries must realize that we will not be paying commentators to advance our agenda. Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet. I'm confident you'll be, over the course of the next four years, willing to give our different policies an objective look -- won't you? Yes, I can see that.
Yes, sir.
Q (Gannon) Thank you. Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. Harry Reid was talking about soup lines, and Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet, in the same breath, they say that Social Security is rock-solid and there's no crisis there. How are you going to work -- you said you're going to reach out to these people -- how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/rele...20050126-3.html |
Anyone else catch this strange coincidence? Wow. |
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| Shakka |
| quote: | Originally posted by MisterOpus1
My wife bought me Sirius Radio for my car for Christmas (did I ever tell you guys how much she ing rocks!?!), so I get to catch both Lefty and Righty news radio. Weell, the Morning Sedition on Air America caught something pretty damn interesting and ironic about Bush's White House Press Q&A, where Gannon threw that telling softball question that raised eyebrows. The interesting irony is the question and answer immediately preceeding the Gannon question. Here ya go:
Anyone else catch this strange coincidence? Wow. |
Hey! Not to even attempt to upstage you(or your wife)...my wife got me XM Radio for my birthday(She rocks as well;)). I am pleased to say that I get glorious Air America in my car and I tend to listen to it in the afternoons just to get my giggles. Alls I can say is Randi Rhodes is a kunt of a kunt if there ever was a kunt, and I will find humorous satisfaction in her anger.
Odd. They censor c unt in this forum, but not , , cock, mother****** or balls. Correction: you can say , but not motherfukker. |
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| occrider |
| Damn, XM and Sirius??? Hmmm I need to get me one of those wives thingies. |
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| Shakka |
| quote: | Originally posted by occrider
Damn, XM and Sirius??? Hmmm I need to get me one of those wives thingies. |
Might I recommend a thorough cost-benefit analysis before you consider the plunge?:D ;) |
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