Feb. 13, 2005, 10:33PM MORE PROPAGANDA Fake reporter's questioning of the president fits into the administration's widening pattern of manufactured journalism. Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle The unmasking of an alleged journalist who used a pseudonym to gain access to White House briefings and news conferences raises more questions about the Bush administration's tactics for securing favorable news. James Guckert, who used the Talon News byline "Jeff Gannon," managed to get access to the White House on a daily basis for two years. Guckert questioned President Bush at a January news conference last month, tossing a softball query that ridiculed Democrats for "being divorced from reality." The organization Guckert worked for turned out to be an arm of a partisan group, GOPUSA, a conservative Web site based in Houston and dedicated to "spreading the conservative message throughout America." It turns out Talon News was created only a few days before Guckert first applied for a White House daily pass. Guckert was denied similar credentials to cover Capitol Hill because of questions about his legitimacy as a reporter. His identity was exposed by bloggers, and he turned out to be associated with a number of sexually oriented Web sites. Guckert resigned, claiming harassment by liberals. Guckert's only credential as a journalist appears to be attendance at a two-day seminar by the conservative Leadership Oriented Broadcast Journalism School. He apparently gained access to the White House using little more than a fake name, a Social Security number, and date of birth. In an age of heightened security, it's hard to believe this lapse could occur without someone inside the White House vouching for Guckert. The alternative would be little meaningful security at the executive mansion. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said President Bush did not know who Guckert was. A journalist familiar with the process says it's likely Bush was tipped by his press staff that "the bald guy would lob him an easy one." If so, setting up ringers to toss fawning questions to the president is another indication, if any were needed, that the administration prefers the media to be propagandists rather than independent inquisitors. At least there's no indication the White House was involved in directly paying Guckert for his services, as the administration did in three other recent incidents. 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 Act. 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. 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. The practice of buying ostensibly independent reporters and writers to shill for politicians deceives the public and corrupts the free media. Allowing fake reporters to compete with credentialed journalists for sparse press conference time with the leader of the free world demeans the whole process. ********** Why does the Houston Chronicle engage is such "gotcha"journalism. Why can't they just be moderate and content? link
glynch -- reporting the news...bad or good...is their job. i have no problem with that. it's the back and forth posting from groups here like shirts vs. skins that is laughable to me. Group 1: "Look at what your guy did!!! Defend that b****es!!!" Group 2: "Oh yeah?? Well remember when your guy did that other thing with that other person?? You guys are bad guys!!! This situation is tiny compared to that!!!" Group 1: "OH yeah??? Well Case Closed!!!" And on and on. Those who see one side as good guys and the other side as bad guys are funny to me. It's amazingly hypocritical...particularly when one of the things you criticize the other side for is labelling others as good or evil! That's just funny.
Keith Olbermann February 17, 2005 | 7:26 p.m. ET Press pass bypass (Keith Olbermann) SECAUCUS— There is a guy who sits, during every game, in the press box of a major league baseball stadium. And he is issued a credential each season because it turns out the owner of the team likes the canolis that the guy makes at his bakery. The first time he appeared, with a seat in the back row with a nameplate affixed to it, we knew he wasn’t exactly the new man from Sports Illustrated. He had a certain problem with, well, language (he said a player with a strained muscle near where his legs meet was out with a “groan injury”), and with forgetting that the proper response to an error on the field by the home team was not to stand up and start screaming at the player — nor weeping. As soon as this gentleman arrived, the real baseball reporters questioned the team’s press representative as to who this guy was and what was he doing there. And they got some concessions out of the team— like, this man couldn't go into the clubhouses or on the field and ask questions of the players while the reporters were trying to get answers to include in their reports. In short, ‘Groan Injury Man’ was better vetted by that ballclub than James Guckert alias Jeff Gannon was vetted by the White House press office. Today, the key, slim, rationale for his admittance to the briefing room - that the ‘vanity website’ for which he ‘reported,’ Talon News, was created four days before “Jeff Gannon” got his first White House pass— collapsed. It was revealed that Guckert attended his first White House press briefing no later than February 2003. "Talon News" would not be launched until the late the following month. It was a bad enough that somebody let in a guy with no media experience, an alias, and a background as an on-line escort — but why did they let him in if he wasn't even pretending to represent a news organization of any kind? We saw videotape tape of Guckert/Gannon, peeking out from behind reporters, at the White House briefing on February 28th, 2003 — so long ago, that Ari Fleischer was still President Bush's press secretary. It was so unlikely that — as first reported today on the Website Salon— Guckert, under his pseudonym Gannon, "boasted on-line" at a chat room called “Winds Of Change” about asking Fleischer a question at that briefing (the return address that pops up when you scroll over his comment is www.gopusa.com). In the context of the time— remember, Gannon’s status as shill began three weeks before the bombing commenced in Iraq— his question bordered on the unbelievable. The news conference was all about Resolution 1441, and votes at the U.N., and destruction of al-Samoud missiles in Iraq. But Guckert asked: “There have been reports out of Maine that the children of deployed service personnel are being harassed as a result of their elementary school teacher's expression of anti-war views in the classroom. Could you comment on that?” Mr. Fleischer’s reply: “I'm not familiar with any specific report, but I can assure you that the President, in all instances, believes that it's important for all to honor and respect the First Amendment.” The ‘reports’ to which Guckert referred were largely from Rush Limbaugh's radio program, and The Washington Times. And questions like the one he asked, and Guckert's affiliations, so concerned Mr. Fleischer that he stopped calling on Guckert during press briefings for about a week. So Fleischer told the news industry magazine "Editor & Publisher" late this afternoon:"I found out that he worked for a GOPUSA site and I didn't think it was my place to call on him because he worked for something that was related to the party. "I don't think that party organizations should have people in that room acting as reporters,” Fleischer continued. “They are advocates, not reporters and a line should be drawn." Fleischer nonetheless resumed taking Guckert's questions, he says, after the GOPUSA site owner, Bobby Eberle, phoned him and convinced him that it was not an 'official' Republican website. Fleischer also said that as Press Secretary, he did not know "Jeff Gannon" was an alias— that he'd found out with the rest of us. There are the two most alarming truths contained in the E&P interviewed with Fleischer. He "found out" that Guckert was from this GOP-USA website, and just recently he "found out" that Guckert was his real name, not Jeff Gannon. That means somebody other than the Press Secretary to the President got Guckert in there, vetted him, and cleared him through the Secret Service. Guckert's presence in the White House briefing room before the creation of his pseudo-news organization changes the entire dynamic of the controversy. It fully expands it from mere concern over the nature of his questions and the legitimacy of his credentials, to the process by which he got there in the first place. Somebody admitted him, to the White House, as a reporter named Jeff Gannon— even though he wasn’t Jeff Gannon, he wasn’t a reporter, and he wasn't representing any media outlet. Current White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has insisted that Guckert was entitled to a so-called "day pass" just as any other 'regularly published' reporter was, and that he did not decide who merited passes and who didn't. But today, a New York Times columnist said that her press credentials were revoked in 2001 after 15 years. Maureen Dowd writes: "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... At first when I tried to complain about not getting my pass renewed... 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." Perhaps next time Ms. Dowd should use an alias. Or get her questions from a former delegate to a political convention. Or bring some canoli. E-mail: KOlbermann@MSNBC.com (alias Keith Olbermann and Bloggermann)
I guess there isn't much of a point to keep up this thread. He is obviously put there by the White House staff to ask those questions. What do you want White House staff to say? Admit the truth? It is over, save this url and bring it back in 2008. Mark
http://daveswebsite.org/images/w****.jpg Artists rendition of reporter on White House payroll waiting for the next "scoop".
There are lots of reasons for keeping up ... Since resigning to protect his family (read ass) Gannon was found to associated with several gay military sex sites was found to actually star in said sites was found selling his wares in said sites was found to be in the WH press room before having any press credentials was allegedly given a hard pass which would require a background check was involved with the Plame scandal (one of the few journos given an internal CIA memo stating Plame's job) leaked other insidered info to other journos before the official press release (like 4 hours before Shock and Awe he knew and leaked)
The recent public focus on Talon News, while much of it malicious, has indeed brought some constructive elements to the surface. It has also brought many kind messages of support, and for that we are extremely grateful. In order to better serve those readers across the country who enjoy Talon News content and look forward to receiving it each day, we feel compelled to reevaluate operations in order to provide the highest quality, most professional product possible. Thus, Talon News will be offline while we redesign the web site, perform a top-to-bottom review of staff and volunteer contributors, and address future operational procedures. We look forward to bringing an even better product to our readers in the future. Luckily my buddies over at DU translated the page for me... The recent public focus on Talon News, while much of it malicious, has indeed brought some constructive elements to the surface. See, when we put this site up, we really didn't expect anyone was gonna look at it, so we didn't really spend that much time designing it. But some of our hate mail had great suggestions for how to spruce things up. Thanks, Revolutionary Army of Liberal Death Bloggers! You're gonna love our new look! It has also brought many kind messages of support, and for that we are extremely grateful. We'd especially like to give a shout out to our biggest fans: Jerry Gilbert, Jon Gomer, Jay Gunther, Jorge Gambon, Joe Green, Jupiter Gremlin, and Juckert Games. You guys are the best! In order to better serve those readers across the country who enjoy Talon News content and look forward to receiving it each day, we feel compelled to reevaluate operations in order to provide the highest quality, most professional product possible. We are currently consulting with our lawyers about how much of this stuff is liable to end up subpoenaed, and whether we could be arrested for 'accidentally' setting fire to our server. Thus, Talon News will be offline while we redesign the web site, Now that our cover is blown, there's not much point in producing new 'content.' perform a top-to-bottom review of staff and volunteer contributors, Tops, please get in touch with the bottoms as soon as possible to schedule your review. Collections, please remember not to take the negatives with you when you are soliciting your 'volunteer contributions.' and address future operational procedures. We are currently trying to decide whether to hightail it for Tijuana or Uttar Pradesh. Please vote in our online poll. We look forward to bringing an even better product to our readers in the future. We hope the next over-the-hill rent boy we hire to be our mole in the media is a little more on the ball.
I just read through the February 28, 2003 WH press briefing. Who wants to bet that this was Gannon's question?
