Scott McClellan Reveals That Gannon/Guckert Got GOPUSA Press Pass

[truthpusher]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ep/20050218/en_bpiep/scottmcclellanrevealsthatgannonguckertgotgopusapresspass

Scott McClellan Reveals That Gannon/Guckert Got GOPUSA Press Pass

Fri Feb 18, 6:20 PM ET Entertainment - Editor and Publisher

NEW YORK Former Talon News reporter James Guckert obtained his first White House press credentials as a representative of the pro-Republican Web site, GOPUSA, not as a Talon News reporter, as previously believed, Press Secretary Scott McClellan told E&P today.

McClellan said White House Press Office staffers considered the openly partisan site to be a legitimate news organization when they gave Guckert, a.k.a. Jeff Gannon, the first of numerous day passes in February 2003.

"He faxed a letter in on his letterhead, they checked that it was a conservative news Web site he worked for," McClellan explained, referring to his staffers who handled such credentialing at the time. "There was a check to make sure it was a news organization and a news Web site. There was a determination made at that point ."

McClellan, who was deputy press secretary under Ari Fleischer (news -web sites) when the initial Guckert approvals were given, became press secretary in July 2003. He said he currently has a staff of 12, only one of whom handles the 20 to 25 daily press passes issued each day. He said he had spoken with the staffer who approved Guckert's initial credential, but would not identify the person or comment on how he or she could consider GOPUSA -- which is run by Texas Republican activist Bobby Eberle -- to be a legitimate news organization.


more:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ep/20050218/en_bpiep/scottmcclellanrevealsthatgannonguckertgotgopusapresspass

[Cha]

1. What a huge scandal this would be

if it were the Dems!

[Catherine Vincent]

2. Yahoo can stop hiding this scandal in the Entertainment section now.

[Erika]

3. Bush is taking over the press

who has historically acted as a watch dog for civil liberties. Bush and his supporters don't want freedom of the press or any accountability of his administration.

[Erika]

4. But using a gay porn escort to further the GOP agenda

is a touch of creativity. Rove should get a hand of applause. Just hope that the GOP rednecks care to be informed what this administration really represents.

[lebkuchen]

9. One of the escort sites reviewing Guckert's sexual prowess

is still accessible. I've heard that a couple of others are no longer. I would have liked to have seen those other sites. I wonder if Rove wrote any reviews for Guckert on those sites that were shut down.

Why haven't they all been shut down?

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. Seems Bush doesn't understand

that in order to have a democracy, you have to have a free press.

[tjdee]

5. So they'll fire that ONE person??

"He said he currently has a staff of 12, only ONE of whom handles the 20 to 25 daily press passes issued each day. "

Oh, great!

[merwin]

6. Check out the GOPUSA website from 2/2/2003...

http://web.archive.org/web/20030202122008/http://www.gopusa.com/

If you want to look up other dates, go to http://web.archive.org and enter in http://www.gopusa.com

In any case, there's a whopping 5 articles that were written by them, and they read like commentaries mixed with the white house press releases.

So that's a news organization that can get into the White House? Maybe I can set up a blog, publish a few AP stories, and get a hard pass :-)

[Erika]

7. Maybe if you added a naked picture

of yourself, like Jeff or whatever he thinks he wishes his name to be, you would have beter chances of being called on. This is so funny, Bush/Rove engage a male gay prostitute to be a political operative in the WH. Now he's claiming to be born again? OK. You think the Bible belt swallows all that?

[Dr Fate]

8. Which family-values Republicans did Gannon have sex with?

????

[bunkerbuster1]

10. Scrolling down, you see Scottie tryin' to clear up that MoDo mess

yarite, Scottie. gettin' hard passes for a real journalist covering the White House since 1986 is "hard work."

[BR_Parkway]

11. An interesting footnote - he's now going to work on getting Maureen Dowd

a hard pass?

He said he has now asked his staff to get the process going for her again to get a hard pass.

[orleans]

12. (sing-songy from Ms. Congeniality:) Scott really likes Jeff

He really likes him
He wants to date him
And Jeff likes Scott too
He thinks he's cue...oot
He wants to kiss him
He wants to marry him

[Judi Lynn]

14. El Gucko went to the last 2 White House Christmas parties

So he was considered one of the inner "journalists'" circle, right?

Gannon attended White House Christmas parties -- but who invited him?

Former Talon News Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent Jeff Gannon (aka James D. Guckert) attended at least two invitation-only events in Washington, D.C.: the 2003 and 2004 White House press Christmas parties. Gannon has been discredited by numerous charges -- most notably that he is a Republican activist who has reproduced sections of Republican Party and White House materials verbatim in his own "news reports," and not a true news reporter. So the question arises: who invited Gannon to these exclusive events?

In a February 11 interview with Editor and Publisher, Gannon claimed that "The only connection I had with Scott McClellan was when he got married and I sent him a card." McClellan told Editor & Publisher that Gannon was not issued a permanent White House press corps pass, but obtained only daily passes. And according to a February 18 New York Times article, McClellan said that White House "credentialing is all handled at the staff assistant level."

But in past years, the White House press secretary has played a significant role in arranging the guest list for the Christmas parties. As the Washington Post reported on December 9, 1992: "Some national correspondents who cover the president have apparently been unceremoniously axed from the annual White House Christmas party list. ... Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater, who's said to be wielding the ax for the half-dozen gigs, didn't return a call."
(snip/...)

http://mediamatters.org/items/200502190003

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Did you know he stuck his snout into the bogus Kerry "girlfriend" story?

Mr. Guckert’s archived writings suddenly disappeared from the Talon News Web site, but several of his greatest works have been preserved by the watchdogs at MediaMatters.org. They show that he had no journalistic purpose, let alone experience. His copy featured long passages lifted directly from White House press releases. Last year, during the Internet frenzy over Senator John Kerry’s "intern girlfriend," he falsely wrote that the young woman had "taped an interview with one of the major television networks at Christmas substantiating the alleged affair."
(snip)

What Mr. Guckert seems to have been is not a journalist but a Republican dirty trickster. He was schooled at the Leadership Institute—an outfit run by veteran right-wing operative and Republican National Committee member Morton Blackwell. (It was Mr. Blackwell who distributed those cute "purple heart" Band-aids mocking Mr. Kerry’s war wounds at the Republican convention last summer.) His former employers at Talon News include leading Republican fund-raisers and former officials of the Texas Republican Party who have been active in partisan affairs for the past two decades.
(snip)

http://www.observer.com/pages/conason.asp

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Sorry if you've already read this material. I've not been on the internet too much recently, and I'm way behind in my DU thread awareness!)

[Al-CIAda]

15. He also called Kerry potentially 'the first gay President" -