The mole, the US media and a White House coup (Guardian)

[Bozita]

At least the Brits get it.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1418539,00.html

The mole, the US media and a White House coup

The reporter who wasn't is part of a wider press scandal, writes Paul Harris in New York

Sunday February 20, 2005
The Observer

For two years Jeff Gannon cut an unobtrusive figure at White House press conferences. The shaven-headed, craggily handsome man worked for an obscure news agency called Talon News, known for its conservative sympathies. He was often the subject of jokes by colleagues on weightier news organisations.

No one is laughing now, because Gannon was far from being a harmless distraction. He was writing under a false name and working for a Republican front organisation. Suddenly, his 'softball' questions to White House officials looked less like eccentricities and more like plotting by an administration which has frequently displayed a dark mastery of the arts of press control.

When it emerged that Gannon was also linked to gay prostitution websites and might be a gay prostitute himself, the scandal as to how he was allowed daily access to the White House grew even murkier. The American media is now being forced to confront the possibility that Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert, was simply a Republican plant, used by officials, including President George W Bush, to ask easy questions in difficult press conferences. 'The idea of having a mole in the White House press corp is amazing, but that's what it looks like,' said Jack Lule, a journalism professor at Lehigh University.

But the Gannon affair, which has shocked much of America's political establishment, is just the latest scandal in the media establishment. Newspapers including the New York Times and USA Today have been hit by plagiarism and forgery scandals. Other papers and television stations have been consumed with a soul-searching inquest into how they were misled about non-existent Iraqi weapons programmes. Added to that is growing evidence of a White House campaign to bypass or control the media in its everyday presentation of government policy , which included paying one journalist hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote its policies.

more...

[jdj]

1. wow. I haven't thought until now how this might look to the

rest of the world.

Embarrasin'.

Other woman, yes. Other man, maybe. Gay prostitute. Wow.

[Damien]

55. well, they love us already

Right? I mean the rest of the world loves Bush.

You're right -- I really hadn't thought of it either.

I don't look forward to traveling and telling people I'm American anytime soon...

[kiki]

61. You need this:

http://www.comedycentral.com/mp/play.jhtml?reposid=/multimedia/tds/helms/helms_10004.html

:D

[Damien]

72. that rocks

thank you

[Rose Siding]

2. I do so hope Bush will be questioned by the European press this week

He can't possibly duck all of them, can he?

[Delphinus]

3. Ooh,

another interview like the one with the lady in Ireland. She was soooo good!

[AlCzervik]

4. That irish lady from last time???

i don't rememebr her name but she was excellent!!! Of course she's off the list i'm sure but she was great.

[Up2Late]

6. Who was that?

Any links to that older story? :shrug:

[cal04]

10. White House Complains About Irish Reporter

The White House has filed a complaint with the Irish Embassy after a reporter for the Irish network RTE pressed President Bush to answer questions on the rising number of dead US soldiers, torture, the issue of making the world a more dangerous place, and the president's unpopularity. The questions were not even unscripted but riled the president. According to RTE, the reporter Carole Coleman had submitted her questions to the White House three days in advance.

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=65723
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/06/20040625-2.html

[Up2Late]

17. Thanks, I'd forgotten about that one

" THE PRESIDENT: Let me finish, please. Please. Let me finish, and then you can follow up, if you don't mind."



I can believe, with all the censorship they do that they would post this stuff on their web site verbatim.

[shooga]

42. anyone know if this is real?

Victor Henderson Ashe



· Born in Knoxville, TN January 1, 1945

· Member of the Order of Skull & Bones (’67), Bohemian Club of San Francisco.

· Served in the U.S. Marine Corps Air Reserves 1967-1973.

· Graduated from Yale University (B.A. 1967) and the University of Tennessee College of Law (J.D. 1974).

· Intern for Congressman Bill Brock 1965.

· Staff assistant of Senator Howard Baker 1967.

· Representative in the Tennessee House of Representatives 1968-1974.

· Senator in the Tennessee State Senate 1975-1984.

· Mayor of Knoxville, TN 1988-2003.

· President of the United States Conference of Mayors.

· Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

· Former Executive Director of the President's Commission on Americans Outdoors.

· Served on the National Service Corporation Board, on the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations

· Director of Fannie 2001

· Ambassador to Poland 2004-present.





Quotes
"I changed my position on the issue because I changed the position I had. I was consistent in representing the constituency I had at the time." – Victor Ashe, about being for government annexation of private property without the consent of property owners as mayor when he had been against it as a Legislator.
"In hindsight, I would say clearly I regret it, and in hindsight different decisions should have been made." -Victor Ashe, after a federal jury, in 2000, determined he and retired Fire Chief Bruce Cureton violated the civil rights of five firefighters who had supported his opponent, Ivan Harmon, in the 1995 election. The jury found Ashe and Cureton transferred the firefighters on the eve of the election and later denied them raises (read the verdict).
"Being mayor is the single most important job you can have if you want to make a difference in your home town." –Victor Ashe
"Gore is first and foremost a Washington politician who attempts to conceal his basic liberal philosophy" –Victor Ashe, when running for the U.S. Senate in 1984.
"You will pay any tax increase I tell you to pay. You can afford it." -Victor Ashe, Republican, at city council meeting in Oct 2000, responding to complaints from business reps of their $500,000 tax increase from involuntary annexation.
"I serve at the pleasure of the president." –Victor Ashe
"God will be standing there going, 'But, but, but,’ trying to enter the conversation.” - Knoxville Police Chief Phil Keith’s joke about what will happen when Ashe goes to heaven.
“He’ll ruminate and cogitate until his ruminator and cogitator can’t take it any more." -George Korda
"The night it all came down I could not stop shivering. It changed the way I viewed a lot of things. For the first time, sitting on Council , I really felt I was in the presence of evil. I had disagreed with people on many occasions and felt strongly about many things, but I never ever had felt something I could describe as the presence of evil. Until that night. There was just darkness. Hopelessness." -City Councilmember Carlene Malone




Interesting Facts
In 1974, a Judge ruled that Ashe’s run for the Tennessee State Senate was illegal because he would turn 30, the minimum age to serve, after the election. Ashe’s mother ran instead, was elected, and resigned after her first day in office and appointed her son Senator (KnoxNews December 14, 2003).
Speaker John Wilder once offered him $10 to sit down and shut up (KnoxNews December 14, 2003).
His opponent in his 1978 re-election bid, Carl Warner, took a swing at him after Ashe made what Warner termed a snide remark (KnoxNews December 14, 2003).
The only political race he lost was to Al Gore, Jr. in 1984 for the U.S. Senate. (KnoxNews December 14, 2003).
Ashe opposed the referendum on term limits that resulted in his inability to run for a 5th term as mayor.
John Lee sued the City Corporation and its individual agents, including Mayor Victor Ashe, for illegally towing his Honda automobile, without a parking ticket. The City Inc. then denied that they had towed it for over six weeks, and listed the vehicle as "stolen" in the National Criminalistics Information Computer (NCIC), operated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI). This resulted in a $700 towing and storage bill from the Corporation's contractor, Sutherland Avenue Wrecker Service. (read more).
Ashe was George W. Bush’s roommate at Yale and they were both on the Cheerleading Squad together.




Rumors
There is a rumor on the net that Victor Ashe and George W. Bush have been gay lovers. The source of this rumor is Sherman Skolnick. He seems to be the sole source of this and many other rumors. Before Kitty Kelley’s book “The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty” was released, Skolnick claimed that her book substantiated his assertions. He also accused her of using him as an unnamed source. Upon being published, the book was absent of nearly all of his claims. Unsubstantiated rumors about Victor Ashe include:

· Ashe was arrested twice in drag for picking up homosexual prostitutes in public restrooms in Washington D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia.

· Peter Jennings introduced Ashe on national TV in San Francisco as "The gay mayor from Knoxville."

· Ashe wanted to rename Gay Street to "Gay Way."

· Ashe’s mother was arrested for hit-and-run while hiding out at the mayor’s house.

· The National Enquirer in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida was shut down by the F.B.I. for “Anthrax” after 9/11 because they had pictures of Ashe engaged in a Skull & Bones homosexual ritual.

· George W. Bush and Ashe have had a long-term homosexual affair. It is widely reported that they have spent much private time together over the years including their time as roommates at Yale, a seven city tour when Ashe was running for the U.S. Senate, numerous stays by Ashe at the White House, visits by Bush to Ashe in Knoxville, and other trips together without Laura Bush.

· Ashe and Bush would rendezvous at a Tennessee location owned by the purported top financier of Osama Bin Laden.

· Paul O'Neill was sacked as Treasury Chief because he was unable to stop Secret Service agents from leaking the Ashe affair to the press, or from quitting their jobs in disgust.

· The “Red Chinese Secret Police” have used the Bush/Ashe affair to get secrets out of the White House.

· Ashe was nominated Ambassador to Poland because the press had learned about the Bush/Ashe affair and because Ashe has AIDS.



















^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^



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Victor Henderson Ashe






· Born in Knoxville, TN January 1, 1945

· Member of the Order of Skull & Bones (’67), Bohemian Club of San Francisco.

· Served in the U.S. Marine Corps Air Reserves 1967-1973.

· Graduated from Yale University (B.A. 1967) and the University of Tennessee College of Law (J.D. 1974).

· Intern for Congressman Bill Brock 1965.

· Staff assistant of Senator Howard Baker 1967.

· Representative in the Tennessee House of Representatives 1968-1974.

· Senator in the Tennessee State Senate 1975-1984.

· Mayor of Knoxville, TN 1988-2003.

· President of the United States Conference of Mayors.

· Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

· Former Executive Director of the President's Commission on Americans Outdoors.

· Served on the National Service Corporation Board, on the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations

· Director of Fannie 2001

· Ambassador to Poland 2004-present.





Quotes
"I changed my position on the issue because I changed the position I had. I was consistent in representing the constituency I had at the time." – Victor Ashe, about being for government annexation of private property without the consent of property owners as mayor when he had been against it as a Legislator.
"In hindsight, I would say clearly I regret it, and in hindsight different decisions should have been made." -Victor Ashe, after a federal jury, in 2000, determined he and retired Fire Chief Bruce Cureton violated the civil rights of five firefighters who had supported his opponent, Ivan Harmon, in the 1995 election. The jury found Ashe and Cureton transferred the firefighters on the eve of the election and later denied them raises (read the verdict).
"Being mayor is the single most important job you can have if you want to make a difference in your home town." –Victor Ashe
"Gore is first and foremost a Washington politician who attempts to conceal his basic liberal philosophy" –Victor Ashe, when running for the U.S. Senate in 1984.
"You will pay any tax increase I tell you to pay. You can afford it." -Victor Ashe, Republican, at city council meeting in Oct 2000, responding to complaints from business reps of their $500,000 tax increase from involuntary annexation.
"I serve at the pleasure of the president." –Victor Ashe
"God will be standing there going, 'But, but, but,’ trying to enter the conversation.” - Knoxville Police Chief Phil Keith’s joke about what will happen when Ashe goes to heaven.
“He’ll ruminate and cogitate until his ruminator and cogitator can’t take it any more." -George Korda
"The night it all came down I could not stop shivering. It changed the way I viewed a lot of things. For the first time, sitting on Council , I really felt I was in the presence of evil. I had disagreed with people on many occasions and felt strongly about many things, but I never ever had felt something I could describe as the presence of evil. Until that night. There was just darkness. Hopelessness." -City Councilmember Carlene Malone




Interesting Facts
In 1974, a Judge ruled that Ashe’s run for the Tennessee State Senate was illegal because he would turn 30, the minimum age to serve, after the election. Ashe’s mother ran instead, was elected, and resigned after her first day in office and appointed her son Senator (KnoxNews December 14, 2003).
Speaker John Wilder once offered him $10 to sit down and shut up (KnoxNews December 14, 2003).
His opponent in his 1978 re-election bid, Carl Warner, took a swing at him after Ashe made what Warner termed a snide remark (KnoxNews December 14, 2003).
The only political race he lost was to Al Gore, Jr. in 1984 for the U.S. Senate. (KnoxNews December 14, 2003).
Ashe opposed the referendum on term limits that resulted in his inability to run for a 5th term as mayor.
John Lee sued the City Corporation and its individual agents, including Mayor Victor Ashe, for illegally towing his Honda automobile, without a parking ticket. The City Inc. then denied that they had towed it for over six weeks, and listed the vehicle as "stolen" in the National Criminalistics Information Computer (NCIC), operated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI). This resulted in a $700 towing and storage bill from the Corporation's contractor, Sutherland Avenue Wrecker Service. (read more).
Ashe was George W. Bush’s roommate at Yale and they were both on the Cheerleading Squad together.




Rumors
There is a rumor on the net that Victor Ashe and George W. Bush have been gay lovers. The source of this rumor is Sherman Skolnick. He seems to be the sole source of this and many other rumors. Before Kitty Kelley’s book “The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty” was released, Skolnick claimed that her book substantiated his assertions. He also accused her of using him as an unnamed source. Upon being published, the book was absent of nearly all of his claims. Unsubstantiated rumors about Victor Ashe include:

· Ashe was arrested twice in drag for picking up homosexual prostitutes in public restrooms in Washington D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia.

· Peter Jennings introduced Ashe on national TV in San Francisco as "The gay mayor from Knoxville."

· Ashe wanted to rename Gay Street to "Gay Way."

· Ashe’s mother was arrested for hit-and-run while hiding out at the mayor’s house.

· The National Enquirer in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida was shut down by the F.B.I. for “Anthrax” after 9/11 because they had pictures of Ashe engaged in a Skull & Bones homosexual ritual.

· George W. Bush and Ashe have had a long-term homosexual affair. It is widely reported that they have spent much private time together over the years including their time as roommates at Yale, a seven city tour when Ashe was running for the U.S. Senate, numerous stays by Ashe at the White House, visits by Bush to Ashe in Knoxville, and other trips together without Laura Bush.

· Ashe and Bush would rendezvous at a Tennessee location owned by the purported top financier of Osama Bin Laden.

· Paul O'Neill was sacked as Treasury Chief because he was unable to stop Secret Service agents from leaking the Ashe affair to the press, or from quitting their jobs in disgust.

· The “Red Chinese Secret Police” have used the Bush/Ashe affair to get secrets out of the White House.

· Ashe was nominated Ambassador to Poland because the press had learned about the Bush/Ashe affair and because Ashe has AIDS.

[Blue to the bone]

66. Question is.........

.........what does it have to do with the price of beans??

[BrotherBuzz]

32. LOL, they cancelled Laura Bush's scheduled interview in the aftermath

<snip>
As a result, "journalists traveling with ... Bush ... in Europe noted," the White House canceled an interview First Lady Laura Bush had been scheduled to do with Radio Television Eire after arriving in Ireland with her husband.
<more>

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2004/07/01/worldviews.DTL

What a bunch of idiots! LOL....

[JDPriestly]

5. Thanks. Interesting article.

[lovuian]

7. Wake Up America the News is Bull!!!

and its fascinating a gay Marine was chosen!!! as the front man!!!

and his boss is an obscure website owner when people from NYTimes can't ask questions but this guy gets called on all the time!!!

Ya the White House needs to answer this one!!!

[BrendaStarr]

44. America can't hear you here.

I hope you are posting to mixed message boards too where the rest of America can hear you too.

[uppityperson]

8. Thank you Guardian. Good summary. Time for letters to editors

[hezekkia]

9. craggily handsome? n/t

:puke:

[paineinthearse]

11. Robin Williams - there is a mole in the White House......

...or maybe a gerble.

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3145658

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. handsome man? Until I discovered Guckert had an 8 inch peeney,

I thought he was rather forgettable looking.

[OKthatsIT]

13. Wayne Madsen has been busy too

Gannongate threatens to expose a huge GOP pedophile and male prostitution ring

By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer

February 18, 2005—Now that is has been discovered that "Jeff Gannon" (real name James D. Guckert), a "reporter" for Talon News Service, a front operation run by the conservative Republican-oriented GOPUSA.com, was using an alias as a cleared White House reporter, details are emerging that threaten to immerse the Bush administration in a major scandal.

"Gannongate," which is only now being mentioned by the mainstream news media, threatens to expose a potentially damaging GOP pedophile and male prostitution ring dating back to the 1980s and the administration of George H. W. Bush. James D. Guckert, using the name Jeff Gannon and possibly other aliases, was also running gay porn sites, one with a U.S. Marine Corps theme that solicited males for prostitution.
-----
After the Gannon story broke, militaryescorts.com and hotmilitarystud.com were redirected to a secure log-in site at Cupertino, California-based www.dividezero.net/, which was registered to GKG.Net, which had a contact email in College Station, Texas, the home of Texas A&M University and the George H.W. Bush presidential library. Dividezero.net had a secure log-in window but no subscription information. Experts who track illegal content on the web, including child pornography, report that such sites are common where log-in information is provided separately by regular mail so that the identities of subscribers cannot be easily tracked by online enrollment and entry of credit card information.

Gannongate is reminiscent of a huge political scandal that surfaced in Nebraska in 1989 when it was learned that Lawrence King, the head of Franklin Community Credit Union in Omaha and a rising African American star in the GOP (he sang the national anthem at George H. W. Bush's 1988 nominating convention in New Orleans), was a kingpin—along with top Republicans in Nebraska and Washington, DC, including George H. W. Bush—in a child prostitution and pedophilia scandal. King was later convicted and jailed for fraud but pedophile and prostitution charges were never brought against him and other Nebraska Republican businessmen and politicians.

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Media/021805Madsen/021805madsen.html

Here is something from the editorial pages of the NYT:

FRANK RICH
The White House Stages Its 'Daily Show'

Published: February 20, 2005


THE prayers of those hoping that real television news might take its cues from Jon Stewart were finally answered on Feb. 9, 2005. A real newsman borrowed a technique from fake news to deliver real news about fake news in prime time.

Let me explain.

On "Countdown," a nightly news hour on MSNBC, the anchor, Keith Olbermann, led off with a classic "Daily Show"-style bit: a rapid-fire montage of sharply edited video bites illustrating the apparent idiocy of those in Washington. In this case, the eight clips stretched over a year in the White House briefing room - from February 2004 to late last month - and all featured a reporter named "Jeff." In most of them, the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, says "Go ahead, Jeff," and "Jeff" responds with a softball question intended not to elicit information but to boost President Bush and smear his political opponents. In the last clip, "Jeff" is quizzing the president himself, in his first post-inaugural press conference of Jan. 26. Referring to Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton, "Jeff" asks, "How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"

If we did not live in a time when the news culture itself is divorced from reality, the story might end there: "Jeff," you'd assume, was a lapdog reporter from a legitimate, if right-wing, news organization like Fox, and you'd get some predictable yuks from watching a compressed video anthology of his kissing up to power. But as Mr. Olbermann explained, "Jeff Gannon," the star of the montage, was a newsman no more real than a "Senior White House Correspondent" like Stephen Colbert on "The Daily Show" and he worked for a news organization no more real than The Onion. Yet the video broadcast by Mr. Olbermann was not fake. "Jeff" was in the real White House, and he did have those exchanges with the real Mr. McClellan and the real Mr. Bush.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/arts/20rich.html?

George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography
by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter -XXI- Omaha

On the morning of June 29, 1989, pandemonium erupted in the corridors of power in the nation's capital. ``Homosexual Prostitution Probe Ensnares Official of Bush, Reagan,'' screamed the front-page headline of the Washington Times with the kicker ``Call Boys Took Midnight Tour of White House.''

The Times reported, ``A homosexual prostitution ring is under investigation by federal and District authorities and includes among its clients key officials of the Reagan and Bush administrations, military officers, congressional aides and U.S. and foreign businessmen with close ties to Washington's political elite.''

The exposeé centered on the role of one Craig Spence, a Republican powerbroker known for his lavish ``power cocktail'' parties. Spence was well connected. He celebrated Independence Day 1988 by conducting a midnight tour of the White House in the company of two teenage male prostitutes among others in his party.

Rumors circulated that a list existed of some 200 Washington prominents who had used the call boy service. The Number Two in charge of personnel affairs at the White House, who was responsible for filling all the top civil service posts in the federal bureaucracy, and Secretary of Labor Elizabeth Dole's chief of staff, were two individuals publicly identified as patrons of the call boy ring.

http://www.tarpley.net/bush21.htm

=======

THE SEXUAL COMPROMISE AT THE CAPITAL DATA DUMP.

POWER BROKER SERVED DRUGS, SEX AT PARTIES BUGGED FOR BLACKMAIL
Michael Hedges and Jerry Seper The Washington Times; Final Section: A Page: A1 Friday, June 30, 1989

Craig J. Spence, an enigmatic figure who threw glittery parties for key officials of the Reagan and Bush administrations, media stars and top military officers, bugged the gatherings to compromise guests, provided cocaine, blackmailed some associates and spent up to $20,000 a month on male prostitutes, according to friends, acquaintances and records.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How a man whom even his closest friends describe as a flawed, malevolent personality managed to court Washington's biggest names is a quintessential Washington story.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The 48-year-old D.C. power broker has been linked to a homosexual prostitution ring currently under investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office. Its clients included several top government and business officials from Washington and abroad.
Among the clients identified in hundreds of credit-card vouchers obtained by The Washington Times - and identified by male prostitutes and escort operators - are government officials, locally based U.S. military officers, businessmen, lawyers, bankers, congressional aides, media representatives and other professionals.
Mr. Spence's influence appeared unlimited, aptly demonstrated by his ability to arrange midnight tours of the White House, according to three persons who said they took part in those tours.
"It was a show-the-flag time for Craig Spence," said one person who went on a July 3, 1988, tour that included two male prostitutes. "He just wanted everyone to know just how damned powerful he was," said the person. "And when we were strolling through the White House at 1 o'clock in the morning, we were believers."

Con't-
http://www.newsmakingnews.com/sexandcapito...01.htm#article4

=======


BTW,
Armstrong Williams-

1/10/2005
Conservative columnist who took $240k from Bush criticized NAACP for sexual harassment and economic “improprieties” after settling his own sexual harassment suit

Excerpt-

Williams, RAW STORY has discovered, settled accounts for the same misdeeds himself.

In 1997, Williams was sued in a massive $200,000 50-charge sexual harassment suit for repeatedly kissing his once male trainer Stephen Gregory who he had promoted repeatedly into his talk-show staff. Gregory claimed Williams had also grabbed his buttocks and genitals and climbed into bed with him on business trips. After rebuffing him, Gregory alleged, the pundit retaliated by reducing his pay and subsequently firing him.

At the time, the Williams had just teased an explosive quote from then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott who said that gays should be treated like those who have a problem with “alcohol … or sex addiction … or kleptomaniacs.”

Williams roundly supported this view.

http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=536

[Liberty Belle]

15. Ah. The WH probably blackmailed Anderson Williams, then.

[TahitiNut]

23. What're the chances Gannon/Guckert was a teen-age prostitute ...

... back in the late 80's during Puke Bush's administration, and provided "services" to current insiders then? (I think he's the right age.) I'm of the firm opinion that these people commonly use blackmail/loyalty/threats as their leverage to ensure compliance.

[verdalaven]

37. Guckert is 47

He would have had to been a teen prostitute in Nixon's administration. :)

[Spazito]

53. We don't really know how old guckert is

unless someone has a copy of his birth certificate. There has been confusion whether he is in his 30s or 40s. If his perported age,47, comes from guckert, given nothing he has said so far is the truth, why would we believe him on this?

[verdalaven]

64. He does look a bit young for 47

[Dover]

49. How JUICY! Sounds like a job for Kenneth Starr .

Anyone have a tape measure handy?

[Nothing Without Hope]

65. I do believe there is prostitution for gathering intel and blackmail

I have a thread on this here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1609452#

I also think that gay demonization by the administration has the fringe benefit for them of making it more difficult for closeted gays in influential positions to come out, making them more susceptible to blackmail.

Pillow talk and blackmail. That's why prostitution and anything else that could be used for evidence that could be held over a victim's head have always been favorite espionage techniques and why closeted homosexuals are such big security risks.

By the way, I am one of the people around here that strongly suspect "Gannon" himself of being a covert (with the pun potential, I hesitate to say "undercover") agent, along with lots of others. This was a racket for the Regan/Bush White House and it's a racket for the blivet** administration too.

[bpilgrim]

14. PROPAGANDAGATE

this is the TIPPING POINT... BET.

peace

[Why Syzygy]

20. The beans will spill?

FINALLY?

A conservative acquaintance who is afraid to look at the destruction in our very own lives brought about by this monstrous, secretive, egregious, squatter tells me: "There's nothing we can do". We'll have to wait four years."

My answer? BULLSHIT. Remember Nixon?

It's a little upsetting to hear that even when presented with INDISPUTABLE FACTS, some just want to wait around and allow the dismantle of our society to continue unabated for FOUR MORE YEARS?

Tipping Point .. Bring it on NOW!

[deacon]

16. This is a fantastic article, a thing of beauty-- a MUST read n/t

[ausiedownunderground]

18. Paying "one" journalist.WTF. Obscure website owner.WTF

The "Brits" are still off the mark. There "getting a sniff" of what this scandal "could" become, but they haven't put two and three together yet. This very very "gutsy" journalist needs to be helped. We need to find out what his e-mail address is??? and then tell him where to go, so that he particularly becomes "keen" on the Valerie Plame outing angle!!!! This is Treason! Some lawyer mates of mine have been discussing what the consequences for someone "nailed" for this "outing" might be in America? Under your law "The Death Penalty", like all the "Nuclear spies" you put to death in the "50's" is actually not out of the question in this case!!!!
Lets turn the "Gas" up on The Pilsbury Doughboy!!!! This could get "Way out of his control"!!! Yeeeehaaaw is not a Foreign Policy!

[rasputin1952]

19. I find it incredible, that MSM has fallen for the bush cabal garbage

hook, line and sinker. For years, the best news we got came from either the internet or outside of the US sources.

The MSM has been exposed, time after time as being self-absorbed and unwilling to do its job, whether reporting actual news, or being terrified of what the cabal might do to them; finally they begin to stir.

Where were they when the lies were coming down in a hailstorm of some of the most absurd things that came out of the WH?

Perhaps the shame they receive over this will finally come to a head, and they will do their jobs for a change. They certainly didn't seem to have a problem over a Clinton sex scandal, or some inane crud about a celebrity or two. Maybe if Michael Jackson dated one of the twins, someone would say something, that would be NEWS!!!! How utterly repulsive the media has become. The world goes to hell, and they are paying the fare. The country is raked over the coals, Civil Liberties attacked, the First Amendment used as toilet paper, unending war, unilateral strikes on countries that are not a threat and no news on those that are, like Korea.

I am appalled that our much heralded "press" can't even find a story when it has been handed to them on a silver platter w/all the trimmings...:puke:

[Why Syzygy]

21. Like a pressure cooker

the lid has got to blow.

I believe many journalists are idealists. They want to make a difference.

Once the 'system' shows it's ugly head, resentment starts to build.

They'll come around.

[Octafish]

22. They owe their jobs to the BFEE.

Remember, Bushco not only pays these louts to write FOR them, they muscle out the ones who oppose them. Reporters who don't toe the line find themselves on the outs. It's not in the imagination: The corporations they work for are themselves owned by the same elite that own the Carlyle Groups, Riggs Banks, ENRONs, Global Crossings and the rest of the big moneymakers on Wall Street.

Yes, they have no integrity today.

Otherwise they would paint the crazy monkey for what he is:



Robert Parry, the reporter who helped break Iran-Contra, is most eloquent on the subject:

Money, Media & the Mess in America

By Robert Parry
January 28, 2005

Sometime after 2009, when historians pick through the wreckage left behind by George W. Bush’s administration, they will have to come to grips with the role played by the professional conservative media infrastructure.

Indeed, it will be hard to comprehend how Bush got two terms as President of the United States, ran up a massive debt, and misled the country into at least one disastrous war – without taking into account the extraordinary influence of the conservative media, from Fox News to Rush Limbaugh, from the Washington Times to the Weekly Standard.

Recently, it’s been revealed, too, that the Bush administration paid conservative pundits Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher while they promoted White House policies. Even fellow conservatives have criticized those payments, but the truth is that the ethical line separating conservative “journalism” from government propaganda has long since been wiped away.

For years now, there’s been little meaningful distinction between the Republican Party and the conservative media machine.

In 1982, for instance, South Korean theocrat Sun Myung Moon established the Washington Times as little more than a propaganda organ for the Reagan-Bush administration. In 1994, radio talk show host Limbaugh was made an honorary member of the new Republican House majority.

The blurring of any ethical distinctions also can be found in documents from the 1980s when the Reagan-Bush administration began collaborating secretly with conservative media tycoons to promote propaganda strategies aimed at the American people.

CONTINUED...

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/012805.html

[Chipper Chat]

27. I channel-surfed 3 times today (about 2 hours apart)

and all 3 times Fox News was talking about Michael Jackson.
Any guess as to what date they will finally be forced to mention Gannongate?

[Bozita]

28. The elite columnists on Capitol Gang never mentioned Gannon

Not a word.

None of them.

on edit: Catch the replay coming up shortly. The final 12 or so minutes are well worth the time.

[JohnnyRingo]

34. Indeed, how many MJ stories will they run....Before the sound of

...channel changing becomes deafening?

How long can cable "news" dictate the top stories before they achieve irrelevance?

[doubleplusgood]

40. we need to link Gannon/Guckert to MJ

Or maybe to Prince Charles/Camilla. That would probably be the only way to get the MSM to pay any serious attention to this story.

[aneerkoinos]

39. Incredible indeed

So don't believe. Corporate Medie lies and spins on purpose. Corporate Media is not mainstream, it's genious propaganda machine that would make Goebbels green of envy.

Time to wake up to the reality! Open your eyes and face the worst enemy of we the people: the Corporate Media and the whores serving it.

[leftchick]

48. They don't want to seem "librul".....

And the author addresses the Clinton comparison quite nicely...

~snip~

Right-wing media ratcheted up the long-standing conservative complaint that the media is dominated by liberal publications. Though many journalism experts deny that is the case, the image has settled in the American consciousness, forcing newspapers, magazines and television stations to go out of their way to prove they are not liberal. 'We have a conservative media and also a mainstream media, which is also now fairly conservative because it has been forced to deny being liberal,' said Lule.

The Gannon case is a prime illustration. If, during the Clinton administration, a fake reporter from a Democrat front organisation, using a false name, had been exposed as attending White House press conferences it would have been a national scandal. If he had then been shown to be a gay prostitute, the scandal could have threatened a Democrat presidency. With 'Gannon' and Bush there has been no such outcry. The mainstream media has approached the story warily, while right-wing organisations such as Fox News have largely ignored it.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

50. read my sigline...Moyers hit it spot on!

[glitch]

51. Chills: "News is what powerful people want to keep hidden; everything else

is just publicity" ..Bill Moyers

Very elegant and succinct prose. I love Bill Moyers. Thanks for reminding me!

[Bozita]

68. " ... is just publicity."

That's an absolute bullseye.

[njdemocrat106]

24. The Brits are never afraid to report "real" American news

That's because they aren't in the Rove's pocket. Yet.

[AuntiBush]

25. The QUESTION not being asked is:

"Why didn't any so-called legit reporter within those press briefings (for 2 years) notice this prior to now?"

This does not say "much" for our press, nor possibly their ethics!

:kick:

[AgadorSparticus]

29. and a damn good question at that!! maybe they'll find that the entire

WH press corp has been paid or bought in some way. i mean, we KNOW that the MSM is in their pockets. but now, perhaps proof is on the way thanks to gannon.

[Ronbrynaert]

26. Gopusa

also plagiarizes all the time from the mainstream media...a bunch of examples at my blog...

I even wrote one of the Times reporters who got plagiarized two weeks ago...and recieved a plagiarism is a form of flattery response...

not sure why this aspect of gopusa isn't getting out there...but im doing my best to get it out...

gopusa and gannon have a history of attacking the press...yet they steal from them....(ive got a story coming up about an attack pretty much coordinated by gopusa using a key bush administration official.

peace

http://www.whyareweback.blogspot.com

[Blecht]

30. The children ... what will we tell the children?!!!??!?!?!?

LOL

[JohnnyRingo]

31. excellent read....Guardian is "spot on".

The fourth estate is dead...Long live the "fifth".

When they silence the internet, we'll go back to the presses.

[DU GrovelBot]

33. ## PLEASE DONATE TO DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND! ##

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This week is our first quarter 2005 fund drive. Democratic
Underground is a completely independent website. We depend almost entirely
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[Thaxter]

35. He mentions Drudge

That's a smart move. Matt Drudge can NEVER resist reposting *any* article that mentions his name. What's he to do in this case? He has studiously avoided mentioning Gannongate. Now what if tons of major media coverage talks about the history of blogs, blogging, and mentions Drudge's "pioneering" role -- while at the same time covering the fact that the President of the United States called upon a gay hooker at a White House press conference?

I mean, the President calls upon those people he KNOWS or is FAMILIAr WITH. He wouldn't call on a complete stranger -- too dangerous. No, he calls on people whose questioning he can relatively predict.

Any major media types reading this -- mention Matt Drudge in your coverage on how Bush called upon a prostitute. Let's watch Drudge squirm. And let's see how long it takes before he caves under the irresistable urge to reprint his name.

[shooga]

52. funny how Drudge and Ann Thrax can preach their hate ...

... to the right wing nutz... BUT THERE IS no mention of this or Ashe-gate by Smudge and Ann Thrax to their right wing soldier-bots.


"... Drudge can NEVER resist reposting *any* article that mentions his name. What's he to do in this case? He has studiously avoided mentioning Gannongate. Now what if tons of major media coverage talks about the history of blogs, blogging, and mentions Drudge's "pioneering" role -- while at the same time covering the fact that the President of the United States called upon a gay hooker at a White House press conference?

I mean, the President calls upon those people he KNOWS or is FAMILIAr WITH. He wouldn't call on a complete stranger -- too dangerous. No, he calls on people whose questioning he can relatively predict.

Any major media types reading this -- mention Matt Drudge in your coverage on how Bush called upon a prostitute. Let's watch Drudge squirm. And let's see how long it takes before he caves under the irresistable urge to reprint his name ..." -Thaxter


... to the right wing nutz... BUT THERE IS no mention of this or Ashe-gate by Smudge and Ann Thrax to their right wing soldier-bots.

[sattahipdeep]

36. Negroponte, the British-born career diplomat

February 20, 2005

Profile: John Negroponte:
Ringmaster for the big US spy
showdown

It has been dubbed "the posting from hell", but if anyone
can bring a semblance of unity to America’s bewildering
network of competing spy agencies, it is John
Negroponte, the British-born career diplomat :eyes:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-1491501_1,00.html

[AnneD]

38. The story STILL hasn't broke

Right now ABC is airing a lame ass 'news' story about Bush's drug use years ago and they have tapes...ooohhhh. BHFD. Once again the media is a cat watching the wrong mouse hole and falling for a Rove trick....admit you did something wrong but make it so minimal as to be controllable and therefore irrelevant. Most Americans don't give a rat's ass about what happened years ago. They voted for Bush even knowing this...
But how do you think the Christian Conservatives would react if it hit the MSM that there was a gay prostitute recently working out of the WH and they got favourable treatment. The real story is what info did Gannon receive and leak, who did he received the info from, why did he receive the info, where did he receive the info, and when was this info received and leaked (the old 5 W's of journalism...if you ever took a course).

[ausiedownunderground]

46. It's the "Info" that is important!!!!!!

Plame's "outing" killed people!!!!!
Let the MSM salivate on the "Sexuality" aspect for the moment, but eventually some "Gutsy" investigative journalist in America needs to "Put their career on the line" and put the "bloody" pieces together!!!!!!! The target is "The Pilsbury Doughboy"!!!! Get it!

[robbedvoter]

41. What the Guardian missed, but Frank Rich got:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021905Z.shtml
    By my count, "Jeff Gannon" is now at least the sixth "journalist"to have been a propagandist on the payroll of either the Bush administration or a barely arms-length ally like Talon News while simultaneously appearing in print or broadcast forums that purport to be real news. Of these six, two have been syndicated newspaper columnists paid by the Department of Health and Human Services to promote the administration's "marriage" initiatives. The other four have played real newsmen on TV. Before Guckert and Armstrong Williams, the talking head paid $240,000 by the Department of Education, there were Karen Ryan and Alberto Garcia. Let us not forget these pioneers - the Woodward and Bernstein of fake news.

[Pithy Cherub]

43. The American press's moral and professional bar is so low

that ethics can only be found as a word in a dictionary. They could make jokes about the ostensible "reporter" in their midst but not take accountability or responsibility that they wanted to be credible. The entire White House press corp rises to the level of the least in their midst because they allowed it. For years and challenging assumptions was supposed to be their job of actually reporting rather than analyzing. Instead, the press has done such a shoddy job as part of bush's ownership society they bear a significant responsibility for loss of life, redistribution of wealth and the codification of ethical malfeasance as standard journalism practices.

[reprobate]

45. The GOP is now the Gay Old Party?

With apologies to any board members who might take offense.

[Nothing Without Hope]

67. It's not about sex -- gay, bi or hetero --it's about power, hatred, fear,

and manipulation. I think it's about blackmail, too. It's a favorite ploy in espionage. I have a thread on the possibility of gay prostitution as a deliberate means to set up blackmail for manipulating influential men:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1609452#
Indeed, the demonizationn of gays by this administration may well be, among its other political benefits, a way to enhance the administration's blackmail business.

Gay sex is normal and healthy. What these monsters are about is neither. We need to avoid conflating the two in any way.

[reprobate]

70. NWH, my post was not meant to denigrate in any way anyone's sexual.......

....preferences. It was meant only as a somewhat tongue in cheek commentary on the hypocrisy of the repug party, and possibly-just possibly-turn the tables on the repug penchant for whispering campaigns.

I still believe it could be the basis for an excellent and effective whisper campaign. It would take their own demonization and turn it back on themselves.

I do agree that prostitution, in any form, is a well recognized tool in espionage. It may also be a tool in the repug war chest. There is one thing tho that I cannot understand. If I were to set up a sting like this (if it was a sting) I would certainly not us someone who was using a fake identity to get into the presidential press corps. Should anyone dig into his background they would surely discover his true identity, and from there the whole deck of cards would come crashing down, as it did.

But then we ARE talking abut the gang that can't think straight.

[Nothing Without Hope]

71. Reprobate, I didn't mean to imply you were denigrating sexual orientations

and I am sorry if my post caused you any discomfort. But I think we do need to continue to emphasize that the SEX part of this story is not nearly as important as the rest of it. There is some media attention to the ethical issues of using a fake planted shill to act as a journalist, but even that is not the full reach of the significance of this story. You already realize that.

Also, although yours are not among them, some DU posts have expressed tinges of homophobia over this story. I really meant my comment for these people, who may not even be aware of what their language and emphasis reveal. Homophobia is so entrenched in our society, it can sometimes be hard to recognize for what it is.

I am bothered by the apparent stupidity of the "Gannon" situation, as you are. It's why some people very reasonably suggest that it may be some sort of Rovian trap. But as you say, this IS the gang that couldn't shoot straight, and I think they have underestimated the free internet as a force for the free press. Even now their bought stooges in the corporate media are refusing to report on Gannongate or are still defending him as a victim of vicious liberal bloggers who drove him from his livelihood as a prominent White House reporter. I'm betting that they had no fear of exposure because they thought they controlled ALL the media.

I do expect an attack on the free internet; they know this loophole in their stranglehold on information access can be dangerous to them. I am trying to organize a DU Group on "preserving internet freedom" and would welcome support for it:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=109x18717

[Dover]

47. Adding to their short list of major shakeups in news agencies...

Let's not forget how several major investigative reporters for the Wall Street Journal were 'let go'.

The BBC has been under tremendous pressures and riddled with scandals.

The head of the AP was changed early on after Bush moved into the White House.

The International Herald Tribune lost it's long time chief in Europe.

One NYT editor "jumped" from the roof of their building to his death.

News networks received anthrax scares.

Several reporters were shot, point blank, by U.S. forces in Iraq (and by Israeli forces in Palestine). The death toll among correspondents from 'friendly fire' is unprecedented. There was no question in the minds of those fired upon about the intentions of those who fired upon them.


And let's not forget the very early signals of these attitudes toward the press in the virtual 'news blackout' and Wag-the-Dog lies during the first Bush Regime's Gulf War.

ETC.

This "coup" has been in the works for quite some time...
If we don't fight back we will be living in the Dark Age of Journalism.

[lala_rawraw]

54. I think this does not say enough...

This is superb but I think it demotes left blogs/indie press as a non-factual entity using smear for political tactics, thereby leaving a void in news. I also don’t like how the right is portrayed as almost equal somehow in this Internet war on truth.

What needs to have been said is as follows:

The actual mainstream media was systematically taken down, corrupted, and dismantled by the right. CBS did not shoot themselves in the foot by reporting on a true story. Rove shot Rather in the foot by creating a “partial-truth-abortion”: focus on the document (which is still not proved to be fake) and not the content (which is true). CBS shot itself in the foot when it capitulated to this nonsense instead of publicly calling Rove out.

Like Glass, the planted journalists were just that, plants, at various papers to take down their credibility. I wonder why right wing “news” papers have yet to have scandal such as the mainstream newspapers?

As for bloggers/indie press… we are using truth against the lunatics and criminals running this charade of government. Truth does not equal smear. On the other hand, the right has only its dirty fingernails to show for its work and and the careers and lives of innocent and ruined people they dug into.

I think this is not an entirely adequate assessment of the right or an honest credit to the left. The right is a collection of fundamentalist para-troopers with bibles they have yet to read as well as rag-tag team made up of the College Republican thugs (anyone still a member is no doubt a shell of a person); paid freepers who are themselves being purged (ah, love that); and the brain-washed Nazi youth al a Bob Jones and such.

They are only potent because they are criminal. There is nothing strategically awe- worthy of a bunch of criminals doing criminal things. The left, on the other hand, is using the most potent antidote to such tactics and against such people, namely: truth. In addition, the left has mobilized to such an extent that it has bypassed color, gender, socio-economic background, and whatever else that differentiated us from one another on one level or another. I meet anyone now who is NOT a Republican and it is like meeting up with family. Does no one else get this sense of purpose and unity?

Think about this, if of these ethically challenged pop-tarts went after Dean full course, as some are trying to do now, the entire left would get up and kick some serious ass. Now the religious wig nuts puff up big on television, but the truth is the real Republicans are jumping ship left and right. It is like a mass conversion of sorts. So what is the right going to do? Mobilize the religious freaks who are most likely clients of Gannon or contributors to his purse and fling them at us? Dictatorships in the modern age do not last long because the people have more and more access to one another. The other main issue is that the left has most of the world on its side and it is in the moral high ground, which supersedes any particular religion, country, etc. Such a moral high ground makes us not only more capable, organized, and stronger; it provides the world with an alternative vision of what America could be.
The wing nuts, in my opinion, discredited Rather and subsequently CBS discredited itself by not calling Rove out on his hate mongering.

Now as they try to mobilize to sting back in retribution for Gannongate, they will find that smears will be called out quickly and the lie-mongers will be shown no mercy as they are outed. At least that is what the territory looks like from my vantage point

I think the most interesting element of all of this is that old crimes are being brought back under intense scrutiny: Watergate, Iran Contra, and so forth. Great for Drudge and a blue dress, perhaps he wears it often. Consensual sex between two adults does not impeachment make. I would rather have Clinton screwing the entire intern brigade nightly than Bush screwing the entire country hourly. The world sees this and the GOP is bleeding at a level that is reaching critical mass. Rove’s dirt may have worked on the local or even the state level; but with the attention of the country and the world, this mess of an administration will poison, and is poisoning the entire GOP. What is the GOP going tot say to all of this: blue dress, Monica?

Please, every time Hannity and others in this stilted oeuvre open their mouths, the left only needs to say: Iran Contra, Watergate, Fake Evidence for War, Gannongate, Payola gate, 9/11, Torture, and so forth. What can Rush and the other oompa loompas possibly say in return… but Clinton was evil, blah blah blah. This is our mantra: Iran Contra, Watergate, etc. That should be the answer to every question or to any statement.

Okay, will shut up now.

[ananda]

56. amazing tolerance

What still amazes me is the American public's tolerance for the way Bush speaks and answers questions.

He's a total embarrassment. In a speech class, he'd get an F minus.

Sue

[jazzjunkysue]

58. Please run for office. This line made me cry: fundamentalist para-troopers

fundamentalist para-troopers with bibles they have yet to read"

Please run for office. I mean it. Send this to Dean. At least write speeches for him.

Beautiful, hopeful piece. I believe. Thank you.

[lala_rawraw]

59. Lol, silly

I have to write articles so that they can get out and maybe end up in speeches, but mostly end up getting to you:)

Glad you liked this, however. If you want a real cry, you should read a piece I did on my father's reaction to all of this:
http://www.rawstory.com/exclusives/larisa/losing_america_ukraine_democracy_1201.htm

Let me just say that the ending has become worse again. So you see, they are not just killing people, countries, etc. They are actually destoying souls, dreams, minds. Can you imagine the "blood" of a murdered soul? I have been trying to write something but I cannot find a color.

Anyway, thanks mucho!

[jazzjunkysue]

60. Thanks, Larisa. I just put a shortcut to you on my desktop.

You and your family are true americans, and you make me proud of my country, again. That's no small accomplishment. I had no idea you were behind Raw. God bless.
Sue

[lala_rawraw]

62. i am in hiding, lol

behind fonts and script:)

[progressivebydesign]

57. Great piece.. but off a bit: Right-wing attacks for THOUGHTS and WORDS..

The left exposes lies and illegal behavior. WE aren't out there trying to get people fired for saying something we don't agree with...

[AngryWhiteLiberal]

63. Guardian = consistently excellent reporting. God, I miss the free press.

Ripping the mask off of the corporate media lapdogs...

JB

[cthrumatrix]

69. they are caught "red handed".... and they still lie about it