Flap over White House press corps is far from over

[NVMojo]

Knight Ridder MSM ...hard to believe.

(KRT) - The White House correspondent formerly known as Gannon has quit his job and acknowledged his real name, which is Guckert.

And his employer, a conservative Web site operated by Texas Republican activists, having already erased all traces of "Gannon," announced Thursday that it was unplugging its Web site to "reevaluate operations."

But the Jeff Gannon/James Guckert saga is far from over. It remains unclear how a graduate of a conservative training program, someone with no previous journalism experience, someone whose writings were often lifted directly from White House press releases, still managed to gain access to the White House press room, where he spent two years lobbing gentle questions at the press secretary and the President.

And some political analysts who monitor President Bush's relations with the media insist that Gannon (who, referring to Democrats, recently asked Bush, "How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?") should not be viewed as an isolated case. Rather, they contend that Gannon is symptomatic of a broader White House strategy to undermine the traditional media by disseminating the Bush message in creative new ways.

more...

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/11013030.htm?1c

[leftchick]

1. Two Great Quotes....

<snip>

Larry Gross, who runs the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California, says: "Richard Nixon hated the press, Bill Clinton hated the press - but they accepted the basic rules of the game. Bush has a strategy of discrediting, end-running, and even faking the news. Those prepackaged videos sent to local TV stations `looked' like news, much the way Gannon `looked' like a reporter. We're seeing something new: Potemkin-village journalism."

and this...

<snip>

Martha Kumar, a political scientist at Towson University in Maryland, who monitors the White House press, says: "Jeff was the kind of person who saw the briefings as an opportunity to air his point of view. Looking back (at the Clinton era), I can't think of any analogous person on the Democratic side. There were no Democratic-trained partisans like Jeff. If there had been anyone like that, you would have heard an uproar on Capitol Hill," from the Republican majority.

... ain't that the truth! :eyes:

[DemoTex]

19. A meme for these troubled times: "Potemkin-village journalism."

May it please stick!

[leftchick]

21. I love it Too!

I hope it sticks like GLUE!!!!

[0007]

28. Sure makes all those Osama Bin Laden videos appears questionable

Would be interesting to know the full story of what is real and what isn't, eh?

[chomskysright]

30. here are Gannon quotes (so u can see his idiocy):

1) “In your denunciations of the Abu Ghraib photos, you've used words like 'sickening,' 'disgusting' and 'reprehensible.' Will you have any adjectives left to adequately describe the pictures from Saddam's rape rooms and torture chambers? And will Americans ever see those images?”


2) I'd like to comment on the angry mob that surrounded Karl Rove's house on Sunday. They chanted and pounded on the windows until the D.C. police and Secret Service were called in. The protest was organized by the National People's Action Coalition, whose members receive taxpayer funds, as well as financial support from groups including Theresa Heinz Kerry's Tides Foundation.”


3) Since there have been so many questions about what the President was doing over 30 years ago, what is it that he did after his honorable discharge from the National Guard? Did he make speeches alongside Jane Fonda, denouncing America's racist war in Vietnam? Did he testify before Congress that American troops committed war crimes in Vietnam? And did he throw somebody else's medals at the White House to protest a war America was still fighting?"


“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've said you are going to reach out to these people -- how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"


You apparently forgot one salient point Jeff/Jim. Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton never actually said those quotes.


“Immediately the questions about how I got into the briefing room began to be asked. After all, I had “no journalistic credentials” despite the fact that I had written over 500 articles for Talon News over a two-year period. I must be a plant, because there simply cannot be a conservative journalist walking on the hallowed domain of the Fourth Estate built over an old swimming pool.”


“I feel badly for my colleagues who became the target of these same people on the Left who harshly chastised them for allowing a traitor operate among them. How could they stand idly by while Jeff Gannon breached the ideological barrier that kept conservatives out of the White House briefing room?”

“The well-funded liberal attack machine, Media Matters, filled with operatives from the DNC and failed Democratic campaigns incited activist bloggers to wage a full-scale jihad against me. All sorts of personal information about me, including my Social Security number was published on the internet. Threats against me as well as my family led to my voluntary resignation in the belief that would bring it to an end, but the bloggers were aiming for my total destruction.”

“They dug deep for dirt, dredging up things long past and erecting a fantasy world worthy of a Vince Flynn novel. What they found is domain names and sexy pictures from which sprung rumors and conspiracy theories. Based on some of the emails I’ve received, many of these people were conflicted with hatred for my politics and tingling they experienced while viewing pictures said to be me.”

“Criticism of my work and my journalistic background is fair game, but the intensive scrutiny into my personal life, especially things from the past have startled many in the journalistic community. Now Democrats in Congress are demanding that the White House do more thorough investigation into the personal lives and sexual histories of reporters.”

“But because I am a conservative, they continue to try to smear me with allegations of behavior that they otherwise would vigorously defend.”



Wrong again Jeff/Jim. First of all, you are not being smeared with allegations. There have been over 40 naked pictures of you found on gay-hooker sites where you charge $1,200 for a weekend and you boast how you like to be on top.


“This episode is so rich with irony that it will take me many columns and a book to deal with it all. What is most telling about the Left is how quickly it was able to abandon its sacred principles of free speech and privacy to attack someone it disagreed with.”






“This is not to say that I have not made mistakes in the past. Like all of us have at one time or another, I made poor choices and exercised bad judgment. But I believe in a forgiving God who changed my life. It was through that renewal that I went on to have a career as a reporter and further blessed to become a White House correspondent.”





“At the heart of all this is the further erosion of the Old Media. The Left is engaging in “21st Century McCarthyism” in an effort to blacklist conservative journalists in order protect their domination of the media. These people may have exposed some of my human failings but they have also revealed their own hypocrisy. The damage to me is done, and it wasn’t fatal. But we are only beginning to see the effect of Gannongate on the Old Media and the Left.”


“In regard to the allegations about my personal life, I have been advised by my attorneys not to comment on any of the details pending the outcome of any possible legal action I might pursue. Therefore, I won't be discussing any of that stuff here.”

[Judi Lynn]

2. Can you believe it? From the same company owning the Miami Herald, too!

From this outstanding (and completely unexpected, by now!) article:

Every president has sought to manipulate the media. But historians say that Bush, unhappy with what he calls "the filter," is courting controversy in his quest for innovative formats. Several conservative commentators have been paid to trumpet Bush policies in their work; one recipient, Armstrong Williams, is being investigated by the Federal Communications Commission. And two agencies have disseminated pro-Bush videos that look like TV newscasts, without disclosing the Bush sponsorship - a breach of federal law, according to the Government Accountability Office.

The White House has stated that these media decisions were made independently by the agencies. Nevertheless, former Republican strategist Jim Pinkerton, who later worked in the senior George Bush's administration, says: "It's quite clear this White House is exploring radical alternative ways to getting its message out - through the aggressive hiring of flacks like Williams, and the presence, or even planting, of friendly so-called journalists like Gannon.

"The Bush people are challenging all the old assumptions about how to work the press. They are ambitious - visionary, if you will - in ways that Washington has yet to fathom."

Larry Gross, who runs the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California, says: "Richard Nixon hated the press, Bill Clinton hated the press - but they accepted the basic rules of the game. Bush has a strategy of discrediting, end-running, and even faking the news. Those prepackaged videos sent to local TV stations `looked' like news, much the way Gannon `looked' like a reporter. We're seeing something new: Potemkin-village journalism."
(snip/...)

Wow, NVMojo. What a story! Great way to start a day!

[NVMojo]

12. Good morning and cheers, Judi Lynn, and all!

When I first stumbled across this one, I thought I was seeing things from lack of sleep. Had to read it a few times, over and over, making sure it wasn't an editorial. But it was on the Political news page. Still can't believe it. What's it been, at least pushing on a month since Gannon boy was outed by real bloggers for being a fake reporter?

[cascadiance]

26. Knight Ridder (Real Cities network) is headquartered in San Jose,

where the San Jose Mercury News headquarters is.

I used to work for them there at the more central main web site offices back in the 2000 election. A lot of us were moaning while the returns came in and jokingly wondering what might have happened if Knight Ridder hadn't shortly before the election moved it's headquarters from Miami to San Jose then. Perhaps the people that would have still been in Florida instead would have made the difference in giving the election to Gore. Then again, we were perhaps the more liberal segment of the company there.

I'll have to send a nice note off to them congratulating some folks for getting the right message out through Real Cities network!

[merh]

27. The CEO of Knight Rider is president of the Washington Press

corp and was on Olbermann talking about Gannon last week or the week before. He didn't have a problem with his lack of credentials then. Wonder if its just getting too hot to handle!

Great article -- love it!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

29. I think this story may have forgotten to die.

What with Gannon/Guckert continuing to feed it and the news from Russia regarding the US press fanning the flames, it's keeps getting hotter and hotter. :)

[EFerrari]

3. Harley Sorenson has a great column today in the SF Chron

He talks about Wead, Gannon and Choicepoint. Here are 3 graphs of the Gannon portion:

Shall we discuss the irrepressible "Jeff Gannon"? "Gannon" is the fake reporter who sat in on dozens of White House press briefings and pleased the president's press person by asking questions that made the administration look good. He got away with it until he crossed the line by asking this question of President Bush: "How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?" The "people" to whom he referred were Senate Democrats.

Even with that red flag thrown in their direction, the ever-alert White House presslings didn't give "Gannon" (whose real name is James Guckert) more than a passing smirk, but a battery of bloggers smelled a rat and, long story short, blew the whistle on him. Turns out he represented a red, white and blue Web site called GOPUSA, which might make a normal person suspicious of his loyalties, and he made his living, or supplemented it, by selling his services as a male escort, whose main attribute seems to be something about "8-inches-cut," whatever that means.

The White House claims it just can't understand how a bozo like Guckert got daily press passes whenever he asked for them, but get them he did. You don't suppose, do you, that Karl Rove, better known as "Bush's brain," was behind Guckert, do you? Or vice versa.


http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/sorensen/

[aquart]

10. Is he implying that Karl has a closet

That might need a spring cleaning?

[drduffy]

31. ...or hosing down?

heh heh

[Scairp]

11. Oh please

The newspaper for the city of San Fransisco, a city know for it's significant gay population, doesn't know what "8 inches cut" means when it's used to advertise a gay male escort??! Gimme a break. I knew what it meant and I am female and hetero.

[DulceDecorum]

20. That comment was meant

for the little old lady in Pasadena.

[aquart]

32. Yes, dear.

Time to review "irony."

[NVMojo]

13. I have always wondered if Karl has a special closet!

What a rotten little man he is.

Thanks for sharing that link!

[sabra]

4. This article is popping up everwhere...

it's good to see :-)

[marcologico]

5. Dayum, this story just might take off!

Maybe the fake-reporter angle will get the corporate boys riled enough to risk losing a few Rove brownie points.

Is that a helicopter I see on the horizon?

[anarchy1999]

6. "A helicopter on the horizon"! LOL That is just way too much to

hope for, can we get rid of DELAY first?

[pokercat999]

24. My hope is that

FU Cheney has a heart attack and dies the day Bush resigns and gets on that copter, with just slightly more luck the copter will crash on the way to Andrews.
Not that I'd wish any bad luck on this pair of traitors, but the real jackpot would be the entire congress gets on several jets to accompany the copter and......... ok, ok I am getting a little carried away

[Judi Lynn]

7. Can we dare to hope?

For a dream of heaven, imagine BOTH _Bush and Delay leaving at the same time!

[stillcool]

18. How about a 747.....fully loaded with WH perps....heading for Gitmo?

[Ouabache]

8. it sort of sounds a little like

from the MSM that some of them might be saying 'hey we were whoring as hard as we could for you !'

[gratuitous]

16. Oh baby, Guckert meant nothing to me!

"You presstitutes are still our number ones here at the White House! He was just a dalliance, a fling! C'mon baby, you know it's you that I love. Only you."

Golly, wouldn't it be ironic if the press, instead of covering for this corrupt administration started covering it simply because they felt cheated on?

[blackspade]

22. yep!

And it's playing flight of the Valkyries!
I love the smell of skeered Neo-cons in the morning!

[bpilgrim]

9. that story has the required sizzle, SEX

and that is what SELLS in America ;->

that allows them to get their snarky one-liners in there and it captures the publics attention even though that isn't the main thrust of the story.

wooHoo, this ain't goin away, and turd blossom is about to taste some of his own medicine :evilgrin:

peace

[NVMojo]

14. ...maybe, just maybe, some of the MSM journalists and editors are

finally gonna say, "No, we ain't gonna take! No, we ain't gonna take it! No, we ain't gonna take it ...anymore!!" And give Rove the sunshine his pale, pasty butt needs to see!!!

[Mika]

15. Or maybe they'll ask for more.

Any misdirection will do.

Meanwhile, the gutting of America continues..

---

[Ernesto]

23. "sizzle, SEX"

good call Bill! This one might even rival the jacko show.

[underpants]

17. Ha! MSM dragged kicking and screaming into reporting on their toadiness

I love it.

CNN's Eason Jordan makes an off the record comment and before I even heard about it he "resigns". The Rather thing is reported on more than the actual 60 Mintues II segment (gee what was it that Bennett said? What did Killian's secretary say about the documents).

Now against every effort that they could muster to get rid of this story it is STILL going on with no answers in sight.

I love it.

[daleo]

25. Word usage - it is a "flap", like a UFO flap.

It could be thought of as a little way to downplay things, at least in the headline (which is all a lot of people read anyway).