Jeff Gannon: Destroying the Non-Integrity of the Gaggle (Wonkette)

[struggle4progress]

We've been watching a non-story about .. Jeff Gannon develop.

Yesterday, Media Matters actually wrote to .. McClellan to ask that Gannon's press credentials be revoked. Because, you know, when people write things we don't like, we must ban them!

... Gannon .. is apparently some kind of right-wing threat: he uses White House .. materials to write .. coverage that .. dozens of people read! And Talon News .. may in fact be some sort of scheme to make money on the web by not doing much of anything! ...

http://www.wonkette.com/politics/personalities/jeff-gannon-destroying-the-nonintegrity-of-the-gaggle-031742.php

[trumad]

1. This piece is a perfect example of why Wankette

is nothing more than a dumb ass wanna-be!

[struggle4progress]

4. I say that her title is excellent. Given the currently putrid state ...

... of White House press coverage, why should we think that Gannon's access is anything other than the logical conclusion of a history that has been dismal for much too long. If the rest of the White House press corps (and their publishers) would simply do competent investigative reporting, Gannon would instantly become irrelevant, except possibly as a embarrassment to the Bushistas who let him into the gaggle.

[theorist]

2. Right. It's a nonstory when a partisan hack gets WH press credentials.

I'll think this is a nonstory when the Plaid Adder gets to attend the next press gaggle. And not just that, but she gets to stand right in front of the Faux News people.

[struggle4progress]

3. Oh, I think there's a real story here. But I don't think we've seen ...

... the story yet.

I think one story might be: what is his real name, and what in his history explains why he hasn't been using his real name. Another story might be a careful tabulation of the (probably many) ways the White House has frozen out mainstream America in favor of extremists, whether its giving limited space to Gannon or repeatedly offering internships to Patrick Henry College students.

But the current sort of noise our side is making about Gannon is unlikely to have much positive effect on the center.

[struggle4progress]

5. Apparently, he's only getting a daily pass:

... There are several reasons he has been denied a permanent pass, including the fact that the news site he writes for, TalonNews.com, could not provide evidence that they were an independent news organization, not tied to any political organization. In addition to that, The Standing Committee of Correspondents (the group of congressional reporters who oversee press credential distribution on Capitol Hill) also requires that in order to get a permanent pass, TalonNews.com would have to prove it carries paid advertising and paid circulation, as regular newspapers do. They could not do so.

Since Gannon could not get his hands on a permanent press pass, he has been regularly attending White House briefings using temporary passes issued each day -- for the past year ...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Feb05/Brengle0207.htm

[theorist]

6. Thanks for the link.

It reminds me of the Summer of 2003 when I was reading a lot of stories about the Wilson-Plame affair before it hit the mainstream press. Although that one was a tad bit more outrageous. :)