Raw Story is getting Smeared!!!!!

[lala_rawraw]

Same publication that went after Randi Rhodes and Ed Shultz is now targeting Raw... protect your journalists people:

********************************
Homosexual press hot
to 'out' Bush figures
Gannon-gate leads to charges
about top Republican officials
Posted: February 21, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Joseph Farah

WASHINGTON – Disclosures that an alleged homosexual escort working for a pro-Republican website was granted access to the White House press room has led to efforts in the nation's homosexual press to "out" top-ranking Bush administration officials and GOP leaders based on uncorroborated, undocumented and unnamed sources.

snip

....The central target of the reports in the homosexual press is White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, a figure who regularly called on Gannon at press conferences. Most of the reports recycle one last week by Raw Story, published by John Byrne, 24, who claims to have worked as a local reporter for the Boston Globe and as a Washington bureau reporter for the McClatchy newspapers, and seems to specialize in "outing" Republican politicians.

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42954

[still_one]

1. the source, worldnetdaily says everything

it is an extremely right wing christian organization

[lala_rawraw]

2. That does not

change the smear on John.

[still_one]

3. your right

[ragin_acadian]

4. farah is another right wing piece of excrement

willing to overlook, mis-represent, or just plain lie about facts in order to save face for the right.

"Guckert was linked with online domain addresses suggestive of homosexual pornography."

um, no. i think it's pretty plain that "i don't leave marks, only impressions" implies that guckerts site was more than just pornography. i'm sure farah overlooked that because he didn't have a strong enough stomach to visit guckerts site and see picture of a fellow right winger baring his buttocks and urinating.

[Old and In the Way]

5. Why do these RW media rags practice such moral relativism?

It only counts when it's a Democrat that gets caught?

Seems to me that the vast majority of sick and depraved people have Republican credentials. In the past 2 years, I've read about Congressman jailed for manslaughter, swinging with their wives, spending millions on slots, using fake reporters who run prostitution websites.

Why would any decent person with values be associated with this corrupt and perverted Party?

[lala_rawraw]

8. Oy

I am just appalled that they continue to try and discredit the journalist, not actually addressing the story with any real information. I thought after Rathergate we would be more protective of our people, who are simply doing their jobs. I am really upset over this because they basically put into question John as a reporter, not only this story but his background. They also basically say that Raw Story has the sole purpose of outing gay Republicans, as though nothing else we have reported is valid. It really bothers me to no end. I know how hard John works. He pays for his own research. He has no personal life, working 80 hour weeks sometimes. When they label him like this; pigeonholed him like this, they are marking him as someone motivated by vindictiveness not someone motivated by truth and getting it out.

We cannot allow for our own few journalists to be silenced by these continuous tactics. There is a big difference between going after someone like Gannon, who is the antithesis of journalism, and going after someone who is simply doing their job. If we ask our reporters to be responsible and ethical, then we must be responsible as citizens to protect them and to shield them, because they are fighting for us. Otherwise, how can they do their jobs if they are not safe to do so? Do we want them all to be starved out as Webb was? Or maybe just crumpled and discredited after a 30 year career? Each time we allow such a transgression to pass, we are complicit in allowing what has become the fourth estate=MSM. We have a fifth estate now, however, and it has to be protected or it will go by way of CNN, et al. In this juncture in history, the loss of the fifth estate is the final blow to signal the end of the American experiment.

[Angry Girl]

6. what can we do? n/t

[calzone]

10. the scandal

This story will survive the onslaught. Worldnetdaily is indeed a frothing rightwing tool of the republican party as noted. The caliber is evident not just in the content and obvious propaganda but in the quality of the reporting. The article references Scott McClellan's mother as the former "controller" of Austin TX. the term is accurately called "comptroller" of public funds. The article reports the discredited official version that Gannon "only had a day-to-day pass to the press meetings" when he actually had a "hard" permanent pass, and had it before the existence of Talon news, which presumably would've been required for consideration to get so much as near the door. The republicans are vulnerable and the democrats are getting passed loaded .45 acp's thru the cell doors, both with this and with the social security boondogle, so far the invertebrate democatic pols supposedly representing us have been doing a Barney Fife imitation and shaking with such violence they can't even maintain a grip on the gun let alone fire it. We'll see how this oppurtunity plays out. How I wish an obnoxious, obstuctionist, pitbull mean democrat with seething contempt for the right and a flinty disregard for slings&arrows as well as the alarmed silly bleating from the centrists would emerge on the scene. We need a giant.

[lala_rawraw]

12. that is what blogs are for

to be the "giant" and the journalists are there to arm them with truth.

[2diagnosis]

20. is that true?

I thought he was denied a hard pass. Great info, do you have a link?

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. World Net Daily are a bunch of sore losers

http://www.papillonsartpalace.com/worldnet.htm

"The Senate Press Gallery, which grants permanent congressional press passes to hundreds of news organizations – from the ubiquitous Associated Press to tiny one-man operations, from college papers to the official propaganda organs of totalitarian nations – has denied the same accreditation to the Internet's leading independent newssite, WorldNetDaily.com."

Ha fucking ha.

They should get back to their supposed mission: "WorldNetDaily.com performs this function by remaining faithful to the central role of a free press in a free society: as a watchdog exposing government waste, fraud, corruption and abuse of power - the mission envisioned by our founders and protected in the First Amendment of the Constitution."

They should be cheering Raw Story on, if they weren't a bunch of partisan hypocrites.

[DavidDvorkin]

9. Surely this is good exposure in the end

More eyeballs. Some of them will like what they see and keep reading Raw Story.

[lala_rawraw]

11. I respectfully, but vehemently disagree

I would not trade good exposure for smears. Exposure in this day and age is roughly equal to the amount of time it takes for a commercial potty break. There is however, a bigger issue: the ethical implications of attacking a journalist doing their job and not attacking the story (if the story is wrong, for example); or worse, attacking a story because it is true. This article has nothing to do with Gannongate. This article is a way to attack John Byrne, John DC, and others, nothing more. Every time we let this pass, we lower the bar on our ethical standards (which is why we have the current MSM). I, for example, cannot stand certain reporters. They are, however, simply reporters doing their job (and in terms of facts and such they are ethical and responsible). I would never use my own personal feelings or political views to attack them as people.

This is not the same as going after paid media whores and propaganda artists... in fact; it is everyone's job to go after such people because whoever controls the media controls the truth.

There is much too much at stake here to allow such attacks on real journalists to go unchecked and unanswered with a serious backlash. We cannot demote them to something as fleeting as publicity, because in the long run, that is not what any of this is about. If we make it about publicity, then we can all just get our versions of the "blue dress" and not bother with fact.

Sorry to rant, but this really irks me. Again, with respect, I do not agree.

[BR_Parkway]

13. Well, in smearing they are starting to make mistakes, like admitting

"...White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, a figure who regularly called on Gannon at press conferences."

Seems like everytime one of the partisan reports on this trying to make it go away, they actually wind up bolstering our case. Now we can claim "even WND stated how often Scottie was calling on him...."

on edit - Did you catch the poll?

What do you think about allegations of homosexuality in Bush administration?

• Why is it that homosexuality only matters in one political party? 22.72% (689)
  
• I thought we weren't supposed to care what people do in their bedrooms 21.27% (645)
  
• It's a dirty smear by political opponents 17.97% (545)
  
• There are homosexuals everywhere – who cares? 11.48% (348)
  
• Republicans have opened themselves to this with careless appointments 8.44% (256)
  
• It's an attack by political opponents with some basis in truth 5.51% (167)
  
• The Bush administration is rife with perversion 4.72% (143)
  
• It's just a lot of unsubstantiated gossip 4.62% (140)
  
• Other 2.41% (73)
  
• After the Gannon affair, I'll believe anything 0.86% (26)
  

[KoKo]

14. My take on the article was that it called more attention to

the Bushie's hypocracy than to smearing Raw Story, though. We all knew the RW Attack machine would go into gear full force but in doing so they have to talk about the "possibility" of McClelland being gay AND that Mehlman IS Gay. Which brings the issue more publicity.

What can they hope to threaten Raw Story with? Will they now try to "out" Dem gays in retaliation? Dem gays on the net are pretty open and comfortable with their sexual preference anyway...it's the Repug Right Wing that's in the "Closet" fearing any more attention to this story will just expose all their hypocracy.

I didn't see it as the threat you did, but understand what you say if you mean they are trying to obscure and distract from the other significant parts of the Gan/Guck story...like Plame and Eberle and Moles in the Whitehouse planted there by "whom?" :shrug:

[Jade Fox]

15. You took the thoughts right outta my head!

I agree with you completely.

[lala_rawraw]

16. yes, on

One aspect is the distraction; the other is a subtle calling for the freeper brigade to start their mission from God-type work: hacks, hate mail galore till server goes down, and so forth. It is a two prong approach: the first, discredit any other story by obscuring it and second, intimidate and threaten the journalists. Not sure if you have been on the end of one of these where they put your phone number, home address, social security number and so forth online; but let me say there is nothing kind about this type of publicity. In fact, a journalist I just talked to was actually and publicly threatened to be "taken out." I am looking through what he sent me to put together a story. That is what this seemingly innocuous publicity accomplishes: tantamount to blackmail or severe intimidation. So yes on the partial truth abortion aspect: obliterate truth by focusing on the scandal aspects only. But the most disturbing is the second aspect, the mass organized retaliatory and aggressive actions of this cult. Now if you have kids at home, this makes it doubly frightening. The point is that the people creating the motive and calling for mobilization of this type are clearly part of the system set up to slam truth. The goal is to identify them, the paid political Christian-a-cons masquerading as some sort of free roaming grass roots movement.

[calzone]

17. the real story

To me the real story here isn't who's gay but how did Gannon, who isn't a reporter or journalist and never worked for a bonefide news organization, get a permanent press pass and such extensive access when only the most credible and established journalists manage to get one. They are very difficult to obtain. There's even evidence that Gannon knew details about the Iraq war before the MSM and everyone else. As an NPR journalist I tried several yrs ago to cover a swinefest masquerading as a golf benefit at a swank exclusive country club in the Fl. keys, hosted by Tom DeLay. You wouldn't believe the nasty stone walls I hit not just trying to get basic info but trying to get permission to cover it, I was threatened with arrest if I so much as showed up at the front gate. The republican ruling class has openly admitted that they will henceforward treat the press as just another special interest group. They aren't even pretending to be accessible anymore, unless they wish to disseminate self-serving releases. I'm hoping some gutsy reporters and democratic politicians will smell blood and follow the trail.

[KoKo]

19. I didn't mean to make light of the vicious attacks

on anyone who tries to expose these people. And, having threats to you personally or the website are really bad news. :-(

[libertypirate]

18. Hey throw mud back!!!!

It's fun... The more we point out the medias failures the less excuses they have to fail.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x107920