Boston Globe Reports on the Jeff Gannon Scandal!

[Stephanie]

Just posted in LBN:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1205794

White House-friendly reporter under scrutiny

By Charlie Savage and Alan Wirzbicki, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent | February 2, 2005

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has provided White House media credentials to a man who has virtually no journalistic background, asks softball questions to the president and his spokesman in the midst of contentious news conferences, and routinely reprints long passages verbatim from official press releases as original news articles on his website.

* * * *

Now, the question of how Gannon gets into White House press conferences is coming under intense scrutiny from critics who contend that Gannon is not a journalist but rather a White House tool to soften media coverage of Bush. The issue was raised by a media watchdog group and picked up by Internet bloggers, who linked Gannon's presence in White House briefings to recent controversies over whether the administration manipulates the flow of information to the public.

* * * *

He said other reporters and political commentators from lesser-known newsletters and from across the political spectrum also attend briefings, though he could not recall any Internet bloggers. McClellan said it is not the White House's role to decide who is and who is not a real journalist and dismissed any notion of conspiracy.

Nonetheless, transcripts of White House briefings indicate that McClellan often calls on Gannon and that the press secretary -- and the president -- have found relief in a question from Gannon after critical lines of questioning from mainstream news organizations.

<more at link>

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/02/02/white_house_friendly_reporter_under_scrutiny/

"internet bloggers" - that would be us.

If you missed it, here is David Brock's letter to Scott McClellan regarding Gannon:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200501310004

[Stephanie]

1. Good morning! The fake reporter is busted by MSM.

[spanone]

2. Kick

[Plaid Adder]

3. I'm sure they let in all kinds of people.

The point is that Gannon gets to ask questions, which means someone is calling on him, which means that someone on their staff knows he's a plant.

Fume,

The Plaid Adder

[Stephanie]

4. Potemkin Press Conferences

Another new Bush innovation.

[Robbien]

7. Yes, they let in all types of people, but not every day

And, as you say, none get to ask questions.

I wonder though if any of the other people they let in don't have journalism degrees as Gannon doesn't and if any of them do not write for an actual newspaper of some kind.

[Stephanie]

9. yes, according to the article people from newsletters, etc., are allowed

The difference is the way Gannon is used by the WH to suit their purposes.

[DoYouEverWonder]

14. Hey, Plaid Adder

you should apply for a WH press pass. At least you write your own stuff. Then again, that's the problem, isn't it?

[Plaid Adder]

15. If I were living in the D.C. area, I sure would.

But of course nobody would call on me. Still, it would be worth it just to get to see the show.

Hey...Skinner's in DC. Maybe HE should get his own press pass!

The Plaid Adder

[Stephanie]

5. A typical Gannon question to McClellan >

"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?"

[Robbien]

6. I am surprised since I really didn't expect the toady MSM to report

on the mole in the WH press gaggle. For two years the so called prestigious WH press correspondents have been sitting together with a web site right wing activist writer who received his journalistic degree from a two-day seminar. For the whole two years not one of these prestigious WH "reporters" has reported on that fact. Did they know? If not, why not? If they did, why didn't they report? Scared little rabbits frightened of losing their "access"? What good is this "access" when all they do is act as stenos transcribing word for word what is told to them in the daily WH press releases.

[Stephanie]

12. Boston Globe jumped on it pretty quick once Brock sent the letter

to McClellan. I guess they just needed that hook? I mean how is it that they ignored this mole all this time? Of course they had to know.

[cthrumatrix]

17. watch to see if the MSM covers it?

[paineinthearse]

18. Don't hold your breath, but....

...do what you can to help spread the news.

I've found making personal connection to small/community papers at least gets MSM-ignored news into the area.

Large paper ombudsmen are good friends, too. (To see what I mean, read about this in the Massachusetts forum).

[Norquist Nemesis]

8. Take note of the last paragraph

in the OP:
"Nonetheless, transcripts of White House briefings indicate that McClellan often calls on Gannon and that the press secretary -- and the president -- have found relief in a question from Gannon after critical lines of questioning from mainstream news organizations."

Hooray for the Globe actually doing a little investigative journalism to see if the question of credibility and the relationship between the WH/Faux news with biased support has merit. It does.

Someone should do some research other pro-CON organizations (Faux, Weekly Standard, WA Times, etc) and their questions too.

[flvegan]

10. Mediamatters.org has it on their front page, Buzzflash has it up. Nice.

[Stephanie]

11. Tons more on Gannon from Daily Kos >

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/1/233534/4806#115

The Spectacular Rise of the Miraculous Mr. Gannon

Talon News registers its domain name March 29, 2003. The site goes live April 1, 2003, and on April 3, 2003, the pseudonomic "Jeff Gannon," with no journalism experience and with a $50, two-day seminar at a right-wing propaganda institute under his belt, is seated four rows away from where the most powerful - and most guarded - person on the planet makes his pronouncements.

Heady times indeed. Not to mention the fastest background check in the history of labyrinthine bureaucracy. Perhaps the speed of that background accounts for the fact that our hero doesn't have to use his real name and seems to have sprung up as a glorious, immaculately conceived creation of the right wing less than a year before.

Of course, it was Ari Fleischer answering questions that fateful first day and not President Bush, which surely must have been disappointing to such a rising star. We all must live with such disappointments, even the most gifted - and dare I say ... planted? - among us. <more>

[Robbien]

13. I love their name for this: Propagannon.

Susan G. is doing a great job over at Kos organizing the effort to get the story behind Gannon and his release of the Plame info.

[David Zephyr]

16. Kick.