"Jeff Gannon" and Karl Rove -- one degree of separation

[BurtWorm]

It just keeps getting weirder and weirder:

http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/extra/archives/001437.html

There's one other thing that raises our curiosity about who or what is behind "Gannon." It seems that when he wasn't bashing Kerry, he paid a ton of attention to the Thune vs. Daschle Senate race in South Dakota. One blog that seemed to think "Gannon" was an authoritative journalist and linked to at least one of his reports was called "Daschle v. Thune."

If that name sounds familiar, it should. It later was reported that the author of the blog, Jon Lauck, was a former Thune campaign staffer and was paid $27,000 by Thune's 2004 campaign while he was producing the Web site.

So let us get this straight: The top Democrat in the Senate loses a race where the GOP sets up a phony blog that passes along news reports from a pseudo media organization, written by a reporter given White House credentials under a fake name.

[Swede]

1. This is getting juicy.

MSM where are you?

[aquart]

2. It ain't a scandal if it ain't on CNN.

[hangemhigh]

4. Michael Jackson! Scott Peterson! Robert Blake! LOL. nt

[Occulus]

6. They're probably waiting to see if there's more juice

And I bet there is. Lots and LOTS of smoke on this one, and I think maybe they're not reporting on it because they're being very careful; this is, after all, a man who is part of the Reichwing spin machine.

If they want proof, all they need to do is look at these threads and read the Kos entries. Note the possible connections to the Plame matter.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave.....

[mediaman007]

26. People should copy the blog, before they take it down.

[ultraist]

3. I wonder how Rove met Gannon? The militarydudes escort service perhaps?

[Stirk]

27. I've been wondering that myself.

[realFedUp]

5. The bathhouses in DC must be dang interesting....

ok, that wasn't Godly...

[MsTryska]

12. Gah!

i'll bet they are very interesting.



too bad, we can't get someone who maybe works in one to break ranks and start filming. well not filming everything, but perhaps just who enters?

[realFedUp]

14. It would make a good book or mag. article...

a few inside peeks into politics
from another point of view...
:-)

[Avalux]

7. classic Rove

I gotta hand it to him - he gets an "A" for creativity. This is really quite good. And you can bet he's scrambling his fat ass off making sure the Gannon story doesn't get out to MSM.
I've been saying for a long time that Rove will screw up eventually - not sure he'll be able to keep a lid on this one.

[AngryOldDem]

20. Wouldn't it be hysterical

if shit like this brought down the administration? Watergate, remember, was just a "third-rate burglary." At first.

[i miss america]

23. My thoughts exactly!

[SpiralHawk]

8. Snap out of it MSM reporters

This is a big, juicy story. It's got it all: power, sex, corruption, intrigue, idiocy. What more could you want?

And if you fail to report this, remember that it reflects directly on the integrity of every single White House reporter. Your credentials are all suspect.

Defend your honor. Do your job. Report the Gannon story without prejudice or favor. Just give the American public the facts. Now.

[jhain]

10. how much would it cost

to rent a banner tower?

I'll chip in the have your post on a banner flying around the beltway for a few days.

Well said!

[fooj]

9. I bet Rove gets down on his knees daily...

so what if he's married and has children! What a great cover!

[Jack Rabbit]

11. Nobody would think a real journalist would ask questions like Gannon's

From the Boston Globe via CommonDreams
Dated Wednesday February 2

White House-Friendly Reporter Under Scrutiny
by Charlie Savage and Alan Wirzbicki

When Bush called on Gannon near the end of his nationally televised Jan. 26 news conference, he had just been questioned about Williams and the Education Department funds, an embarrassment to the administration. Gannon's question was different.

"Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the US 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 said you're going to reach out to these people -- how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"

. . . Last year, during the presidential campaign, Gannon's comments could be even more pointed. In a Feb. 10, 2004, briefing with McClellan, for example, Gannon rose to deliver the following:

"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?"

Read more.

Those questions are loaded. If a liberal, progressive or left wing journalist were to ask questions like that to a President I generally support, I would feel embarrassed.

Past administrations have used the press to get their message out. There's nothing wrong with that. What the Bush administration does differently is to use pseudo-journalism -- a category into which FoxNews easily fits -- to get propaganda out.

Jeff Gannon is no more a journalist than Karen Ryan. Yet they served the Bush White House in exactly the same way. Neither was really a newsperson, but they both played one on TV.

Of course, the White House knew who Jeff Gannon was and Mr. Bush was sure to call on him. Jeff Gannon wasn't a reporter. He was a plant.

In a sense, it is the responsibility of real journalists to expose these frauds and the White House scams in which they play a central role. However, the work of the Boston Globe and the Columbia Journalism Review notwithstanding, they are doing about as good a job of that as they were in exposing the junta's lies leading up to the invasion of Iraq.

For the most part, the corporate media remains silent on this assault on their profession. They even compound the problem by degrading their own credibility when they invite and re-invite hacks like Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin, who are little more journalists than Mr. Gannon or Ms. Ryan, to participate on their talk shows.

[merbex]

21. Let's start by writing to The Boston Globe - they've already

written about him - all this stuff (last 24 hours)is merely an update to their previous story

[Jack Rabbit]

31. I'm not sure about that

This a story about how the White House uses a phony journalist to propagate their point of view (in addition to paying journalists and having a PR firm produce a fake news report).

The fact that this fake newsman has a seedy sex life is red herring. I hope Mr. Gannon gets the help he needs, as his behavior is destructive to other people's lives. However, his relationship with homosexual prostitutes doesn't undermine American democracy in the way that his relationship with the Bush administration does. That's what's worth the ink in the Boston Globe and other major media outlets.

[MsTryska]

13. So could "Jeff Gannon" be another one of them there

rovian plots?

[i miss america]

19. Yup! It sure smells that way.

[MsTryska]

22. what if he doesn't exist at all?

what if the whole website thing is jsut a setup?

[i miss america]

24. He exists. He's just not real.

[starroute]

15. Rove and "Gannon" both alumni of the Leadership Institute

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/index.php/Leadership_Institute

[BurtWorm]

16. Buzzflash.com is funny on that subject...

http://www.buzzflash.com/editorial/05/02/edi05026.html


Gannon's website leaves little doubt that he comes from the right wing Gordon Liddy school of bullet head commentary. Biographical background on Gannon that no longer is on the Talon website indicated that "He is also a graduate of the Leadership Institute Broadcast School of Journalism."

And what might that be? Well the Institute website tells us, "The Leadership Institute ... is the oldest and most-respected training organization for conservative leaders." They say they've turned out over 40,000 wingnuts just like Gannon, which goes a long way to explain what's wrong with cable news.

[yorgatron]

17. when i read "one degree of separation"

i thought "are they talking about a condom?"

[cosmicdot]

25. funding resources of the Leadership Institute

http://www.mediatransparency.org/search_results/info_on_any_recipient.php?recipientID=600
grants from such 'organizations' as:
Castle Rock Foundation, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Inc. (a lot of $)


Leadership Institute
Springfield, VA 22151

The Leadership Institute's purpose is to foster conservatism on college campuses across the nation and to train young conservative journalists for future journalistic professions.

Web address: http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/index_flash.cfm

More info culled by Media Transparency
http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipients/leadership_institute.htm

Total $ Granted: $ 1,719,500
For Years: 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1995 1994 1993 1991 1989 1988 1987 1986
# Grants: 54


June 11, 2001

In Virginia, Young Conservatives Learn How to Develop and Use Their Political Voices

By BLAINE HARDEN

ARLINGTON, Va. — The art of selling conservatism as compassion is taught here, a few miles from the White House, at boot camp for young conservatives who aspire to power.
~snip~
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/11/politics/11CONS.html?ex=1108098000&en=fe8747956af6d541&ei=5070&oref=login


The New York Times reporter described a class at the Institute as "seven eager Republicans in their 20s."

Yet, on its website, the Insitute informs visitors that it is indeed an IRS 501(c)(3) organization - a tax-exempt educational non-partisan (emphasis added) foundation.

The Times also reported that the Institute is financed by "about $8 million a year in contributions from wealthy conservatives, most of whom are Republicans. Major donors include Joseph Coors, the beer magnate."

[theorist]

18. I wonder how much credit the blogosphere will get for this....

Especially if there's a tried & true conspiracy underneath the thin layer of santorum on the oval office carpet.

[mediaman007]

28. Maybe all of this ties to the Dan Rather deal too!

Remember how quickly they spread the story about Rather (60 Minutes 2) not having a legitimate source? I wonder if the bloggers who exposed the information can be connected to this institute?

I will do some checking.

[starroute]

29. Mike Krempasky is one connection

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/index.php/Mike_Krempasky

He's the guy who registered the rathergate.com domain just two days after the 60 Minutes show featuring the memos. He was an instructor with the Leadership Institute at least from 1999 to 2002. Another Freeper who posted the initial announcement of the rathergate site had also worked for the Leadership Institute.

Krempasky's rathergate site was heavily promoted by Talon News, and he himself had a guest column at GOPUSA a few weeks later proclaiming how CBS News had been humbled by the power of right-wing bloggers.

[LibertyorDeath]

30. *

:kick::kick::kick:

[LibertyorDeath]

32. This is just the tip of the iceberg

:kick::kick::kick: