Demopedia should be Gannon central

[BurtWorm]

Those collecting info on him should amass it there so we can fill in the blanks and connect the dots more easily. For instance, someone asked the question if Gannon were ex-military, which I was wondering as well. The answer, if his omission of any mention of military service when asked about his non-journalistic background in his NPR interview is any indication, is probably no. But there are many more interesting questions, such as what precisely was his role in Plamegate? The answer to that, all speculation aside as to who set him up for it, is that he interviewed Wilson for Talon and during that interview, he insinuated having seen a document "proving" that Plame got Wilson the assignment to check out the Niger/yellowcake forgeries. This assertion of his earned him a subpoena (or put him on a list?) to the grand jury.

Nothing wrong with Gannon threads here, either, in my opinion. This is an intriguing story with tendrils touching many other key stories--Plamegate not being the least of them--so of course it has DUers energized. But it would be so helpful to have a central place to keep the facts about "Man-gate" (as someone wittily called it) straight (so to speak).

[BurtWorm]

1. According to salon.com story, Gannon has said he is "ex-military"

:wtf:

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/02/10/gannon_affair/index1.html

<<Until this week, what little was known about Gannon was vague. But several Web sites he is connected with provide some possible clues. Introducing himself to readers of his ConservativeGuy.com Web site, Gannon once wrote, "I've been a preppie, a yuppie, blue-collar, green-collar and white collar. I've served in the military, graduated from college, taught in the public school system, was a union truck driver, a management consultant, a fitness instructor and an entrepreneur. I'm a two-holiday Christian and I usually vote Republican.">>

But then in another self-description, according to salon.com's Eric Boehlert, he ommited mention of his military experience:

<<When the recent controversy erupted, Gannon positioned himself as more of an ardent right-winger, not to mention ardent Christian. On JeffGannon.com he wrote, "I'm everything people on the Left seem to despise. I'm a man who is white, politically conservative, a gun-owner, an SUV driver and I've voted for Republicans. I'm pro-American, pro-military, pro-democracy, pro-capitalism, pro-free speech, anti-tax and anti-big government. Most importantly, I'm a Christian. Not only by birth, but by rebirth through the blood of Jesus Christ." Posting on the right-wing FreeRepublic.com, Gannon, while working as a White House reporter, once urged fellow Freepers to stage a demonstration outside Sen. John Kerry's headquarters and chant Jane Fonda's name and throw DNC medals, a reference to the Vietnam ribbons of honor Kerry threw away during an antiwar demonstration in the early 1970s.>>


PS: Someone should look up Guckert's military history.

[BlueEyedSon]

2. Already started, granted the last 24 hours has been a flood of new info

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

Feel free to update it.... many web sources are being wiped as we speak!

[Swamp Rat]

3. Excellent! n/t

[aquart]

4. Did Gannon write his own news pieces?

Do we know they were his or were they prepared for him by someone else?

Does he have a writing background?

I don't know if it matters.

[papau]

5. LOL - below are details on the Fake Reporter operation Howie Kurtz defends

This the "Jeff Gannon" operation that Howie Kurtz insists is a legitimate News Org that should be a standard question asker at White House news briefings.

In 1999 aerospace engineer Bobby Eberle started a Web-design company for Republican candidates. Eberle is the president and CEO of both GOPUSA, a news and commentary Website, whose motto is "Bringing the conservative message to America" and Talon. Brother Bruce Earle started GOPUSA and is CEO of Virginia-based Eberle Communications Group, a vast fundraising/direct mail/PR powerhouse that boasts such clients as Ronald Reagan, Operation Rescue, Oliver North and Paula Jones, and which illegally sold fund-raising lists to John Ashcroft during his failed United States Senate run for the seat from Missouri.

GOPUSA now gets about 30,000 page views every day. In 2000, when it started, it received about 3,000 views per month. GOPUSA is a 100 percent volunteer-run company. Bobby Eberle has served as president of the Houston Young Republicans, director of club development of the Texas Young Republican Federation and as a three-term state chairman of the Texas Young Republican Federation. He was a delegate to the 2000 Republican Convention in Philadelphia and was vice chairman at large of the Young Republican National Federation. In July 2003 he spoke on "Should Americans Who Don't Pay Taxes Have a Say?", asserting those who do not pay actual cash as a tax collected by the Federal Income Tax should not have a vote - no other tax collection payment should qualify one for a vote, but would give everyone the vote once the Federal Income Tax is replaced by a consumption tax.

Eberle notes. We have about 50 people involved nation wide with the day-to-day operations. We have folks in 40 of the 50 states who help update their state sections with news and commentary. Our e-mail magazine goes out on Mondays. And all that with no paid advertising. I believe in personal responsibility rather than collectivism, so it never occurred to me to call the Democrats. What I really like about Bush is that he stays on message and keeps coming. Family: Wife Kathleen, a physician children; Charlotte 7 and Robert III ("Tres"); Roman Catholic. Insists genuine religious faith inevitably influences political opinions http://www.gopusa.com/ http://www.talonnews.com/

http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Eberle_Communications_Group

Eberle Communications Group, is a fundraising/direct marketing/PR firm with extensive ties to Republican Party politics (clients list includes Reagan, Ollie North, Paula Jones) and whose is CEO of the Virginia-based company is Bruce Eberle, whose brother owns GOPUSA and the "news agency" Talon News and its White House correspondent "Jeff Gannon" is well-known for asking loaded pro-Republican questions at White House press briefings, and appears to be more a political organization than a media outlet From Right wing FreeRepublic website http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1075501/posts?page=264 "02/10/2004 This was the exchange at today's White House press briefing, much of which focused on George W. Bush's service records with the National Guard: JEFF GANNON (Talon News): 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? What was he doing after he was honorably discharged?

MR. McCLELLAN: We've already commented on some of his views relating back to that period the other day. And, obviously, this was a time period also when he was going to get his MBA at Harvard. But the President was certainly proud to serve in the National Guard.

TERRY MORAN (ABC NEWS): And would the White House consider those actions by Senator Kerry, that Jeff mentions fair game in the political season?

MR. McCLELLAN: Terry, I think -- I know that that's a way to try to draw us into a Democratic primary that is ongoing.

Eberle Communications Group is:

Bruce W. Eberle & Associates, Inc.
Fund Raising Strategies, Inc.
InternetFundRaising.com, Inc.
Campaign Funding Direct, Inc.
Omega List Company
onlineresponsesystem.com
Kaleidoscope Publishing, Ltd.
Affiliations are GOPUSA, Talon News, BAMPAC

ECG's Board of Directors is listed on 1/31/05 as consisting of:

Jon Bruss
Carl T. Berquist
Katherine M. Eberle
Peter Hannaford
James M. Irving

ECG's Company Officers are listed on 1/31/05 as:

Bruce Eberle, President, Eberle Communications Group, Inc.
William D. Griffiths, Vice President
Sandra J. Redhage, Corporate Secretary
M. Declan Bransfield, III, President, Bruce W. Eberle & Associates, Inc.
Michael Hiban, President, Omega List Company

The Eberle Communications Group, Inc.
1420 Spring Hill Road, Suite 490
McLean, VA 22102
Telephone: [phone] http://www.ecgone.com/

Black America's Political Action Committee (BAMPAC) supports conservative policies and African-American candidates, even though numerous candidates listed on its website were either Caucasian or Hispanic. Its name misleadingly suggests that it represents the point of view of African-Americans, but in fact opinion polls and voting patterns show that the vast majority of African-Americans disagree with BAMPAC's political positions.

[BurtWorm]

7. Never mind Demopedia becoming Gannon central. Dkospedia already is!

Wow. This Bruce Eberle connection is a whole new twist!


http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Bruce_Eberle

Background

An animal advocacy group called ANIMAL PEOPLE investigated Bruce Eberle's fundraising services after numerous questions about the ethical standards used by Eberle's companies came to their attention. Eberle eventually sued for libel, and a settlement was reached where The corrections pertain to fewer than 160 words, of more than 17,000 words about Eberle appearing since 2000 in ANIMAL PEOPLE, The Watchdog Report on Animal Protection Charities, and miscellaneous appeals and promotional items. In statistical terms, no fault was found in 99.2% of the total volume of ANIMAL PEOPLE coverage mentioning Eberle and FRS either directly or implicitly.

They found that Eberle's activities had been investigated often before, including by U.S. Senate committes looking into the Paula Jones affair and the fate of Americans missing in action during the Vietnam War.

"The Eberle Communications Group began with the formation of Bruce W. Eberle & Associates in 1974," Eberle told ANIMAL PEOPLE by e-mail. "We have worked with nearly 200 national organizations," they were told.

Eberle clients have reportedly included former U.S. president Ronald Reagan; Oliver North, who was a central figure in the Iran/Contra scandal of the latter Reagan years in the White House; and former Los Angeles police officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell, who were sentenced to serve 30 months apiece in jail for allegedly committing the videotaped beating of motorist Rodney King in 1992. Their appeals said they were "political scapegoats of black radicals and self-serving liberal politicians."

[SpiralHawk]

8. Paula Jones!!! WTF?? Holy Crapola !!!

The Republicans are an Octopus of corruption.

Republican tentacles are all woven into an ugly, perverted, Beast of an Entity.

Trolls, take a good look in the mirror.

[BlueEyedSon]

6. One of the accusations level at him (for being a shill)

was that he would submit WH/GOP/Bushco releases, largely complete and unedited, and without attribution, as news stories.