The Destruction of Jeff Gannon

[paineinthearse]

Please read (if you can bear it) the entire article at http://www.theconservativevoice.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2865 and feel free to respond to the email address at the bottom. OR...record your thoughts and we can send a collective letter.

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The Destruction of Jeff Gannon :nopity:

By Cliff Kincaid

Conservative bloggers made a name for themselves by starting the process that led to the "Rathergate" scandal. They questioned the authenticity of some alleged National Guard documents that CBS used in a campaign to smear the President's military service. This was a real scandal, in which CBS backed away from the documents, an investigation was launched, and four people were fired from the network for their work on the story. Left-wing bloggers have now made a name for themselves, and it is not pretty. They have taken the scalp of an on-line conservative journalist by the name of Jeff Gannon, who was virtually unknown until about three weeks ago. His crimes were that he was too pro-Republican, attended White House briefings, and asked questions unfair to Democrats. This became, for a group called Media Matters, the "White House press room scandal." Never mind that "journalist" Helen Thomas has been giving anti-Bush political diatribes disguised as questions at these briefings for years.

A massive left-wing investigation of Gannon's personal and business affairs was launched and was said to reveal that he was associated with some homosexual-sounding website addresses. Ironically, the Media Matters group is run by former conservative and once-closeted homosexual David Brock. The Gannon "scandal" would be laughable, were it not for the fact that Gannon's personal privacy has been invaded and his mother, in her 70s, had to endure harassing telephone calls from those on the political left trying to dig up dirt. The campaign against Gannon demonstrates the paranoid mentality and mean-spirited nature of the political left.

But the mainstream media did their dirty work, too. Liberal journalists at The Boston Globe, using material from Brock, weighed in with their own account of this controversial journalist and his employer, Talon News, owned by a Texas Republican activist named Bobby Eberle. Despite all the innuendo and controversy, the fact remains that Gannon had done some excellent political stories on a wide range of subjects, including the CIA and former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle. Gannon could have survived the charge of having a conservative bias but when his personal life and family became targets, he decided to call it quits.

It all started when Gannon's writings were "exposed" for having too many statements taken directly out of White House press releases. Gannon apparently believed that covering the White House meant that he should actually report, in long and complete sentences, what the White House actually said on various public policy issues. He was also accused of tossing softball questions to White House spokesman Scott McClellan and the President himself.

more...

Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of the AIM Report and can be reached at [e-mail]

[WI_DEM]

1. aw, poor baby

If he is going to fight with fire we are going to fight with fire. While I don't condone contacting his 70-something mother--I can't see why it is wrong to have revealed this hypocrite for what he is.

[LinuxInsurgent]

2. yeah really...whatever...

Gannon was a fraud, pseudo-journalist...he got caught...and was an arrogant man to boot (remember the mail to DU, challenging us?)

Pseudonyms are ok for book writers who want to remain anonymous...but not for reporters...the public needs to trust the reporter...and with Gannon we can't.

[bpj1962]

18. Fake Journalist

So far every wing nut that has responded to this scandal has not said one word about the obvious breach of white house security. If "Jeff Gannon" got credentialed under that name then someone inside set him up. If he credentialed under his real name as Scott McClellan told CBS yesterday then the white house is complicit in the fraud. Any hardship that has occurred to his family has been self inflicted. By the way why would anyone give this guy a death threat he is not that important. That is just another smoke screen to try and get people to look in the other direction. The white house is dirty here and people need to turn up the heat on this one.

[newyawker99]

23. Hi bpj1962!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[newyawker99]

22. Hi LinuxInsurgent!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Walt Starr]

24. My theory on why they contacted his 70 year old mother

Guckert probably lives in her basement.

[Touchdown]

28. Did anybody REALLY call Ganon's mother?

...or do we just have to take this wingnut's word for it? I've seen nothing concrete on this. No reports, links, or anything. I will assume it's one more Malkinesque "Some people say" lie until I get proof. This blogging blowhard is so full of it, that everything he says is not only suspect, but laughable.

"Reporting what the White House actually says" is not reporting the news. Confirming the accuracy of the White House statements is.

This writer even goes so far as to pass off "CBS News...Dan Rather...in an attempt to smear the President." as if it were fact. :eyes:

[Hugin]

3. Would someone pass...

... the Fava beans and Chianti, please?

What's for dessert?

;)

[atommom]

4. Lifting stories directly from WH press releases is not true

journalism, whether they contain "long and complete sentences" or not. Anyone who has heard the "questions" he tossed out at press conferences can see that there was a clear pattern of lobbing softballs and throwing in plenty of butt-kissing and innuendo. Does this strike a little too close to home for the conservative press. Good! :evilgrin:

[Atman]

5. This guy tells the real problem in his first paragraph...

They have taken the scalp of an on-line conservative journalist by the name of Jeff Gannon, who was virtually unknown until about three weeks ago. His crimes were that he was too pro-Republican, attended White House briefings, and asked questions unfair to Democrats.

He goes on to mention that Helen Thomas did the same thing, but conveniently leaves out that Helen Thomas held near-celebrity status in the WH press room, and had been around for decades. AND, when Thomas started asking "partisan" questions, she was moved to the back row and they stopped calling on her.

Kincaid, you lying prick, I hope you're reading this. You should be ashamed. ASHAMED. You know the truth, you know what this was about. Stop carrying this fascist administration's water and stand up for your country for a change!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

8. Thomas didn't lob softballs to any administration.

Therefore, his point is total bullshit.

[BR_Parkway]

6. I don't know if it took my comment or not

Gannon wasn't unknown to the Grand Jury investigating the Plame leaks. This isn't about his political leanings, it's about pretending to be things that he wasn't. A full time reporter? With access to the WH press briefings. Strange that his application to cover Congress was denied because he put on his application that Talon News wasn't his main source of income. A principled family man who posted anti gay articles - yet he either owned or was willing to do work for some client who wanted to make money off gay prostitution involving our soldiers? Not exactly what most folks had in mind for "Support the Troops".

Be honest, had this happened under Clinton, you would be all over it demanding investigations and impeachments. It's a shame to see party loyalty corrupt personal integrity.

[Goldeneye]

10. Gannon's connections with Plame, Rove and Rathergate

There is much more to this story and the protective shilling (to defend Gannon the shill) shows that there is not only a vast Right-wing Conspiracy but that it paid to be nefarious. Gannon was a dog as a reporter, but the bloggers on his trail will hunt!

[tanyev]

7. No tears for Jeff.

He's probably hammering out the details in his contract with Regnery Publishing for an exclusive tell-all book. The Blogs Done Me Wrong: the story of a True American Patriot.

[CindyDale]

9. The headline is kind of weird in that there never was a Jeff Gannon

really; the destruction was of a phony cover.

The statements were not put in the stories as quotations from the White House, and Kincaid knows it. Kincaid is as phony as "Gannon."

Yeah, Gannon was up for a Pulitzer, but then he innocently became involved with some gay pimps. Can't wait to see the movie.

Sheesh.

[Skink]

11. Just wait till we depose a President....

[Goldeneye]

13. Good take !

Gannon was a pseudonym. His news was phony. The outrage to defend him is contrived. And then Gannon in his White House Briefing had the audacity to add to his question that Dems were detached from reality. Hoot!

[Streetdoc270]

38. How does someone using a fake name get access

to the White House???? Is this not a major security breach? And if what they say is correct that you just have to give name and SS# to get a press pass, then is Gannon guilty of fakeing an ID to gain access? Who is running the Secret Service detail in charge of investigating these people?

[shaolinmonkey]

12. Three words for "Jeff Gannon":

Boo. Fucking. Hoo.

[marcologico]

14. Three more words: change your underwear.

That picture is disgusting.

[jn2375]

15. Reporters have said they thought they saw a hard press pass on Gannon

We need pictures!

[NewJeffCT]

16. Regarding Helen Thomas...

Hasn't she asked really tough questions of EVERY president since she started on the WH beat 40+ years ago?

[Mandate My Ass]

25. Ding Ding Ding!

That's the job of *every* WH correspondent, regardless of political affiliation.

Helen Thomas, a veteran journalist has been muzzled and exiled for doing the job that every person in that room was hired to do. Ask. Tough. Questions.

The fact that the Bushies openly snub and disrespect her is at the very least indicative of their antipathy regarding allowing "we the people" to get the truth and decide what's best for ourselves. Gannon's meteoric rise from unknown to WH darling is highly suspect on its own merits, but when you take into account he broke Rathergate and had access to CIA documents no other organization had, well do the math.

[Richard Steele]

32. Damn Right!

Helen Thomas has been a 'pain in the ass' to EVERY president, at one time or another.

WHY? Because she is a REAL reporter! She actually tries to find the TRUTH, and then... *gasp*...she actually TELLS people about it!

Oh, the horror! *clutches pearls*

That's what this country has come to: anyone who actually cares about TRUTH is branded a terrorist sympathizer, and marginalized/demonized by the goose-stepping sycophants of our FuherLess Leader.

[paineinthearse]

29. Yes, until * 43

From wikipedia:

"In 2003, President George W. Bush stopped the tradition of allowing Thomas to end Presidential news conferences by saying “Thank you, Mr. President.” Additionally, she has been moved from the first chair of the front row of the conference room to the back, and is rarely called upon in press conferences. Bush is thought to have instituted these changes after taking exception with some of Thomas' writings regarding his presidency."

Read the full biography at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Thomas

[PurityOfEssence]

37. Exactly. The very idea of calling her a journalist in quotations is rank.

She's a true journalist of the old school: she does her homework, researches, doesn't just hue to one prejudice, and is tough while being fair. The very idea of saying that she's not a true journalist is pissy, mean and absolutely incorrect, especially when comparing her unfavorably to an amateurish apparatchik who can't even rank as a hack. (A hack is someone who knows better, but betrays his art by doing a slapdash job; "Gannon" is a dreadful writer and a horrible public speaker both in craft and content. The very idea of eliciting sympathy for being followed to church and for his family being harrassed is Micky Mouse sniveling. He wants you to think his kids are being endangered, when he has none; he's talking about his Mother, Sister and Brother-in-law.)

This guy's a world class asshole for writing that about Helen Thomas.

[Kingshakabobo]

17. Very "Parlockian". Seventy year old mothers. Five year old

little girls. What's the difference? All we need is a photo from that shill photographer of the mother holding the phone in one hand and clutching her chest in the other.

[tiedye]

19. The Howard Kurtz Washington Post Connection

Look at the Salon article picture, Gannon is sitting right next to his buddy Kurtz, and everyone knows...

"Kurtz is married to Sheri Annis, who is a GOP public relations strategist supporting the re-election of George W. Bush. Annis also was part of Arnold Schwartzneggar’s brain trust in his recall election. She also worked on a California voter proposition that would force immigrant children to speak English in school. She appears regularly on Chris Matthews’s “Hardball” program as a conservative pundit and writes for the National Review. She also worked on a campaign to stop “living wage” laws. She even calls her company Fourth Estate Strategies.

Not a bad idea, of course, when your husband is a prominent member of the Fourth Estate as a Washington Post columnist whose work is seen daily and, in another bit of irony, hosts CNN’s Reliable Sources, which is a program that is supposed to look critically at the media, his Post being one of the 800 lbs. gorillas of the industry."

Kurtz and Blitzer are trying to cover Guckert/Gannon's open sore. Kurtz wrote extensively about the AWOL papers/Rathergate and cited Gannon/Guckert as a "source".

[paineinthearse]

30. BuzzFlash has nominated Kurtz as its Republican Hypocrite of the Week.

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3093404&mesg_id=3093404

[McCamy Taylor]

20. They wont get too far with this one. Where will they sell it?

If they peddle it to the Right Wing, the Right Wing base will see "homsexual journalist in White House press corp" and ignore everything else. If they try to sell it to the mainstream, the mainstream will see "professional peddlar of pornography and homosexual journalist in the White House press corp" and ignore everything else. The only base that is likely to look at this story and actually feel sorry for Gannon and feel mad at the people who outed him are... the people who outed him.

Which means that this is really a pathetic attempt to get us to lay off Gannon by making us feel sorry for him.

Dont you feel ANGRY at the way Karl Rove is attempting to manipulate your bleeding heart liberal tendencies? I know I felt mad for Olberman's sake last night when his guest tried to make him feel sorry for Gannon, and you could see Keith's basic human decency warring with his journalist integrity. I am glad Olberman has basic human deceny, but the things Gannon and Co. did are wrong wrong wrong.

:mad: :mad: :mad:

[tiedye]

21. you do have to be cautious

Becuase that is right, the media is a funny thing. The immediate negative press effect can backlash and create sympathy. We have to stress that the homosexual military pimp thing is just a plus for him. We know the conservatives have to put themselves in the closet, so they need outlets like militarym4m.com, and hotmilitarystuds.com.... but the journalistic prostitution is the only real scandal.

[Straight Shooter]

26. Why should I have one iota of sympathy for Guckert a/k/a Gannon?

He made his choices as an adult white male. What's the problem?

Whatever happened to the "party of personal responsibility"? One more time we have a situation where it isn't the individual who is being blamed for their actions, but rather those who point out that the individual (and his accomplices) have engaged in unethical practices.

Like it or not, any association whatsoever -- any association!! -- with a military prostitution service is wrong, wrong, wrong. You would think the Repubs would be the first to batter his a** and deep-fry him.

Support the troops. Yeah, right. Words are cheap.

[paineinthearse]

27. Send in the reinforcements!

Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal Constitution

[Ganja Ninja]

31. But didn't we hear the macho stud say "bring it on"?

BWAAAAAHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! He asked for it.

[mitchum]

33. I demand pictures of "the destruction of Jeff Gannon"

Oops, I mean Jimmy Guckert

[Richard Steele]

34. Oh, just WAIT abit...they're coming!

Alot of folks with better software than I are very busy sleuthing for that 'pass' he wore...I imagine we'll be seeing some blurry enlargements in a day or two.

I think they might qualify as "pictures of his destruction", eh?

[paineinthearse]

35. Who is Cliff Kinkaid?

http://www.aim.org/who_we_are/speakers/kincaid.html



Mr. Kincaid is President of America’s Survival and contributing editor of the AIM Report. A longtime investigative reporter and media critic, he currently specializes in coverage of the U.N. and other global institutions. Kincaid helps write and broadcast Accuracy In Media’s "Media Monitor" radio commentaries. He is the author or co-author of six books, including The Playboy Foundation: A Mirror of the Culture?, Profiles of Deception, The News Manipulators and Global Taxes for World Government.

Kincaid has served as aide to former White House National Security Council staffer Oliver North. He was a guest co-host several times on the CNN "Crossfire" program, is a frequent guest on other radio and TV talk shows, and served as a radio talk show host for several years.

"Our members were fascinated, provoked and impressed by the information given us which would not otherwise be available in the popular media."
- Southern Maryland Chapter of Retired Officers Association, Patuxent River, Maryland

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http://www.aim.org/static/20_0_7_0_C



Cliff Kincaid, serves as editor of the Accuracy in Media (AIM) Report.

A veteran journalist and media critic, Cliff concentrated in journalism and communications at the University of Toledo, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and came to Washington through a national journalism program headed by conservative author and journalist M. Stanton Evans. At his college newspaper, Cliff won an award for editorial writing from the Society of Professional Journalists.

AIM chairman Reed Irvine hired Cliff as an intern and then a staffer in 1978. Cliff has been associated with AIM in some capacity ever since.

Cliff has appeared on the Fox News programs Hannity & Colmes and The O'Reilly Factor, where he debated O'Reilly on global warming, the death penalty, and the homosexual agenda. He was a guest co-host on CNN's Crossfire (filling in for Pat Buchanan) in the 1980s, where he confronted the then-Libyan Ambassador to the U.N. with evidence of Libyan involvement in international terrorism. Through his America's Survival, Inc., organization (www.usasurvival.org), he has been an advocate on behalf of the families of victims of terrorism and has published reports and held conferences critical of the United Nations. Cliff contributes to the American Legion Magazine and appears regularly as a Washington contributor on the "For the People" Liberty Broadcasting program. His articles have appeared in the Washington Post, Washington Times, Chronicles, Human Events, Insight, and other publications. He served on the staff of Human Events for several years and was an editorial writer and newsletter editor for former National Security Council staffer Oliver North at his Freedom Alliance educational foundation. He has written or co-authored nine books on media and cultural affairs and foreign policy issues.

Cliff is married and has three sons.

[paineinthearse]

36. America's Survival, Inc.

http://www.usasurvival.org/

Filled with all kinds of vile stuff any freeper would love.

"Cliff is our U.N. Monitor."
-- Beverly LaHaye, Concerned Women for America

"Cliff exposed the racket about the U.S. owing 'back dues' to the U.N."
-- Phyllis Schlafly, Eagle Forum

"The U.N. is playing America like a fiddle, and Cliff Kincaid, author of the U.N. expose Global Bondage, shows how that global body is coercing the U.S. into funding the subversion of its own sovereignty -- right under our very eyes.... The U.N. has plans for you and your children, and, as author Cliff Kincaid has discovered, the hour is late."
-- Conservative Book Club

"Cliff was banned from CNN's Crossfire program because he dared to tell the truth...Cliff has emerged as public enemy number one of the United Nations."
-- Stan Johnson, The Prophecy Club

"Although Cliff's facts make you feel uncomfortable, it's information every American needs to know."
-- Bill Perkins, Compass International

Click on "latest news" for his articles & books.

[against all enemies]

39. F you Cliff. Thanks for your "reporting".

"He was also accused of tossing softball questions to White House spokesman Scott McClellan and the President himself."

Accused??? It is not an accusation Cliffy, it is a fact. Can these assholes ever admit they got caught.