"Members of the press shall not engage in lobbying," Committee told Gannon

[BurtWorm]

The link to the letter is courtesy of Media Citizen.blogspot. The link to the letter itself is here:

http://mediachannel.org/mc/gannondoc.pdf



From the Standing Committee minutes of February 27, 2004

Dear Mr. Guckert:


At its meeting of April 7, 2004, the Standing Committee of Correspondents voted unanimously to deny your application for accreditation to the Congressional Press Galleries. Press Gallery rules provide that applicants must establish to the satisfaction of the Standing Committee that they meet the committee’s criteria.


Committee guidelines require that on-line publications “must charge a market rate fee for subscription or access, or carry paid advertising at current market rates.” You have not demonstrated to the Committee’s satisfaction that Talon News has any paid subscribers, that paid client newspapers publish Talon News stories, or that it is supported by advertising.

The application for accreditation to the press galleries states that “members of the press shall not engage in lobbying or paid advertising, publicity, promotion, work for any individual, political party, corporation, organization, or agency of the Federal Government.” Talon News has not demonstrated to the satisfaction of the committee that there is a separation from GOPUSA/
Millions of Americans.com.

Gallery rules and the application state that the principal income of correspondents must be obtained from news correspondence intended for publication in newspapers or news services. The committee feels that paying a single reporter a “stipend” does not meet the intent of the rule.

You are invited to re-apply should Talon News’ circumstances change, or if additional information becomes available.

Sincerely,

Jim Drinkard
Chairman

[madfloridian]

1. Amazing....McClellan had to know....then he lied.

:hi:

[BurtWorm]

2. Prezackly.

:hi:

[WolverineDG]

3. yowza

this just keeps getting worse. has anyone told olbermann yet? :)

dg

[Eric J in MN]

4. Bloggers, what did we do before them? nt

nt

[paineinthearse]

15. We relied on investigative journalists who had integrity and balls.

Seems so long ago.

[caligirl]

5. Nice post thanks.

[paineinthearse]

6. Strike three, yurrrrrrr out!!!!!!

STRIKE ONE!!!!!
You have not demonstrated to the Committee’s satisfaction that Talon News has any paid subscribers, that paid client newspapers publish Talon News stories, or that it is supported by advertising.



STRIKE TWO!!!!!!
Talon News has not demonstrated to the satisfaction of the committee that there is a separation from GOPUSA/ Millions of Americans.com.



STRIKE THREE!!!!
Paying a single reporter a “stipend” does not meet the intent of the rule.



YURRRRR OUT!!!!!
Standing Committee of Correspondents voted unanimously to deny your application for accreditation to the Congressional Press Galleries.

[BurtWorm]

7. Nice graphic summary!

:toast:

[paineinthearse]

13. Thanks, my first DU beer!

:thumbsup:
Thanks, couldn't have done it without your post.

[KharmaTrain]

8. He Alluded To A "Congressional Gallery"

In an NPR interview "Gannon" claimed he got his White House clearance since he was "acredited by the Congressional Gallery. The reporter pushed if he meant the above group..."Gannon" said this was a different organization that operated within the House (my translation: leadership) that handled "newer and alternative" media.

I posted this and a couple of us did quick Googles on the word Congressional Gallery and came up with a bunch of mentions on GOOP web pages...maybe this could provide a link between "Gannon" and say...De Lay???

The next big question...is if Snotty didn't issue the clearance for him in the White House...who did? Someone had to provide a badge to him...who? Let's flood more lights on these cockroaches.

[BurtWorm]

11. Read Eric Boehlert's piece about the mechanics of passes, day vs. hard

in Salon.com. I'm reading it now.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/02/11/gannon/

<<Hard passes to the White House are designed to give journalists who regularly cover the White House easy access: They simply swipe their credentials at the entrance while the Secret Service checks their bags. Day passes, which are picked up every day at the press office, are intended to provide flexibility for out-of-town journalists who might need to cover the White House for a day or two, or to allow White House reporters to bring in visitors who want to see the press briefings. But the current day-pass system was not set up to give permanent access to reporters who, like Guckert, fail to qualify for a hard pass.

The White House press office continues to be non-responsive to Salon's questions about the credentialing process and Guckert's apparent ability to rig the system. At Thursday's daily press briefing, White House press secretary Scott McClellan fielded several questions on the issue. He told reporters that Guckert had "never applied for a hard pass. He had a daily pass." Guckert's ineligibility for a hard pass -- the likely reason he never applied -- was left unmentioned.

To receive a hard pass, a journalist must submit a letter confirming that he or she works for a legitimate news organization, lives in the D.C. area, and needs access to the White House for regular news stories. But before the White House will send the request along to the Secret Service for a background check, the journalist must also confirm having received accreditation to cover Capitol Hill. Without Hill credentials, the White House will not forward a hard-pass application. Gannon had no such credentials.

But not because he didn't try to get them. On Dec. 12, 2003, Guckert applied to the Standing Committee of Correspondents, a group of congressional reporters who oversee press-credential distribution on Capitol Hill. On April 7, 2004, his application was rejected when the committee could not conclude that Talon was a legitimate, independent news organization. "We didn't recognize the publication, so we asked for information about what Talon was," Julie Davis, a reporter for the Baltimore Sun who is on the committee, previously told Salon. "We did some digging, and it became clear it was owned by the owner of GOPUSA. And we had asked for some proof of Talon's editorial independence from that group ... They didn't provide anything, so we denied their credentials, which is pretty rare," she said.>>

[KharmaTrain]

16. Here's A Nice Tidbit On "Congressional Gallery"

I widened the search and just came up with this...

http://www.2004nycgop.org/2004nycgop_contents/media/cong_pressgalleries.shtml

The Committee on Arrangements (COA) delegates to the four Congressional Press Galleries the responsibility for handling and approving media applications for credentials and work space, and for certain other functions.

Each Congressional Gallery is governed by an elected committee of journalists from the membership of that Gallery. These committees have the final say on all Gallery responsibilities for the Convention. Thus, the key decisions on media credentials, work space and facilities for the Convention are made by a committee of media peers rather than by a political party.



Now...maybe someone with who knows Repugnicanese can translate this for me...but it looks like a nice little hole for "Gannon" to hide in.

Thanks for the Salon article...there's still a bunch of missing names and connections here...

[BurtWorm]

18. To verify that, you'd need to know who was on these committees

and who was in each of these galleries.

Boehlert's article mentions that in order to have a WH day pass you need to have standing as a Capitol Hill reporter, which seems to mean having been approved by one of these four standing committees.

My suspicion is that Gannon had no such standing on the Hill himself. He was given a day pass to the WH press briefings the very week Talon News went into business. He didn't have time to get the standing on the Hill. Someone at the WH had to have waved him through.

I really think the Eberle brothers and Karl Rove hold the answers to these questions. I think Rove or someone in the WH winked when the Eberles asked to let Guckie through.

[KharmaTrain]

19. A Box With A Box

I was trolling that website and I think we're sniffing on both ends of the same dog.

This "Congressional Gallery" appears to be a credential committee that was set up for the RNC Convention (thus the nygop url) and was a way to filter the "good" from the "bad" and a way for the House Repugnicans to get their pet reporters special access. Or that appears to be how this was set up.

I chased down more more info here:

http://www.senate.gov/galleries/daily/rules.htm

According to the House site, the Senate is the one who sets the rules...and if you check it out...they're it's

2. Persons desiring admission to the press galleries of Congress shall make application in accordance with Rule 34 of the House of Representatives, subject to the direction and control of the Speaker and Rule 33 of the Senate, which rules shall be interpreted and administered by the Standing Committee of Correspondents, subject to the review and an approval by the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration.



Subject to review? And by whom? Sounds like this is a nice little rathole.

I want to find out all those involved in the House, Senate (as it appears "Gannon" had to get passes to the "Congressional Gallery" through them) and the White House.

If we squeeze enough pigs, someone's gonna squeal real loud.

Cheers!

[BurtWorm]

20. I've e-mailed a white house correspondent at the Post

to see if he can give me any insight on how one gets a pass to those conferences. There doesn't seem to be a place on-line where these rules are spelled out, unlike on the Congressional side. That's peculiar, isn't it? ;)

[KharmaTrain]

24. It's The Wink-Wink Nod-Nod System

It's interesting to see Dana Milbank say he was sure "Gannon" had a hard pass...not a day pass. Do we smell some buck passing?

Or...is the credentialling not being done by the House or Senate, but out of the RNC? There's a nice little trail here.

So many people are anxious to bring down big fish with this scandal, but this is going to unravel from the bottom up...like Watergate did. It took months and lots of people kept silent, but once the "name pool" got too big, then the first real progress was made.

My wish is this leads right to "Da Hammer's" doorstep as well as Rove via the Eberles and other "networks". And I'd love to see it cross over into the corporate and religious right connections that provide the money laundering for this whole operation.

[BR_Parkway]

9. So, where DOES he get his money if he only gets a stipend from

Talon? Tax payer dollars directly thru Pundit Payola? Tax payer dollars indirectly thru military prostitution? Enquiring minds want to know....

[Just Me]

17. Excellent question. Excellent. n/t

[HerbieHeadhunter]

10. But Guckert/Gannon told Kurtz....

that Talon had 700,000 subscribers....

"You have not demonstrated to the Committee’s satisfaction that Talon News has any paid subscribers"

Howard Kurtz, you have any comments to add?

[Eric J in MN]

28. Just because "Jeff Gannon" is a fake who tells lies, you're

saying that Howard Kurtz shouldn't take what he says at face value?

[Cocoa]

12. RW response: old media vs. new media

old media is that Standing Committee, keeping out new media in the form of Gannon.

Not sure how they'd classify the progressive bloggers that exposed Gannon, probably just ignore them...

[BurtWorm]

14. Good observation.

Gannongate is all about the contempt of the Bushists for the system, man! The system is holding conservatives back, man! Power to the people. Man.

[ProfessorGAC]

21. What's Howie Kurtz Say Now?

His own colleagues acknowledged, in writing, that this guy was not a journalist. Not because he was internet only, but because his site was a propaganda arm of Republican fundraisers, also known as a lobbyist.

Yesterday, Howie said he was not a less than valid journalist just because he was a blogger. He also said that anyone could get credentials. Well, i guess that's wrong too!

They jumped to defend this slimeball, and now it turns out that other journalists knew there was something fishy a long time ago.
The Professor

[BurtWorm]

22. Howie will be on-line to answer any and all questions (he chooses)

on Mondays at noon ET:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/liveonline/?nav=globetop

[ProfessorGAC]

23. Yeah, Like He's Gonna Answer Any Hard Ones?

Thanks Burt, but you and i both know he's not going to acknowledge a question like mine. He castigated other bloggers for accusing a fake newsman of being a fake, then we find out that an organized committee of jounralistic accreditors agreed he was a fake. He wouldn't touch that question with a 10 meter pole.
The Professor

[Beetwasher]

25. Dupe

[Beetwasher]

26. Dupe2

[Beetwasher]

27. I'd Be Willing To Bet That He DID Have a Hard Pass

This could be one of the first strings to tug on to start unraveling the whole thing because Scotty would have much 'splainin' to do if that were the case...

[KharmaTrain]

29. He Surely Was "Known"

Dana Milbanks claims he saw "Gannon" with a hard pass.

In poking around, I'm finding some interesting stuff on the "Congressional Gallery" and the "Senate Gallery". These are groups of "accredited" journalists, but the criteria of their membership is purely up to the House & Senate leadership...giving special access to their pets and a way for a "Gannon" to leak into the system and roam around all over the place.

I mention this group, since this is what "Gannon" used as a source for his media credentials in an NPR interview. The text is on Media Matters.

My questions are:

1.) If "Gannon" did have a hard pass, was it one from the White House or from the "Congressional Gallery"...and if he could have used that Congressional pass to gain access to the White House?

2.) Who in the White House controls the actual issuing of the passes and is there a way to FOIA the records to show which passes were issued (similar to how they went after the visits to the White House when the GOOP was going after Clinton & Gore).

3.) Can we trace this guy's footsteps via those passes...certainly he had to sign in all over the place to gain access to offices...it'd be interesting what other places he was at other than the White House.

Soooo many questions...and I'm hoping we get just a couple of good answers and one "golden" one.

[Riding this Donkey]

30. There has got to be a picture showing that boob with the pass around his

neck, but I can't find one. Although I am not a professional web searcher. Can do some, but not much.

Peeps with the skills should look for this type of photo.


:headbang: