The REAL Gannon story that isn't talked about!

[bvar22]

The PROUD tradition of the White House Reporter ends with a whimper!

I am not shocked or outraged that the bush* mis-administration tried to sneak a shill into the White House Press pool. Bald Faced Lying, Historical Revisionism, Stage Managed Public Appearances, Phony Townhall Meetings, Media Intimidation and Censorship for Political Purposes.....these are the trademarks of the Republican Party.

The source of my outrage is the White House Press Pool, and by extension, their employers. They FAILED at their jobs. They tolerated a shill in their midst for two fucking years, and with their silence, supported and participated in a FRAUD committed against the American People.

There is NO WAY that the Press Pool didn't know that Gannon was a bush* plant. This is a prestigious group of so-called journalists. Most of them are regulars, with a pecking order of seniority. All of these (previously) legitimate journalists had to EARN their seats in the briefing room, and rightly looked upon their positions with a sense of pride and accomplishment. They know each other. Many meet socially. They gossip and (sometimes) share sources and verifications. They KNEW Gannon was NOT ONE OF THEM the first day he magically appeared without credentials, history, or references. They KNEW, and they kept quiet. By tolerating Gannon in their midst they allowed themselves to be INSULTED and USED by the Republican LIE machine.

By their silence, the White House Press Pool has participated in their own demotion from a position of PRIDE and ACHIEVEMENT, to a position of RIDICULE and EMBARRASSMENT!

SHAME ON YOU!!!! If your failure wasn't such a sad ending to a PROUD tradition, I would be laughing at you!!!

[davidinalameda]

1. you mean him being a gay hustler wasn't the real story

gee, then there's a hell of a lot of people on here who must be wrong

wow--go figure

[Warpy]

6. Actually, his being a rough trade hustler was only part of the story

Because he was in on an alias, he was trying to cover up that part of his life. That made him a blackmail risk, and that in turn made him a massive national security risk!

Somebody had to get this joker past the FBI and Secret Service. Even a cursory background check would have disqualified this jerk from being anywhere near the White House, let alone in the inner circle.

My guess is that Scottyboy doesn't have enough pull. We need to know his sugar daddy. We need to know who accomplished such a massive breach of security and put this country at risk, just to put in his or her favorite shill.

This is a huge story for the above reasonl, and a fantastic opportunity to hoist this bunch on their own homophobic petard.

Don't let this one die.

[calimary]

16. THIS is very well said, too.

BIGTIME national security breach. Especially since this same potential blackmail target had also seen (or had been given) CIA documents about Valerie Plame's identity.

It IS kind of a brotherhood back there in DC. I'm sure there were whispers of "who's the new guy?" when they saw him in the press room. But that also assumes he spent time in the press room other than just during the news conferences. Whose back office was he in, perhaps, while everybody was taking his/her seats? When did he appear, physically, in the press room to take a seat? Any time to chit-chat? Was he a friendly type who'd strike up a conversation with his seat mates, or did he keep to himself?

We do know from his track record that he was given to a little bit of swagger and brag. So after awhile it might have started going to his head (so to speak) about who he was able to rub elbows with, and who'd sent him and installed him in those lofty heights without a shard of legitimate journalistic experience. He sure seemed full of himself when he was interviewed on the Pox "news" channel.

Also, the first time he asked one of his "questions," it probably would have made a few eyebrows go up. I've been in news conferences where somebody asked something really lame, and we all reacted to some extent, quietly or even semi-loudly. But when he kept doing it, press conference after press conference, you can bet he got a reputation with everybody else, and they probably even had their own nickname or maybe pejorative for the guy like - "uh-oh, here comes suck-ass again," or some such thing.

But at the same time, the other folks there were probably worried about making deadline, having to face some asshole producer or editor back in the bureau who was never satisfied with whatever they brought in (I had one of those at the AP); or maybe had to quick make a run for the next press conference over at State because the damned newsroom just cut back the State Department guy, or he called in sick = LOTS of these so-called big-time news operations try to make do with less; and/or perhaps the intimidation factor had set in VERY solidly like a new Ice Age. No one dares... Besides, they've got kids in private school and mortgages to pay, plus alimony... LOTS of don't-rock-the-boat type stuff.

They knew he was somebody fishy. Bet on it. But they were either too busy, too distracted, or too apathetic to consider looking into it at all. Or they just didn't want to know, didn't want to get involved, didn't want to stick their necks out. After all, a seat in the White House press room is a plum. At least, until it was cheapened by the Barberini Faun, maybe irreparably.

[burythehatchet]

28. K-K-Karl

[DearAbby]

2. Standing up and aplauding loudly..."here here"

Very well said!

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. And then they have the balls to try to stifle the story by claiming

that the bloggers are over-reacting.

[imenja]

4. good point

Nice to see someone focus on something besides who the guy sleeps with.
Even now, the press refuses to acknowledge what the presence of Gannon in the White House represents. They pretend it really wasn't a big deal, that he was just a blogger or opinion journalists and that new media should be represented. What a load of crap.

[eleny]

5. the thing is...

there had to be people in the press pool who did some googling and investigating, too. with all their sources, someone in there had to be curious enough to investigate gannon and they had to have found out. i believe that they had to be that curious, found out and didn't do anything. or do you suppose that someone in there sort of "helped" the bloggers involved in the discoveries. i don't think so myself since it took 2 years to be revealed. it's disgusting how they've complied in helping to bury america.

[bvar22]

12. They KNEW.

These people ASK QUESTIONS for a living. Every regular who had to compete for his (or her) seat in the briefing room looks around that room every day to see who is there and how they got there. Someone showing up in that small room day after day for TWO YEARS without credentials, who didn't know anyone in the fraternity would NOT GO UNNOTICED!!

[LSparkle]

7. I can only imagine how Helen Thomas feels

after finding out what a fake Gannon is. She's got the balls to speak out about it soon enough and I can't wait.

[eleny]

9. i wonder if she knew and felt afraid given how connected he is

[calimary]

18. Hell, the ENTIRE White House Press Corps(e) felt afraid.

Do you remember ANY of them speaking up, AT ALL, when she got shoved to the back of the room for asking impertinent questions? NOBODY stood up for her, AT ALL. It was Helen Who? DISGRACEFUL. They were ALL afraid to stick their necks out.

[Old Mouse]

8. Absolutely!

It's not as though they were trained to search out FACTS or ask questions or anything like that...

[Jacobin]

10. It's only made the obvious, more glaringly obvious

There is no media left in this country to speak of, with a very few notable exceptions, 90% of whom have to report on comedy formats.

[oldtime dfl_er]

11. You are right!

No way Campbell Brown didn't know who he was. What I don't get is why weren't the regular press corps steamed that Jeffy was getting called on whenever he raised his little fist?

www.cafepress.com/showtheworld

[displacedtexan]

13. They didn't stand up for Helen Thomas.

We learned early on that the "Press Corpse" was the walking/talking/ dead, didn't we?

[bvar22]

15. That is true.

If the White House Press had any integrity, they would have boycotted the briefings en masse until Helen was restored to her proper place.

I was hoping that Kerry's first official act as president would be to reseat Helen Thomas in her rightful position.

[DulceDecorum]

14. I AM SO GLAD TO THAT YOU SAID THAT.

Please forgive me for saying this
but
whenever I bring forth FACTS about a certain event
I catch a LOT of flack because I am the ONLY one coming up with this stuff and it can be Googled up in seconds.

Just think, if anyone told you about a hustler in the White House a few months ago, how would YOU have received the news?
I would have rushed to discount it with the help of my best friend --Google -- and I would have been AGHAST at what I would have found.
That is why it is so important to stick up links that corroborate your story. Especially when they sound outlandish.

I think that many of those journalists knew and know what is happening and you can see this in their faces and in the wording of some of their articles.
But they owe the soul to the company store.
They belong to the The Firm.

And they are the reason we can hardly get an decent investigation going unless we do it ourselves.

[tridim]

21. But there are people out there who don't believe ANYTHING on the Internet

Like my Mom.. If the news doesn't get tossed on her driveway or appear on TeeVee, it's not the truth. Period. No, I don't get it either.. It's a mass psychosis.

Remember the BS story about Ollie North mentioning Bin Laden way back when? I forget the dates.. Anyway, my Mom sent me the bogus RW mass email and I sent her to Ollie North's own web site where he debunked it himself. She still thinks the story is true.

[BurtWorm]

17. Thank you!

Now you're talking about a REAL scandal! :toast:

[SeattleRob]

19. You are right on target!

Most of the people in the White House Press Corp deserve to be ridiculed. I say, God Bless Helen Thomas! She didn't sell out and she paid the price! At least she has her integrity and good name in tact.

[HR_Pufnstuf]

20. touche bvar

let em have it.

can i laugh?

i think we should all have access, and they should start some kind of monthly rotational open spot on the press corps, just to mix it up a bit.

why should the corporation employees get to ask all the questions?

[RedEarth]

22. I agree 100%.........The glaring example of this is Gannon, but

where has the press been the last 4 years. Where were they after 911, where were they in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion, where have they been during the Plame investigation, etc, etc.........The disappearance of the press over the last four years threatens the democracy of our country.

[EC]

23. This is what I didn't get...if I had worked hard just to "make it"

to the White House press corp, I'd be really pissed about someone that didn't belong, and I would have said so. I cannot imagine this group being less clicky than any other elite group, I'm betting they did complain among themselves, but were too afraid of losing their positions if they complained to anyone else...gee, what bravery, you'd think they would care about their country, and their freedoms more than that, they know where this is leading...do they really think it would "get better" with complicity?

[eleny]

24. Furthermore...

The could have leaked what they learned on their own to bloggers long, long ago. Anonymous letters and emails with hard data or pointing to it on tne net could have flooded the bloggers such a long time ago.

[Straight Shooter]

25. We need to find out who is there every day, hard pass or soft pass

If the Corporate Media won't do the job, we need to do the job for them. Is it possible to determine, day by day, who gets into these press conferences, the publication for whom they work, their credentials?

We need transparency, because the WH press corps is nothing more than a stenographer pool.

[hnsez]

26. DU THIS POLL ON GANNON

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6862172/#survey

[KharmaTrain]

27. Kick!! Bravo

I hope you email this to other sites...you're spot on and this is where we need we need to focus!

:kick:

[understandinglife]

29. Exactly.

As many have realized since the earliest moments of this story, that dude was not walking the West Wing and sitting in the Press Room with the President of the USA without a bunch of folk KNOWING PRECISELY WHO HE IS (including the FBI, the Secret Service, the White House Chief of Staff, and, most likely, $shrubber himself).

And, as you most eloquently note -- EVERY "JOURNALIST" in that room (for 2 frigging years) KNEW.

In other words, daypass, shmaypass, hardpass, softpass -- that damn guy WAS THERE NOT BY ACCIDENT. And, whatver photo ID he's wearing you know that it means something really specific to the guys and gals with the big guns at the gates and the entrances to the WH!!

Think I'm joking -- hang your photoID driver's license around your neck and just try to get onto the White House grounds, let alone into the building.

Peace.


DO YOU ENJOY BEING A CITIZEN OF THE ROGUE SUPER_POWER?

[IndyPriest]

30. The WH press corps should resign as a group.

They probably won't, but it'd be a great story.

There may have been a time when the WH press briefings were not just staged propaganda. But those days are long gone. G/G's appearances reveal what the WH actually thinks of those events. What self-respecting reporter could stay there? The whole group of them should just quit, or go on strike. Staying makes them complicit in the fraud. I can see it in the "news": "An amazing thing happened today in the WH press briefing room. McClellan walked in, and all the reporters stood up, collected the belongings, and left. More details now from...".

[BigBearJohn]

31. I just recommended this thread. GREAT JOB!!!!

[G_j]

32. Helen Thomas said on Democracy Now!

maybe a year ago said that she believed many in the WH press core knew who the Plame "leaker" in the WH was.

[DU GrovelBot]

33. ## PLEASE DONATE TO DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND! ##

==================
GROVELBOT.EXE v3.0
==================



This week is our first quarter 2005 fund drive. Democratic
Underground is a completely independent website. We depend almost entirely
on donations from our members to cover our costs. Thank you so much for
your support.

[bleedingheart]

34. when you lay down with the dogs...you wake up with fleas...

and now all their credibility is shot....