NYTimes story on Gannon by Frank Rich....It has legs folks.

[spanone]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/arts/20rich.html?8hpib



<snip> THE prayers of those hoping that real television news might take its cues from Jon Stewart were finally answered on Feb. 9, 2005. A real newsman borrowed a technique from fake news to deliver real news about fake news in prime time.

He goes on to tell the whole sordid story.

[autorank]

1. Rumors of the death of this story are greatly exaggerated!

[rodeodance]

4. he is blasting Wolf Blitzer--as he should

......It is a brilliant strategy. When the Bush administration isn't using taxpayers' money to buy its own fake news, it does everything it can to shut out and pillory real reporters who might tell Americans what is happening in what is, at least in theory, their own government.......


The inability of real journalists to penetrate this White House is not all the White House's fault. The errors of real news organizations have played perfectly into the administration's insidious efforts to blur the boundaries between the fake and the real and thereby demolish the whole notion that there could possibly be an objective and accurate free press. Conservatives, who supposedly deplore post-modernism, are now welcoming in a brave new world in which it's a given that there can be no empirical reality in news, only the reality you want to hear (or they want you to hear). The frequent fecklessness of the Beltway gang does little to penetrate this Washington smokescreen. For a case in point, you needed only switch to CNN on the day after Mr. Olbermann did his fake-news-style story on the fake reporter in the White House press corps.

"Jeff Gannon" had decided to give an exclusive TV interview to a sober practitioner of by-the-book real news, Wolf Blitzer. Given this journalistic opportunity, the anchor asked questions almost as soft as those "Jeff" himself had asked in the White House. Mr. Blitzer didn't question Mr. Guckert's outrageous assertion that he adopted a fake name because "Jeff Gannon is easier to pronounce and easier to remember." (Is "Jeff" easier to pronounce than his real first name, Jim?). Mr. Blitzer never questioned Gannon/Guckert's assertion that Talon News "is a separate, independent news division" of GOPUSA. Only in a brief follow-up interview a day later did he ask Gannon/Guckert to explain why he was questioned by the F.B.I. in the case that may send legitimate reporters to jail: Mr. Guckert has at times implied that he either saw or possessed a classified memo identifying Valerie Plame as a C.I.A. operative. Might that memo have come from the same officials who looked after "Jeff Gannon's" press credentials? Did Mr. Guckert have any connection with CNN's own Robert Novak, whose publication of Ms. Plame's name started this investigation in the first place? The anchor didn't go there.......

[Just Me]

8. I sqarely place justified responsibility on BOTH the administration and,..

,...the media,...and a blend of each cooperating with the other for both financial and political purposes.

The actions by the administration (in engaging in a pattern of deceit against the American people) is just plain criminal!!!

The actions by the media in failing to serve the American people has been whorish, lazy and without integrity.

With respect to Novak, that man should be jailed!!! The ole' cantankerous ass has been around long enough to know better. No plea of ignorance or otherwise can excuse him.

[autorank]

14. Oh, I totally agree. Blitzer is a pathetic joke. He looks likek a ...

...bearded nanny. Maybe he should join the cast of Carnavale!

[Patchuli]

2. Good! The sex thing

was really an aside and he focused on the propaganda aspect!

:kick:

[Why Syzygy]

3. It's cartoon news hour!

Nonetheless, for nearly two years the White House press office had credentialed Mr. Guckert, even though, as Dana Milbank of The Washington Post explained on Mr. Olbermann's show, he "was representing a phony media company that doesn't really have any such thing as circulation or readership."

A cartoon character has wrought destruction on the planet.

I'm not laughing.

[rodeodance]

5. he is talking lots of digs at the news media for softball questions

[Why Syzygy]

7. This is BIG!

It is a brilliant strategy. When the Bush administration isn't using taxpayers' money to buy its own fake news, it does everything it can to shut out and pillory real reporters who might tell Americans what is happening in what is, at least in theory, their own government. Paul Farhi of The Washington Post discovered that even at an inaugural ball he was assigned "minders" - attractive women who wouldn't give him their full names - to let the revelers know that Big Brother was watching should they be tempted to say anything remotely off message.

[Jack Rabbit]

11. A least he used attractive women

instead of big, hairy thugs. That would have been a little too obvious.
I guess Big Brother should look seductive.

[Auntie Bush]

30. Watch out...Big Sister is watching you!

:scared:

[me b zola]

25. How much creepier than all previous examples

..before people wake-up??

[moggie12]

6. Everybody e-mail it, so it goes to the top of the "most-EM'd list"

That'll get it more attention (I think you can even e-mail it to yourself if you're shy about sending things to your friends....)

[Cleita]

9. Finally, somebody with a byline points out the obvious

that we have been talking about for years.

[spanone]

10. I call the New York Times MSM !!!

[BrotherBuzz]

13. It may be MSM but why is it buried in the 'Arts' section?

[G_j]

15. you're right!

that is absurd!
I hadn't noticed, I was so eager to read the article.
:argh:

[librechik]

20. That's Frank Rich's beat nowadays-it's the best he could do

I guess/ Besides, it is a media piece at the moment.

Real people need to be on the front steps of the NY Times and WA Post and CNN with picket signs FORCING them to cover it. People ought to be walking through the live TV shots during the Michael Jackson circus and show signs or Tshirts that say "Expose the WH" or MEDIA LIES" If I lived in DC or NY or Santa Barbara I would do it myself.

Actual people are really scary to these media types. Picketers make a difference, along with letter campaigns. Please, local activists help us.

[BrotherBuzz]

21. Google confirmed that that's his bailiwick

Hey, that's OK if people know his writing and seek him out...It's good with me.

[Jack Rabbit]

12. Newsmen are also partly to blame

The inability of real journalists to penetrate this White House is not all the White House's fault. The errors of real news organizations have played perfectly into the administration's insidious efforts to blur the boundaries between the fake and the real and thereby demolish the whole notion that there could possibly be an objective and accurate free press. Conservatives, who supposedly deplore post-modernism, are now welcoming in a brave new world in which it's a given that there can be no empirical reality in news, only the reality you want to hear (or they want you to hear). The frequent fecklessness of the Beltway gang does little to penetrate this Washington smokescreen. For a case in point, you needed only switch to CNN on the day after Mr. Olbermann did his fake-news-style story on the fake reporter in the White House press corps.

[nostamj]

16. RICH ROCKS

nuff said?

RECOMMEND THIS (as you should anytime Frank Rich writes so much as a shopping list...) ;-)

[fishface]

17. In the Arts section? *snort*

No legs from this 'lib' media.. just chortling.

[JackD76]

18. Incase You Missed It

Here is the full CBS Article about Gannon-Rove connection.


EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIHGT

[Straight Shooter]

19. Welcome to DU, JackD76

:hi:

And remember our posting rule about not violating copyrights, you can only post up to 4 paragraphs from a printed source (including online) unless it's your own work or you have permission.

Enjoy DU :)

[Momof1]

22. I like this paragraph...

The "real" news from CNN was no news at all, but it's not as if any of its competitors did much better. The "Jeff Gannon" story got less attention than another media frenzy - that set off by the veteran news executive Eason Jordan, who resigned from CNN after speaking recklessly at a panel discussion at Davos, where he apparently implied, at least in passing, that American troops deliberately targeted reporters. Is the banishment of a real newsman for behaving foolishly at a bloviation conference in Switzerland a more pressing story than that of a fake newsman gaining years of access to the White House (and network TV cameras) under mysterious circumstances? With real news this timid, the appointment of Jon Stewart to take over Dan Rather's chair at CBS News could be just the jolt television journalism needs. As Mr. Olbermann demonstrated when he borrowed a sharp "Daily Show" tool to puncture the "Jeff Gannon" case, the only road back to reality may be to fight fake with fake.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/arts/20rich.html?pagewanted=2

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:


I would love to see Jon Stewart in Rather's chair!

[fooj]

23. "deemed illegal, covert propaganda..." Go NYT Go!

[Eric J in MN]

24. This is my favorite part of the article

When the Bush administration isn't using taxpayers' money to buy its own fake news, it does everything it can to shut out and pillory real reporters who might tell Americans what is happening in what is, at least in theory, their own government. Paul Farhi of The Washington Post discovered that even at an inaugural ball he was assigned "minders" - attractive women who wouldn't give him their full names - to let the revelers know that Big Brother was watching should they be tempted to say anything remotely off message.

[Karenina]

26. Pass the popcorn!

:kick:

[G_j]

27. no problem

:kick:

[Misunderestimator]

28. Yes.... it is a thing of BEAUTY!

[kentuck]

29. Yep.... people are starting to focus..

"Conservatives, who supposedly deplore post-modernism, are now welcoming in a brave new world in which it's a given that there can be no empirical reality in news, only the reality you want to hear (or they want you to hear)."