Talon News (Gannon's Fake News Website) Goes Offline

[rehema]

"The recent public focus on Talon News, while much of it malicious, has indeed brought some constructive elements to the surface. It has also brought many kind messages of support, and for that we are extremely grateful.

In order to better serve those readers across the country who enjoy Talon News content and look forward to receiving it each day, we feel compelled to reevaluate operations in order to provide the highest quality, most professional product possible.

Thus, Talon News will be offline while we redesign the web site, perform a top-to-bottom review of staff and volunteer contributors, and address future operational procedures.

We look forward to bringing an even better product to our readers in the future."

http://www.talonnews.com

[tjdee]

1. While we scrub articles and hire *real* reporters....

:eyes:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

2. It's official now.

Wonder why they bothered to scrub all the articles first?

[Vanje]

3. Buh bye

"We look forward to bringing an even better product to our readers in the future."

I wount be holding my breath waiting.

[Skink]

5. Isn't Gannon working on a book.....

Instant classic.

[theorist]

48. Working Title:

Media Whores and the Scottie Who Calls on Them

[Erika]

4. They took a big hit in utilizing GOP whores

as reporters. Their credibility is the same as Jeff's.

I can hardly wait until Hume joins him.

[MeDeMax]

7. awesome assessment...n/t

[rehema]

29. One of Talon News headlines should have been ..

<b>Booty Calls at the Whitehouse..News at 11</b>

[tuvor]

6. None of the links were working this morning.

This seriously needs investigation. Pronto.

ON EDIT: Recommended for "Greatest" page.

[BuyingThyme]

15. This discussion page or the Talon News page?

I like 'em both.

[fooj]

22. I believe the Daily KO's are working on something re: scrubbed

articles. Something's up!

[Synnical]

8. ROFLMAO!

Too Funny

[ObaMania]

9. Shady Gov't destroying the evidence of their propaganda office..

.. because they've been found out.

[BuyingThyme]

10. PLAGIARISM PLAGIARISM PLAGIARISM PLAGIARISM PLAGIARISM PLAGIARISM

They cannot write that which they can no longer steal.

[theorist]

42. Isn't this vindicating?

Thanks for looking into this story BuyingThyme. We're probably going to post some of the stuff you found on a future blog post at http://whyareweback.blogspot.com/.

:yourock:

[BuyingThyme]

47. I currently have a lot of procrastinating to do.

This seemed like the best way to go about it.

BTW: I don't recall ANY of the articles I examined having original content. They ALL seemed to be taken from the public record, derived from published reports, recycled from quoted material, or stolen from the rightful owners.

[theorist]

51. Ironic, huh?

For them being so f'in lazy, it surely took a lot of my time and energy to look into these fraudulent authors. (Same for you, I'm guessing.)

At this rate, it may take a couple months to document all of the copying from the major news outlets. If anything comes of this, believe me, the major news outlets will start a crackdown on plagiarism. The crackdown may come to be posturing, but we can hope it would be real.

Thanks, again, BuyingThyme. Have fun procrastinating. I hear the weather in the Lounge is nice this time of year. :)

[Toucano]

11. It's a "top-to-bottom" review!

Sounds like they plan to bring JimmyJeff back!

[Catherine Vincent]

12. Malicious?

Give me a break!

[Erika]

24. Agreed

[Up2Late]

13. Next up,"News Max"

What are the other RW Web sites that need to go?

[Erika]

21. I think Hume is as dirty as they come

Just my gut feelings. I used to follow him and then I saw a far right wing turn. He's not clean.

[Erika]

23. GOPUSA needs to go

It's also ran by Eberle and is the parent company of Talon
News. Political operatives of the GOP.

[BuyingThyme]

25. Yes

I don't know why more people aren't using the plagiarism angle to go after GOPUSA. They could easily prove them to be a criminal organization.

To me, it's no different than running a chop shop or a prostitution ring. They steal copyrighted information.

(Maybe the prostitution ring wasn't the best example.)

[rehema]

30. More digging on GOPUSA.com is needed

[DoYouEverWonder]

33. Here's a link with some info about who's who at GOPUSA

GOPUSA Board Members - A few of more clues

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1589662

[Samurai_Writer]

50. I saw a job opening at NewsMax

for an editor in West Palm Beach. I was SO tempted to apply. Just think of the havok I could cause, doing copyediting at NewsMax. Oooooh! Suddenly, the article's entire meaning would change. *evil grin*

[Up2Late]

54. Just make sure you have a steady supply of Prozac

I don't think I would last there more than a few weeks.

[BuyingThyme]

14. For those of you keeping track of the scrubbing...

Here's a timestamp of the exact moment the front page was shut down:

Wednesday, February 23, 2005 8:09:52 PM

[rucky]

16. And www.militaryescorts.com is for sale.

Gannon quit both jobs, but he's still a full-time sleazeball.

[Erika]

19. But Bush's Press Man Says he's legit

It makes you wonder about Scott's decisions to call on this person. Bush even recognized him and accepted a question. EEEwww.

[Goldmund]

17. "top to bottom"

hehe

[MeDeMax]

18. hear gannon here...

This is a HUGE victory for those calling for an unmanipulated media.

I am really pleased, I heard the g'man (gannon) defending himself as a "real reporter for the conservative" on Canadian Broadcasting Corp's "As It Happens" two weeks ago:

<http://www.cbc.ca/insite/AS_IT_HAPPENS_TORONTO/2005/2/11.html>

After the parts about Arthur Miller, I don't see a transcript so click on the audio links at the top to hear him.

We are lucky to have this program available via NPR affiliates, and thank you CBC for this piece.

[MeDeMax]

20. begins at 11:36 of Part 1

<http://cbc.ca/asithappens/media/dailyshow/2005-02-11-aih1.ram>

Skip over to 11:36 (11 minutes & 36 seconds) for the story.

[BuyingThyme]

26. I went do do some more "malicious" digging and noticed that they even...

scrubbed all of their images. (Less the Talon News logo.)

Totally cleaned out. All gone. No more. Game over.

This is amazing.

[Warpy]

27. We noticed yesterday that none of the links

to their "stories" worked, probably because they were scrubbing the site so that their "contributors" wouldn't be outed as paid propagandists at the next press conference.

[theorist]

44. Those links haven't been working for nearly 5 days.

They hadn't posted any "news" stories since last Thursday.

[Oilwellian]

28. You can still read their articles

Cached links here.

[Petrushka]

32. Clicked on your link. Whatever was there is now gone kaput! (n/t)

[theorist]

45. You have to click on the word "Cached" at the end of each listing. n/t

[Petrushka]

52. Well, now, lookee there at that -- it works! THANK YOU! (n/t)

[theorist]

53. You're welcome, and another kick for the story.

:kick:

[Petrushka]

56. Here's kickin' right back atcha . . .

:kick:

[TaleWgnDg]

57. gawddamn, what crap! utter useless crap!

http:
//66.218.71.225/search/cache?p=talonnews.com&sm=Yahoo%21+Search&toggle=1&ei=UTF-8&vst=0&vs=www.
talonnews.com&u=www. talonnews.com/news/2004/june/0617_kerry_preempt_ethics.shtml&d=7CE16F7295&icp=1&.intl=us

so you get somebody to file a "complaint" . . . a useless stupid complaint about hot air making it sound serious and all, then you hype the "story" in some bogus "news service" and it becomes news. great. what utter gawddamn crap.

[icehenge]

31. Anyone mirror the website?

talonnews.com

I know the yahoo cache works but I'm wondering if someone
had a chance to mirror the entire site before it shutdown.

If so can we share with each other?
I'd like a zipped copy if available.
And if you'd like to be anonymous please PM me.

It's obvious that Talon News closed the site to hide
something...

[DaDeacon]

34. RUN fuckers RUN ...

so in two weeks fox will air this story of how the left shut out a fair media outlet ....with no trail of the old site

[eddieb]

35. This is really BIG!

Imagine CBS shutting down after Rathergate,
or any legitimate News organization for that matter.
This is the behavior of criminals.

[Jester_11218]

36. Score 1 for the truth!

N/T

[The_Casual_Observer]

37. When the sun comes out the mushrooms shrivel and die!

Very pleased to see this. I doubt they will ever restart that one again.

[AuntiBush]

38. Adios, M'fer's!

:hi: Cya! Wouldn't want a be ya! Oh, and thanks for the memories!

[Callboy]

39. why am i not surprised

[jagasian]

40. Cover-up

This is a blatant cover-up. The average joe has no memory and will believe that no such fraud every took place because... all of the evidence is destroyed. Even worse, I watch ABC evening news every evening, Monday through Saturday, and I have not once seen any mention of this entire scandel. Talk about fraud.

[Babel_17]

41. Due to the corporate media whores ....

who are by their silence allowing something of a pass to Gannon and Talon both of them could gain both in stature and income in the aftermath of this debacle.

Gannon would need a makeover but those can be miraculously fast.

The freeper crowd is savvy enough (imo) to realize the delicious irony of providing lots of hits to the born again Talon News.

We need to maintain a high profile regarding moral outrage to this lack of accountability that permeates every facet of this sory.

We need to shame those capable of feeling it in the media into getting the story with its implications out there.

[spanone]

43. Follow the money.....running scared.

Just another push down the old memory hole.

[theorist]

46. Give some props to Ron for taking the time to look into these guys.

I can't say more than enough to praise this guy. Here's his site. If you like it, bookmark it. (And I'm not just saying that, because he's letting me guest-blog on his site.) :)

http://whyareweback.blogspot.com/

He's a playwrite, too. His play "Why are we back in Iraq?" ("Iraq" pronounced the way bush** says it.) is up there, as well.

[BurtWorm]

49. Wienies!

Losers!

[baron j]

55. Some of it is still available at Alexa's Wayback Machine:

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.talonnews.com

He can't scrub that!

[TaleWgnDg]

59. LOL . . .

http://web.archive.org/web/20030622110149/http://talonnews.com/bios/jeffgannon.shtml

[Juan Martinez]

58. I wonder what took to so long...

Talon News is just NOW shutting down? I would have shut down the VERY DAY James Guckert was exposed.

[PATRICK]

60. Symbolism change?

it was kind of blatant, the aggressive Talon(law of the raptor) mocking the cozy discussion sharing tone of Salon. The only way for these guys to go away is to be put in jail which is well suited for their personal interests and style anyway.