The GOP gets caught in yet another media scam - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

CShine · 02-03-2005, 07:12 PM

First they buy off journalists with taxpayer money, now this. Looks like the GOP is guilty of all kinds of media scams that are even worse than the liberal reporting they like to call unethical. Good to see they have such a good grasp of ethics. Maybe they should actually start trying to be ethical and show that they have an ounce of principle. Fat chance of that.

Quote:

The Bush administration has provided White House media credentials to a man who has virtually no journalistic background, asks softball questions to the president and his spokesman in the midst of contentious news conferences, and routinely reprints long passages verbatim from official press releases as original news articles on his website.

Jeff Gannon calls himself the White House correspondent for TalonNews.com, a website that says it is "committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news coverage to our readers." It is operated by a Texas-based Republican Party delegate and political activist who also runs GOPUSA.com, a website that touts itself as "bringing the conservative message to America."

Called on last week by President Bush at a press conference, Gannon attacked Democratic Senate leaders and called them "divorced from reality." During the presidential campaign, when called on by Press Secretary Scott McClellan, Gannon linked Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, to Jane Fonda and questioned why anyone would dispute Bush's National Guard service.

Now, the question of how Gannon gets into White House press conferences is coming under intense scrutiny from critics who contend that Gannon is not a journalist but rather a White House tool to soften media coverage of Bush. The issue was raised by a media watchdog group and picked up by Internet bloggers, who linked Gannon's presence in White House briefings to recent controversies over whether the administration manipulates the flow of information to the public.

These include the disclosure that the Education Department secretly paid columnist Armstrong Williams to promote its education policy and the administration's practice of sending out video press releases about its policies that purport to be "news stories" by fake journalists.

.......

"Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the US economy," Gannon said. "[Minority Leader] Harry Reid was talking about soup lines, and Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet, in the same breath, they say that Social Security is rock solid and there's no crisis there. How are you going to work -- you said you're going to reach out to these people -- how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"

As it turned out, Reid had never talked about soup lines. That was a phrase attributed to him in satire by Rush Limbaugh on his radio show. Last year, during the presidential campaign, Gannon's comments could be even more pointed. In a Feb. 10, 2004, briefing with McClellan, for example, Gannon rose to deliver the following:

"Since there have been so many questions about what the president was doing over 30 years ago, what is it that he did after his honorable discharge from the National Guard? Did he make speeches alongside Jane Fonda, denouncing America's racist war in Vietnam? Did he testify before Congress that American troops committed war crimes in Vietnam? And did he throw somebody else's medals at the White House to protest a war America was still fighting?"

David Brock, the former investigative journalist who made his name revealing aspects of former President Bill Clinton's extramarital affairs, said he was watching last week's press conference on television and the "soup lines" question sparked his interest because it "struck me as so extremely biased." Brock asked his media watchdog group, Media Matters for America, to look into Talon News.

It quickly discovered two things, he said. First, both Talon and the political organization GOP USA were run by a Texas Republican activist and party delegate named Bobby Eberle. Second, many of the reports Gannon filed for Talon News "appeared to be lifted verbatim from various White House and Republican political committee documents."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/wa...nder_scrutiny/

stevo · 02-03-2005, 08:26 PM

Wow, you've been busy today slammin' the right. Did someone with a W'04 bumper sticker cut you off this morning?

Lebell · 02-03-2005, 08:29 PM

Wow, pretty damning stuff you dug up there.

maximusveritas · 02-03-2005, 08:45 PM

this is only the beginning hopefully, if the media can be bothered to follow through for once.

Xenomorph · 02-03-2005, 08:48 PM

...is the media usually very slow to pick up on right-wing conspiracies?

martinguerre · 02-03-2005, 10:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lebell

Wow, pretty damning stuff you dug up there.

it's not watergate.

it's just sleezy. planting a friendly to disrupt journalists from asking tougher questions...it shows a contempt for the press. i happen to think it is imporant to know what's going on...

Willravel · 02-03-2005, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevo

Wow, you've been busy today slammin' the right. Did someone with a W'04 bumper sticker cut you off this morning?

Oh, comon. You can do better then that. You should have said something mroe like "More liberal, baseless slander." That would have at least addressed what was said in the original post. Perhapse you don't have an explaination in which the government comes out smelling like daiseys?

I say this is just the beginning. I'd be willing to bet this goes a lot further before something serious is put into action to stop it. Gannon should not ever be allowed to be connected with the media in any way, and the Talon should be yanked from news shelves and put into the trash can. If someone wants to hear biased crap, they have Fox News.

pan6467 · 02-03-2005, 10:17 PM

I think this is viable news. I mean if the GOP want to point out every single mistake the press they don't like makes and tries to make it a big issue, it is only fair to expose the GOP's "friendlies".

There can also be a lot said if any of these "friendlies" persuaded voters. Much the same as CBS's story. (Of course the latter was exposed BEFORE the election and the first exposed AFTER.) Either way, it shows an abuse of the press on both sides.

The sad thing is this "war" shows how dirty ALL MEDIA is.

Mephisto2 · 02-04-2005, 12:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan6467

The sad thing is this "war" shows how dirty ALL MEDIA is.

But would you have it any other way?

Isn't "freedom" (freedom of the press, freedom of expression etc) of the things the war is about? :-)

Don't tell me you're thinking of supporting state control of the media?!

Mr Mephisto

host · 02-04-2005, 02:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by martinguerre

it's not watergate.

it's just sleezy. planting a friendly to disrupt journalists from asking tougher questions...it shows a contempt for the press. i happen to think it is imporant to know what's going on...

It shows a contempt for the American peoples' "right to know". These are
the same propagandists who brought us "campaign 2004", WMDs, and
the unnecessary and unjustified war in Iraq. They cleansed HEW websites of
safe sex information resources, and advocate the teaching of "intelligent
Design" alongside what was formerly known as the theory of evolution, but
is now modified by their affiliates into the new term "biological changes over time". Amusing if it wasn't so potentially damaging and revealing of their
obsessive ideology and pettyness. They make an earnest argument that
the earth is less than 10,000 years old, and that the Grand Canyon was
created during the flood that floated Noah's Ark. Stay tuned for more absurdity from the most corrupting and criminal White House in history.

Quote:

<a href="http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2005/02/02/editorial/francis_volpe/volpe01.txt">http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2005/02/02/editorial/francis_volpe/volpe01.txt</a>
<h3>It's a private personal matter</h3>

By Francis Volpe February 1, 2005

A while back I suggested reference books such as the thesaurus and the dictionary were good holiday gifts for Republicans.

Recent events have shown me that I was a bit naïve in this assessment. The GOP has its own version of these often-used tomes, and lately they've been demanding that journalists start using their definitions.

This is tough, since you can't walk into a bookstore and purchase the Republican Dictionary. Nevertheless, reporters who don't hew to the party's linguistic edicts are at risk of producing biased accounts, according to GOP spokesmen. And we just can't have that, now can we?

The current clash of linguistics, not surprisingly, is over Social Security. For decades now Republicans have peddled visions of totally or partially privatizing America's most popular federal program.

Their associated think tanks, like the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Hoover Institute and many others, have advocated various proposals to redirect some or all of the Social Security tax away from the federal treasury.

Indeed, in the right-wing think-tank world, you don't have to paw through their archives for long before you encounter similar proposals for all sorts of existing government programs. Abolish ‘em all, and companies in the private sector will do the work cheaper.

For decades, this theory of limiting the reach of government has been called privatization. Not surprisingly, as the president has begun pressing his Social Security proposal, it has been variously described in news accounts and scholarly papers as privatization or partial privatization, creating private retirement accounts for citizens.

Detect the bias yet? The Republicans sure have. "Privatization" and "private accounts" are now dirty words in their lexicon, right up there with "WMDs," "Barbara Boxer" and that thing U2 singer Bono once said at the Golden Globes, never mind that it's the same thing the vice president said to Sen. Patrick Leahy last year.

They're so sensitive about it that Bush actually lectured a Washington Post reporter during a recent interview. When the reporter used the word "privatization," Bush said, "You mean the personal savings accounts?"

The president went on to scold the reporter about his choice of words: "We don't want to be editorializing, at least in the questions."
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A12570-2005Jan15?language=printer">http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A12570-2005Jan15?language=printer</a>
The reporter, no doubt astounded to be corrected by Bush on proper word usage, shot back, "You used ‘partial privatization' yourself last year, sir... three times in one sentence."

Indeed, you can surf around the Internet and find Republicans calling the Social Security plan "privatization" with impunity all the way up to the last few months. Journalist Josh Marshall of the Talking Points Memo blog has compiled numerous instances, including a quote where conservative commentator Robert Novak called it "privatization." A few months later, Novak started calling privatization "a Democratic word."

And how did privatization become a Democratic word, you might ask? Through polling.

This may come as a shock to those of you who believed President Bush when he claimed he doesn't follow polls. If there are any folks out there who still believe that, please get in touch with me after the president's Social Security is enacted. I'd love the opportunity to invest your nest egg in a combination of dot-com startups and tulip growers. For a fee, of course.

Anyway, it seems that when the GOP and its think-tank brigade started polling Americans about their attitudes toward Social Security, "privatizing Social Security" and "setting up private accounts" were rejected out of hand.

When the poll takers started calling them "personal accounts," however, they started reaping positive reactions, despite the fact that the proposal hadn't changed — only the name.

So "personal accounts" it is, says the GOP, and you're a tool of the Democrats if you call them anything else. Never mind that you can go to the Cato Institute's website and find numerous references to Social Security privatization. I'm including one with this column for your convenience.

The Heritage Foundation site seems to have scrubbed any recent references, but I did find one or two going back a few years.

I'm glad we caught these unintentional slights to the GOP, since changing the description of a ridiculous idea is all it takes to turn it into pure genius.

But I'm concerned we in the media may be committing other slights. So with the little bit of space I have left, I will feature a few other Republican definitions to help the media avoid bias.

• Democrat: 1. A member of the Democrat Party. (Republicans are using this juvenile formulation now because they don't want to convey that there's anything democratic about the Democratic Party.) 2. If a current officeholder, synonym for traitor. 3. If dead, as in FDR, Truman or JFK, a great American who agrees with everything today's Republicans stand for.

• Election fraud: Evil when committed in Ukraine, unconscionable when alleged in Washington state, the will of the people when committed in Florida.

• Advice and consent: The constitutional requirement of the Senate to rubber-stamp the president's appointments to federal office without debate.

As soon as I think of others, I'll share them with you.

How can Bush be so obsessively precise about a reporter's use of seemingly interchangeable words, yet exhibit such imprecise judgment in the selection
of information that brought him to the decision to order an unnecessary and umjustified invasion of another country, that has arguably killed or wounded more than 100,000 people and cost an initial estimate of $200 billion, and yet still be supported and taken seriously by 50 million or more American adults?

Superbelt · 02-04-2005, 04:42 AM

This actually could be the part of something damning Lebell. This Jeff Gannon guy is being looked into as being an integral part of the revelation of Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA Agent.
Again, an act of Treason

host · 02-04-2005, 05:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Superbelt

This actually could be the part of something damning Lebell. This Jeff Gannon guy is being looked into as being an integral part of the revelation of Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA Agent.
Again, an act of Treason

Is this the kind of government you want to live under? Reminds me of
Soviet Russia under Stalin. When someone close to Stalin fell out of favor,
his likeness would be removed from all official photos. I'm as nauseated as
I am fascinated. People actually voted for another helping of these fascist
thugs..............(you really think the Gannon "plant" is amusing, Lebell ?).

Quote:

http://pacific-john.dailykos.com/sto.../29/215946/913

April 1, 2004 (4.00 / 2)

Jeff Gannon asked McClellan about protesters trespassing on the property of White House aide Karl Rove.
Gannon had also written on March 30, 2004 about angry mobs at Rove's house.

Is it typical for reporters to "comment" at WH press briefings instead of asking a question?

GANNON: I'd like to comment on the angry mob that surrounded Karl Rove's house on Sunday. They chanted and pounded on the windows until the D.C. police and Secret Service were called in. The protest was organized by the National People's Action Coalition, whose members receive taxpayer funds, as well as financial support from groups including Theresa Heinz Kerry's Tides Foundation.

McCLELLAN: I would just say that, one, we appreciate and understand concerns that people may have. I would certainly hope that people would respect the families of White House staff.

WND: Why weren't any of these people arrested?

McCLELLAN: Les, you've had your questions.

WND: No, no, no -

McCLELLAN: Les, you've had your questions.

WND: Why weren't they arrested, Scott?

<h3>Jeff trying to help them tie Alqueda and Iraq... </h3>(4.00 / 2)

August 9th 2004:
Go ahead, Jeff.

Q Thank you. The imam that was arrested in New York last week was discovered because his name appeared in a Rolodex in a terrorist training camp in Iraq before the war. The book was found after, by U.S. troops, but he was in Iraq before the war. Is this another piece of evidence showing the direct terror ties between Iraq and al Qaeda?

MR. McCLELLAN: One, that's an ongoing investigation. I think the questions related to those particular individuals are best directed to the Department of Justice. And so that's -- I would refer any questions about that investigation to the Department of Justice.

We are continuing to wage the war on terrorism on many fronts, both abroad and at home. And I think you're seeing that through the actions that we are taking.

Q Let me follow up with a second question. How damaging was the revelation of the deepest mole that we've ever had in al Qaeda? The publication of that man's name by The New York Times -- how damaging is that to our war on terror?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry -- which specific instance are you referring to?

Q The New York Times published the name of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, who was described by intelligence officials as the only deep mole we've ever had within al Qaeda.

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm not sure where it was published, first. Obviously, it was published recently -- the capture of this individual. It is important that we recognize that sometimes there are ongoing operations underway. And as we move forward on capturing or bringing to justice al Qaeda members, we need to keep that in mind. And sometimes we aren't able to go into as much detail we would like to because of those ongoing operations. And I think everybody has a responsibility to keep that in mind.

February 10, 2004
Press Briefing by Scott McClellan

24:17 Same voice and called Jeff by another reporter in followup question.

GANNON: Since there have been so many questions about what the President was doing over 30 years ago, what is it that he did after his honorable discharge from the National Guard? Did he make speeches alongside Jane Fonda, denouncing America's racist war in Vietnam? Did he testify before Congress that American troops committed war crimes in Vietnam? And did he throw somebody else's medals at the White House to protest a war America was still fighting? What was he doing after he was honorably discharged?

McCLELLAN: We've already commented on some of his views relating back to that period the other day. And, obviously, this was a time period also when he was going to get his MBA at Harvard. But the President was certainly proud to serve in the National Guard.

______________

February 11, 2004
Press Briefing by Scott McClellan

17:25 Calls him Jeff in audio and voice is same on follow-ups.

GANNON: No, no. Following up on his question, since we're quoting people. In 1992, John Kerry stood on the Senate floor and said, "I am saddened by the fact that Vietnam has yet again been inserting into the campaign and that it has been inserted in what I feel to be the worst possible way." And he went on to say later on, "We do not need to divide America over who served and how." Are you going -- is this White House and this candidate, President Bush, going to hold him to those remarks and put an end to this now?

McCLELLAN: First of all, this President is focused on our nation's priorities. He is focused on confronting the threats that we face, as I spoke about earlier. And he's going to be talking more about that this afternoon. Obviously, there continues to be a Democratic primary going on, and the Democrats will select their nominee. And I think the American people, right now, want this White House to continue to do what it is doing, which is focusing on their priorities. Like I said, we are some nine months out from election day. There's going to be plenty of time to -- plenty of time --

GANNON: Don't you regard his statements from his --

McCLELLAN: Hold on. There's going to be plenty of time to talk about --

GANNON: -- likely challenger to be the end of this all?

McCLELLAN: There's going to be plenty of time to talk about the choices we face and the statements people have made. The President certainly is someone who does what he says he is going to do and someone who means what he says. And I think that's reflected in the actions he takes.

GANNON: Is he offended by the accusations and insinuations from people who have never served in the military? And especially from leaders of a party who nominated a candidate in 1992 and 1996 that avoided military service altogether?

McCLELLAN: I would just say, again, that it is sad to see some stoop to this level, to say anything or try to do anything for political gain. The American people deserve better.

<h3>Why doesn't the white house simply disband the entire press corp and
fill the briefing room with it's own hand picked "tools" and stooges ?</h3>

Quote:

<a href="http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/02/02/white_house_friendly_reporter_under_scrutiny?pg=full">http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/02/02/white_house_friendly_reporter_under_scrutiny?pg=full</a>
Now, the question of how Gannon gets into White House press conferences is coming under intense scrutiny from critics who contend that Gannon is not a journalist but rather a White House tool to soften media coverage of Bush. The issue was raised by a media watchdog group and picked up by Internet bloggers, who linked Gannon's presence in White House briefings to recent controversies over whether the administration manipulates the flow of information to the public.

stevo · 02-04-2005, 06:47 AM

cry cry cry. So what. They let someone in that is going to ask something other than, "So when is the president going to admit he was wrong?" I watch these press confrences and you've got this one guy and a dozen bush-haters. Whats the big deal? This is really a boring thread, next time find something dirtier about "bushco" so at least I can laugh instead of feeling sorry for such a feeble attempt.

Superbelt · 02-04-2005, 07:12 AM

Like I said, this guy is part of the investigation over Valerie Plame.
He received top secret CIA memos from someone in the WH that identified Valerie as Joe Wilson's wife and as a CIA agent. And he revealed this in an interview with Wilson. And published it.

That's so what.

roachboy · 02-04-2005, 07:20 AM

bush is the discourse of democracy what stalin was to the discourse of socialism.

the qualification added a bit later:

it seems that in their paranoia about dissent--which extends to a hostility toward pluralism, the administration makes a mockery of the principles that it espouses. its handling of the press--which is in the great tradition of the reagan administration (who in turn got their inspiration from thatchers degrading control over the british press during the falklands war)--is a good microcosm for this.

the parallel bush/stalin has to do only with their corrosive effect on the ideological language that they use to legitimate themselves and their actions--a language that is opposed at almost every meanignful level to what they are in fact doing on the ground. i make the parallel as a function of the work i have done in my real life on the gradual implosion of marxism through the post world war 2 period: the long grinding away of referentiality ion the language of marxism came to a head with the hungarian revolution--in france, this lines up with a collapse of a whole tradition of worker mobilization at the factory-floor level....

you have a parallel process going on with the discourse of democracy now. which is in many ways the worst possible outcome for the abiilty of folk in oppressive situations to imagine something other than what exists.

dksuddeth · 02-04-2005, 11:10 AM

watching some of the diehard republican supporters really offends my independent sensibilities. sooner or later all of the 'so whats', redirections, and 'baseless liberal' remarks are going to backfire on you. Will you then raise the MSM flag when you're outed as 'out of touch with reality?'

stevo · 02-04-2005, 11:36 AM

you talkin to me?

I dunno

probably not.

dksuddeth · 02-04-2005, 02:03 PM

I didn't have any one person in particular that I was thinking specifically of when I wrote the post.

Lebell · 02-04-2005, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Superbelt

This actually could be the part of something damning Lebell. This Jeff Gannon guy is being looked into as being an integral part of the revelation of Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA Agent.
Again, an act of Treason

If that actually happens, then I'll sit up and take notice, as I think that whole CIA thing waspretty sleezy.

Until then...

Superbelt · 02-04-2005, 08:52 PM

http://www.gopusa.com/news/2003/octo...nterview.shtml
Link 1 is where Jeff Gannon does his thing, helping to out a CIA agent.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp...&notFound=true

Quote:

Which of These Is Not Like the Other?

As Tom Brune reported last week in Newsday, the federal grand jury investigating the leak of Valerie Plame's identity as a covert CIA operative has subpoenaed White House records on contacts with 25 journalists.

The list (low on the page) is full of familiar names: Columnist Robert Novak, of course, and MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Time's James Carney, The Post's Mike Allen, Newsweek's Evan Thomas.

And then there's Jeff Gannon of Talon News.

Who? Of what?

I first wrote about Gannon in my Feb. 19 column. Gannon works for a tiny, supremely conservative organization called Talon News which publishes a Web site by the same name as well as one called GOPUSA.com. With the sole exception of Gannon, who says he is compensated, all the "reporters" are volunteers.

Gannon's presence in the White House briefing room is something of an irritant to most of the press corps, which considers his questions at briefings to be preposterous softballs. [Note: This paragraph has been corrected. Gannon does not have an assigned seat in the briefing room as was previously reported here.]

And in return, Gannon sometimes writes on his own Web site about his views of the corps and how there is "perhaps no depth to which it will not sink in order to undermine a presidency."

Anyway, the reason Gannon is on the list is most likely an attempt to find out who gave him a secret memo that he mentioned in an interview he had with Plame's husband, former ambassador and administration critic Joseph Wilson.

Gannon asked Wilson: "An internal government memo prepared by U.S. intelligence personnel details a meeting in early 2002 where your wife, a member of the agency for clandestine service working on Iraqi weapons issues, suggested that you could be sent to investigate the reports. Do you dispute that?"

According to a December Washington Post story by Mike Allen and Dana Milbank, "Sources said the CIA is angry about the circulation of a still-classified document to conservative news outlets suggesting Plame had a role in arranging her husband's trip to Africa for the CIA. The document, written by a State Department official who works for its Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), describes a meeting at the CIA where the Niger trip by Wilson was discussed, said a senior administration official who has seen it."

On top of being secret, CIA officials said it was wrong.

Take notice.

matthew330 · 02-04-2005, 09:26 PM

Chicks should not be CIA agents. Hopefully we've all learned our lesson.

"Take notice."

Agreed.

tecoyah · 02-10-2005, 03:11 PM

Looks like it got a little too hot for the Pawn:

Inside Politics
White House reporter's credentials questioned
Man worked for Web site owned by Republican activist

Thursday, February 10, 2005 Posted: 9:04 AM EST (1404 GMT)

James Guckert reported from the White House under the name "Jeff Gannon."

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A New York congresswoman asked the White House to explain Wednesday why a man who worked for a news Web site owned by a GOP activist was able to obtain White House press credentials under an assumed name.

James Guckert, who reported from the White House for the Talon News Service under the name "Jeff Gannon," announced he was quitting the business "in consideration of the welfare of me and my family."

"Because of the attention being paid to me, I find it is no longer possible to effectively be a reporter for Talon News," he said in a statement posted Wednesday on his Web site.

In a letter to President Bush, Rep. Louise Slaughter, a Democrat, questioned why Guckert routinely received credentials for White House news briefings.

Slaughter linked Guckert's case to recent revelations that two conservative columnists who supported Bush administration policies had received government money.

"It appears that 'Mr. Gannon's' presence in the White House press corps was merely as a tool of propaganda for your administration," Slaughter wrote.

The White House had no comment.

The House and Senate press galleries declined Guckert's request for credentials in 2003.

Julie Davis, chairwoman of the Senate press gallery's executive committee, said Guckert could not demonstrate any separation between Talon News and GOPUSA, a Republican consulting group.

Both organizations are run by Bobby Eberle, a Texas GOP activist. Many Talon News articles also appeared as news releases on the GOPUSA Web site, said Davis, a reporter for The Sun newspaper of Baltimore, Maryland.

In a statement on the Talon Web site, Eberle referred to "Gannon's" resignation and said, "I understand and support Jeff's decision."

Slaughter said she was writing at the request of senior editors of the Niagara Falls Reporter in her Buffalo-area district.

The newspaper ran an open letter questioning "how a partisan political organization and an individual with no credentials as a reporter -- and apparently operating under an assumed name -- landed a coveted spot in the White House press corps."

During White House press secretary Scott McClellan's regular briefings, Guckert routinely offered administration-friendly questions.

He became the focus of liberal and media Web sites after Bush called on him during his news conference January 26.

Guckert asked Bush how he could deal with Democratic congressional leaders "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality."

Guckert told The Washington Post in an article published Tuesday that his political leanings were "admittedly" conservative "and that point of view is not represented in the briefing room at all."

"Call me partisan, fine, but don't let my colleagues off the hook," he said. "They're partisan too, but they don't admit it."

Slaughter said ideology had nothing to do with the dispute.

"It doesn't matter whether he's a conservative reporter. The question is, is he a reporter?" she said.

She told CNN that she believed the White House gave Guckert credentials to get a friendly questioner into the room during White House briefings.

"I don't want to be fed propaganda from this White House," she said. "I don't want people to be paid to give it to me. We deserve the facts, or this democracy will suffer."

Last month, conservative commentator Armstrong Williams apologized for not disclosing that his company had received $240,000 from a public relations agency hired by the Department of Education to promote Bush's No Child Left Behind education overhaul.

Syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher also apologized to her readers for not disclosing a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help create materials used to promote Bush's $300 million initiative encouraging marriage to strengthen families.

At the January 26 news conference, Bush said he disapproved of such practices and wanted them to stop.

"There needs to be independence," he said.

"All our Cabinet secretaries must realize that we will not be paying ... commentators to advance our agenda. Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet," Bush said. (Full story)

HHS later disclosed that a third conservative columnist, Mike McManus, had received $10,000 to promote Bush's marriage initiative, according to an Associated Press report. His weekly column appears in about 50 newspapers.

Several congressional Democrats have introduced a bill to stop what they termed taxpayer-funded "covert propaganda campaigns" that violate a provision included in annual appropriation acts since 1951.

Under the new bill, dubbed the Federal Propaganda Prohibition Act of 2005, the prohibition on propaganda would become a permanent part of federal law.

Federal agencies would also have to notify Congress about public relations, advertising and polling contracts, and the funding sources of all federally funded public relations materials would have to be disclosed.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/...ouse.reporter/

uncle_el · 02-10-2005, 03:30 PM

very interesting. sad, but very interesting. and sadly, probably nothing will come of this.

hopefully people will wake up and pull the wool from over their eyes.

kutulu · 02-10-2005, 03:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uncle_el

very interesting. sad, but very interesting. and sadly, probably nothing will come of this.

hopefully people will wake up and pull the wool from over their eyes.

With the way things are going these days I doubt anything will come of it.

I don't know how true this is but I've read things about this guy being involved with gay porn and prostitution. I'll see what I can find out about it.

kutulu · 02-10-2005, 03:57 PM

Here it is:
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-239417c.html

Quote:

WASHINGTON - A conservative ringer who was given a press pass to the White House and lobbed softball questions at President Bush quit yesterday after left-leaning Internet bloggers discovered possible ties to gay prostitution.
"The voice goes silent," Jeff Gannon wrote on his Web site. "In consideration of the welfare of me and my family, I have decided to return to private life."

Gannon began covering the White House two years ago for an obscure Republican Web site (Talon-News.com). He was known for his friendly questions, including asking Bush at last month's news conference how he could work with Democrats "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality."

Gannon was also given a classified CIA memo that named agent Valerie Plame, leading to his grilling by the grand jury investigating her outing.

He came under lefty scrutiny after revelations that the administration was paying conservative pundits to talk up Bush's proposals. By examining Internet records, online sleuths at DailyKos.com figured out that his real name was Jim Guckert and he owned various Web sites, including HotMilitaryStud.com, MilitaryEscorts.com and MilitaryEscortsM4M.com.

"The issue here is whether someone with connections to male prostitution was given unfettered access to the White House and copies of internal CIA documents. For a family values administration, that's pretty creepy," said John Aravosis, one of the bloggers chasing the story.

The White House didn't return a call asking how someone using an alias was given daily clearance to enter the White House.

On his TalonNews Web site, Gannon had written that liberals were out to get him because he's a white conservative man who owns a gun, drives a sport-utility vehicle and is a born-again Christian.

Yesterday, however, he abruptly quit, and all of the stories he wrote were erased from the Web site. A great many were on gay issues, including one detailing John Kerry's "pro-homosexual platform" that was headlined mockingly, "Kerry Could Become First Gay President."

tecoyah · 02-14-2005, 03:12 PM

And finally.....the crowning achievement of our journalistic hero.
Seriously....you gotta go to this link...it is hilarious all by itself.....regardless of context

Link NSFW

http://web.archive.org/web/200107010....com/x/usmcpt/

Monday, February 14, 2005

A man called Jeff
by John in DC - 2/14/2005 11:26:00 PM

WARNING: A number of the links in this story are to x-rated photographs, and some of those might prove shocking to some people. Please exercise your own discretion when clicking. (And, as you read, please forgive the necessary typos - I'm going for rock-solid facts, rather than spelling.)

WOLF BLITZER: Because one of the things, as you know, that were said is that you had some sexually explicit Web sites that you were working on. I don't understand what that is, but maybe you could explain that.

JEFF GANNON: Well, several years ago, before I came to Washington, I had registered various domain names for a private client. I was doing Web site development. Those sites were never hosted. There's -- nothing ever went up on them. And the client went on to do something else. - CNN, 2/10/05

Site 1

The Web sites reflects the era in which it was built. A simple black background, white text, lots of kitschy images and bad puns. The theme is decidedly military. The logo at the top is borrowed from the US Marine Corps, an eagle standing atop an anchor. The letters USMCPT run across the logo, written in the colors of the flag. Below the strange acronym are four words: “Personal Trainer, Bodyguard, Escort.” Above it stands a muscular and headless man in black military boots, white socks, buck naked.

In 1999, Paul Leddy, a Web designer and photographer, says he received an email from a man named Jeff from Wilmington, Delaware. Jeff wanted Paul to build him a new Web site for his business. Paul accepted the job, provided Jeff mailed him a check with half the money up front (Jeff had not provided a last name, and Paul wanted to make sure he was for real). Jeff sent the check, it cleared, and Paul built the site and launched it online for Jeff.

Paul didn’t think about Jeff much until last week when he heard about a breaking scandal involving a man named Jeff who owned several military escort service Web addresses. “I saw the name Jeff Gannon, knew our Jeff, saw the militarystud.com Web address, and thought ‘hmmm, everything was military, that sounds like Jeff who we did the site for.’”

Paul searched the Internet WhoIs director for militarystud.com and saw that the owner was Bedrock Corp of Wilmington, Delaware. “That’s definitely him,” Paul said. (Paul and a second source both recall Jeff paying with a check in the name of Bedrock Corp. The name stuck in their heads at the time because they asked Jeff why “Bedrock”? He replied something about the Flintstones, they recall.)

Paul then went and checked his files. He found five invoices to Jeff from August 31, 1999 to March 30, 2000. (The file properties say they were created on those dates by Paul Leddy.)nsfw

guy44 · 02-14-2005, 06:43 PM

Yeah. This is why the story matters:

The White House gave a press pass to someone from a bogus right-wing "news" source (which actually came into existence only days before Gannon got his press pass) so that he could throw up softball questions to Bush or his press secretary when the real reporters were getting to tough. This guy was not only using a fake name, and had no press credentials, but also "wrote" his pieces by more or less copying verbatim the language used in Administration pamphlets, letters, and press briefings.

This guy, however, is much more than just that. He is also the operative of at least two websites in which he prostitutes himself to men for money.

More importantly, though, than the fact that an uncredentialled fake male prostitute news reporter was a White House plant during press briefings is the fact that this schmuck was given top-secret information on Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA operative by someone within the Administration, an act President George Bush the first calls treason.

That is why this story matters.

Edit - I almost forgot to mention that Gannon is also a tax evader. Tsk, tsk.

loganmule · 02-14-2005, 09:06 PM

pan6467 pretty much nailed it. Both political parties try to influence the press and, through them, the inclinations of voters. Compounded upon that is the prejudice which every journalist brings to the table...hopefully, no one here is naive enough to believe that journalists aren't coloring, liberally or conservatively, the facts to the point of sometimes profoundly massaging them.

Still, as Mephisto points out, we can't have it any other way. The lesson is a simple one...be critical of journalists, as they are trying to persuade us to adopt their views of facts or issues. This is a case in point, and one which makes the Bushies look pretty stupid.

OT: loved your post, tecoyah; the nsfw link was a hoot

magnacarta · 02-15-2005, 09:30 AM

Why this story matters is the way this Administration is basically dishonest about the press and the public; it pays commentators, it admits phony journalists who they know will provide supportive questions to their agenda, they ban all but supporters to public speeches by the President, and they produce phony news reports.

I don't care that GannonGurket was a gay prostitute. I care that this is only the tip of the iceberg. Who else is the Administration funding?

And, by the way, why the heck is the executive spending so much on PR firms? In a January report, the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform found that federal agencies spent more than $250 million on contracts with PR agencies between 2001 and 2004 – nearly twice as much as the $128 million that Clinton spent between 1997 and 2001.

Why did not only the Bush administration but the Clinton administration spend money on PR firms? I don't want my $$$ going to push any administration's policies. We have whole departments that do that already!!!

There. I feel better.

Superbelt · 02-15-2005, 09:44 AM

...And don't forget this man, which all his lies and illegal actions was given access to secret government documents that identified a CIA operative.

It's very important to find out which individual(s) were so evil and treasonous to do something like that.

daswig · 02-15-2005, 04:23 PM

Wait...are the Democrats now claiming that Kerry did NOT have anything to do with Fonda in the '60s and '70's???

tecoyah · 02-15-2005, 04:47 PM

Way to direct a thread...........................Kerry as usual

One has to wonder if there is a subject in this world, which you cannot tie into Mr. Kerry

daswig · 02-15-2005, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tecoyah

Way to direct a thread...........................Kerry as usual

One has to wonder if there is a subject in this world, which you cannot tie into Mr. Kerry

Dude, read the thread. I wasn't the first to bring Kerry up.

Quote:

"Since there have been so many questions about what the president was doing over 30 years ago, what is it that he did after his honorable discharge from the National Guard? Did he make speeches alongside Jane Fonda, denouncing America's racist war in Vietnam? Did he testify before Congress that American troops committed war crimes in Vietnam? And did he throw somebody else's medals at the White House to protest a war America was still fighting?"

guy44 · 02-15-2005, 06:24 PM

Perhaps I'm just an idiot, but does the fact that John Kerry protested the Vietnam War mean that Gannon WASN'T a plagiarizing, uncredentialed male prostitute plant for a fake news organization who was granted access to the White House Press Corps for the express purpose of giving Bush and/or McClellan easy questions?

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see the connection. Perhaps someone could explain it to me.

roachboy · 02-19-2005, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Administration Is Warned About Its 'News' Videos
By ANNE E. KORNBLUT

Published: February 19, 2005

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 - The comptroller general has issued a blanket warning that reminds federal agencies they may not produce newscasts promoting administration policies without clearly stating that the government itself is the source.

Twice in the last two years, agencies of the federal government have been caught distributing prepackaged television programs that used paid spokesmen acting as newscasters and, in violation of federal law, failed to disclose the administration's role in developing and financing them.

And those were not isolated incidents, David M. Walker, the comptroller general, said in a letter dated Thursday that put all agency heads on notice about the practice.

In fact, it has become increasingly common for federal agencies to adopt the public relations tactic of producing "video news releases" that look indistinguishable from authentic newscasts and, as ready-made and cost-free reports, are sometimes picked up by local news programs. It is illegal for the government to produce or distribute such publicity material domestically without disclosing its own role.

Mr. Walker, who as comptroller general is chief of the Government Accountability Office, Congress's investigative arm, said in his letter: "While agencies generally have the right to disseminate information about their policies and activities, agencies may not use appropriated funds to produce or distribute prepackaged news stories intended to be viewed by television audiences that conceal or do not clearly identify for the television viewing audience that the agency was the source of those materials."

"It is not enough," he added, "that the contents of an agency's communication may be unobjectionable."

Mr. Walker's letter was made available late Friday afternoon by Democrats on Capitol Hill. Asked for a response Friday night, the White House had no immediate comment.

The two best-known cases of such video news releases - one concerning the new Medicare law, the other an antidrug campaign by the Bush administration - drew sharp rebukes from the G.A.O. after separate investigations last year found that the agencies involved had violated the law.

Those cases were followed by disclosures that the government had paid at least one conservative commentator, Armstrong Williams, to promote the administration's No Child Left Behind education measure and had put two other conservative writers on the federal payroll to help develop programs. These episodes have prompted calls from Democrats for stricter oversight of the administration's publicity practices, which have cost millions of dollars of federal revenue.

In the Medicare case, a video made in the style of a newscast featured a spokeswoman named Karen Ryan who claimed to be reporting from Washington on Medicare law changes strongly backed by the administration but opposed by many Democrats, who consider them a windfall for the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. In part of one script, she said that "all people with Medicare will be able to get coverage that will lower their prescription drug spending."

Often there is an intermediary in the process: a public relations firm hired by a government agency to produce a polished video and direct other aspects of a publicity drive.

One centrally involved firm is Ketchum, a giant in the public relations industry whose representatives arranged for both the Medicare video and the contract with Mr. Williams, a pact that is now under investigation by three government agencies. Ketchum has received $97 million in government public relations contracts since 2001.

The G.A.O. letter did not caution agencies to curtail their publicity practices, telling them simply to adhere to disclosure requirements.

"Prepackaged news stories," Mr. Walker wrote, "can be utilized without violating the law, so long as there is clear disclosure to the television viewing audience that this material was prepared by or in cooperation with the government department or agency."

But Democrats said they hoped the letter would lead to tougher scrutiny of what they describe as an aggressive publicity machine within the administration.

"The G.A.O. is sending a clear message to the Bush administration: shut down the propaganda mill," Senator Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey said in a statement on Friday. "The G.A.O. is simply telling the White House to stop manipulating media, stop paying journalists and be straight with the American people."

source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/19/po...rtner=homepage

interesting development in that the administration appears to systematically produce fake news and feed it to their lackies in television--in a way this is the logical extension of pooling the press in high reagan period style--a practice that the bushites have brought to a fine pitch. behind this lay an interesting conception of popular opinion for a group that expends so much discursive energy talking about "democracy": public opinion is a problem that requires management--producing things like fake news stories that can simply be broadcast as if administration propaganda was fact at any level is just one part of their management strategy.

i am not sure that it is possible not to see a contradiction in this. maybe bush supporters do not see one--in the gap that seperates the notion of democratic practice from the authoritarian manipulation of information.

the logic of bushworld appears increasingly to be that of a dictatorship within which everyone is required to talk about democracy.

roachboy · 02-19-2005, 09:11 PM

Quote:

The mole, the US media and a White House coup

The reporter who wasn't is part of a wider press scandal, writes Paul Harris in New York

Sunday February 20, 2005
The Observer

For two years Jeff Gannon cut an unobtrusive figure at White House press conferences. The shaven-headed, craggily handsome man worked for an obscure news agency called Talon News, known for its conservative sympathies. He was often the subject of jokes by colleagues on weightier news organisations.

No one is laughing now, because Gannon was far from being a harmless distraction. He was writing under a false name and working for a Republican front organisation. Suddenly, his 'softball' questions to White House officials looked less like eccentricities and more like plotting by an administration which has frequently displayed a dark mastery of the arts of press control.

When it emerged that Gannon was also linked to gay prostitution websites and might be a gay prostitute himself, the scandal as to how he was allowed daily access to the White House grew even murkier. The American media is now being forced to confront the possibility that Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert, was simply a Republican plant, used by officials, including President George W Bush, to ask easy questions in difficult press conferences. 'The idea of having a mole in the White House press corp is amazing, but that's what it looks like,' said Jack Lule, a journalism professor at Lehigh University.

But the Gannon affair, which has shocked much of America's political establishment, is just the latest scandal in the media establishment. Newspapers including the New York Times and USA Today have been hit by plagiarism and forgery scandals. Other papers and television stations have been consumed with a soul-searching inquest into how they were misled about non-existent Iraqi weapons programmes. Added to that is growing evidence of a White House campaign to bypass or control the media in its everyday presentation of government policy , which included paying one journalist hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote its policies.

Last week a federal watchdog warned the Bush administration that any video news releases must state that the government is the source. Twice in two years, government departments have been accused of distributing fake news packages, using actors as journalists.

On the internet, the mainstream media is derided and scorned. One question is dominating US newsrooms and television studios: ignored, scandalised and now corrupted, just what is America's mainstream media for anymore?

The extent of the Bush White House's command and control of the press corps is often revealed in the seemingly innocuous White House pool reports. These are dispatches dutifully filed by a correspondent assigned to travel with Bush and contain little but lists of endless meetings, meals eaten and clothes worn. But no detail is too small to be ignored by Bush's ever-watchful press handlers. One report, on 13 August 2004, contained a remark from Bush that it was a 'good question' as to who to support if Iraq's soccer team played the United States in the Olympics. Officials scurried to 'correct' it. 'To clear up any possible misconception ... the president would of course support the American soccer team in any hypothetical game with Iraq,' a new report said. 'The initial report should have done more to reflect the exchange was mainly in jest.'

Such micromanagement has been a hallmark of the Bush White House and its all-powerful policy guru, Karl Rove. Added to that has been what appears to be a concerted effort to subvert the mainstream media.

Administration officials were recently revealed to have paid three senior journalists to promote or design policies. More than $240,000 of taxpayers' cash was paid to black pundit Armstrong Williams to push the agenda of Bush's education department. Critics were blunt in their assessment of what Armstrong's contract with the government meant. 'It is propaganda,' said Melanie Sloan of watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics.

At the same time, Bush has held fewer Washington press conferences than any of his modern predecessors, while courting local media, such as small city newspapers, which are perceived as easier to steamroll. During last year's election campaign Bush avoided interviews with leading newspapers, such as the Washington Post , but frequently invited reporters from smaller swing state publications to speak with him on Air Force One. Vice-president Dick Cheney took the strategy one step further and banned New York Times reporters from travelling with him.

The media has not helped its own case. First, New York Times reporter Jayson Blair was found to have plagiarised numerous stories. The incident cost Blair his job, forced the editor to resign and was the subject of fevered Manhattan dinner party chatter for months. Then USA Today 's top foreign reporter, Jack Kelley, was discovered to have fabricated stories from around the world and invented interviews and witnesses from Cuba to Jerusalem.

Right-wing media ratcheted up the long-standing conservative complaint that the media is dominated by liberal publications. Though many journalism experts deny that is the case, the image has settled in the American consciousness, forcing newspapers, magazines and television stations to go out of their way to prove they are not liberal. 'We have a conservative media and also a mainstream media, which is also now fairly conservative because it has been forced to deny being liberal,' said Lule.

The Gannon case is a prime illustration. If, during the Clinton administration, a fake reporter from a Democrat front organisation, using a false name, had been exposed as attending White House press conferences it would have been a national scandal. If he had then been shown to be a gay prostitute, the scandal could have threatened a Democrat presidency. With 'Gannon' and Bush there has been no such outcry. The mainstream media has approached the story warily, while right-wing organisations such as Fox News have largely ignored it.

That has created a vacuum in the US media. It is a space being filled by 'bloggers' from both left and right who write personal journals, or weblogs, on the internet. It is here that the real media battles are now being fought. The internet has become a sort of Fifth Estate as the Fourth Estate of the mainstream media has slid toward irrelevance. The groundwork was done mainly by the right. Internet gossip hound Matt Drudge, whose Drudge Report is a key source for every American political journalist, struck the first blow with his breaking of the Monica Lewinsky affair.

Since then a plethora of right wing blogs have sprung up. Unlike Britain, where political blogs are barely part of the debate, internet sites in America are seen as a vital political tool. Conservative bloggers have taken two big scalps recently. Last year bloggers questioned the veracity of a CBS news report on Bush's National Guard service. They dumped enough doubt on the story to cause four CBS reporters to lose their jobs, tarnish the reputation of legendary anchor Dan Rather and insure that the substance of the CBS story - whether Bush fulfilled his service - never emerged as an election issue.

Last week, CNN's chief news executive, Eason Jordan, resigned after an internet campaign prompted by his claim that American soldiers targeted journalists in Iraq. Though Jordan said that his remarks had been misinterpreted, the bloggers' revenge was so vehement he ended his 23-year CNN career. One anti-Jordan website, Easongate.com, crowed openly when he quit: 'To every reader, commentator, e-mailer and blogger that committed to this cause, thank you.'

The left has also had victories. It was not the mainstream media that exposed Gannon, but left-wing website Media Matters for America which enlisted other liberal bloggers to help. All the significant breaks in the story emerged online, forcing Gannon to resign, reveal his real name and go into hiding.

Some commentators see the emergence of blogging as a media force as a liberating phenomenon. Unlike the mainstream media, blogging is cheap, easy and open to anyone regardless of qualification or background or money. 'Blogging gives a voice to those who were previously silent,' said Ananda Mitra, a communications professor at Wake Forest University.

Others see it as part of the trend towards partisan journalism. Spearheaded by the nakedly right-wing Fox News, journalism in America has come to resemble a political shouting match rather than any form of debate of the issues. But with soaring viewership, Fox has emerged as one of the most powerful forces in the media landscape. Other networks, such as CNN and MSNBC, have sought to copy Fox's personality-led and opinion-based news.

The media is in the midst of a transformation which the Bush administration is keen to foster. They have discovered that a partisan and atomised media can be controlled, manipulated and used to an unprecedented degree.

It is a lesson that liberals are also learning. In answer to the talk radio of Rush Limbaugh - one of America's most popular and conservative commentators - liberal groups have set up Air America. Defying the critics, it has established itself as a left-wing radio network every bit as ruthless in skewering its opponents' points of view as its right-wing equivalents. In answer to right-wing television, former presidential candidate Al Gore is rumoured to be seeking backers to finance a liberal television network. Now both sides are equally ready and willing to use any means necessary to tear the other apart. The old-fashioned mainstream media is disappearing. 'Once that pattern is put in place, it is going to be hard to break,' said Lule.

How the media shot themselves in the foot

A series of scandals have not helped the American media's reputation and its struggle for independence.

New York Times

Reporter Jayson Blair was fired and the newspaper's editor forced to resign after Blair was found to have plagiarised numerous stories.

USA Today

Foreign reporter Jack Kelly was discovered to have invented stories, interviews and witnesses from around the world.

CBS

Four reporters lost their jobs and the reputation of legendary anchor Dan Rather was tarnished after doubts were cast on a news report of Bush's National Guard Service.

CNN

Chief news executive Eason Jordan resigned his 23-year career after he claimed that American soldiers had deliberately targeted journalists in Iraq.

source:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus...418539,00.html

this is a more wide-ranging piece from the guardian on the information discussed above.

tecoyah · 02-20-2005, 06:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daswig

Dude, read the thread. I wasn't the first to bring Kerry up.

Dude.....If you actually attempted to make some level of logical statement, that in some way tied into the discussion at hand, Rather than pushing another sorry attempt at subject change.....I would have refrained from comment.

As it is....that was my NICE way of telling you to increase the content in your reply's.

nofnway · 02-26-2005, 08:56 PM

In a room of committed anti-bush ideologues, why not plant a friendly.

It is politics is it not. Did not the administration answer the questions everyone asked....

You will never convince me that the media didn't carry Bill Clintons water. I'd take jeff gannon over that damned Helen Thomas any day.

boatin · 02-26-2005, 09:26 PM

There would be so much credibility in someone saying: "this shit has got to stop, enough is enough, it's serious and it matters and it's sick and wrong."

The trick is it has to come from both sides of the aisle, no matter who is doing the shit.

Saying: "the other side did it too, there is no problem" just perpetuates the inanity. Not to mention the insanity.

But everyone is just too partisen. More fun that way, i guess...

edit: just for clarity, i don't exempt myself from that observation. but i sure as hell try more every day to live to values, not position.

chickentribs · 02-26-2005, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nofnway

In a room of committed anti-bush ideologues, why not plant a friendly.

It is politics is it not. Did not the administration answer the questions everyone asked....

You will never convince me that the media didn't carry Bill Clintons water. I'd take jeff gannon over that damned Helen Thomas any day.

Unbelievable - Helen Thomas has reported on nine presidential administrations, written 3 books, accompanied Nixon on his historic China Summit and was the first woman allowed to join the White House Press Corps.

Jeff Gannon - No journalism education, No publishing credentials, lied about his background and even his NAME on FBI security clearance applications.

I guess we all have our own priorities, huh? Very telling.

02-03-2005, 08:29 PM	#3 (permalink)
Lebell Cracking the Whip Location: Sexymama's arms...	Wow, pretty damning stuff you dug up there. __________________ "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." – C. S. Lewis The ONLY sponsors we have are YOU! Please Donate!

02-03-2005, 08:48 PM	#5 (permalink)
Xenomorph Crazy Location: St. Louis, MO	...is the media usually very slow to pick up on right-wing conspiracies? __________________ The facehugger is short-lived outside the egg which normally protects it. Armed with a long grasping tail, a spray of highly-concentrated acid and the single-minded desire to impregnate a single selected prey using its extending probe, it will fearlessly pursue and attack a single selected target until it has succeeded in attachment or it or its target is dead

02-03-2005, 10:17 PM	#8 (permalink)
pan6467 Lennonite Priest Location: Mansfield, Ohio USA	I think this is viable news. I mean if the GOP want to point out every single mistake the press they don't like makes and tries to make it a big issue, it is only fair to expose the GOP's "friendlies". There can also be a lot said if any of these "friendlies" persuaded voters. Much the same as CBS's story. (Of course the latter was exposed BEFORE the election and the first exposed AFTER.) Either way, it shows an abuse of the press on both sides. The sad thing is this "war" shows how dirty ALL MEDIA is. __________________ I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

02-04-2005, 07:20 AM	#15 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	bush is the discourse of democracy what stalin was to the discourse of socialism. the qualification added a bit later: it seems that in their paranoia about dissent--which extends to a hostility toward pluralism, the administration makes a mockery of the principles that it espouses. its handling of the press--which is in the great tradition of the reagan administration (who in turn got their inspiration from thatchers degrading control over the british press during the falklands war)--is a good microcosm for this. the parallel bush/stalin has to do only with their corrosive effect on the ideological language that they use to legitimate themselves and their actions--a language that is opposed at almost every meanignful level to what they are in fact doing on the ground. i make the parallel as a function of the work i have done in my real life on the gradual implosion of marxism through the post world war 2 period: the long grinding away of referentiality ion the language of marxism came to a head with the hungarian revolution--in france, this lines up with a collapse of a whole tradition of worker mobilization at the factory-floor level.... you have a parallel process going on with the discourse of democracy now. which is in many ways the worst possible outcome for the abiilty of folk in oppressive situations to imagine something other than what exists. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 02-04-2005 at 07:33 AM..

02-04-2005, 11:10 AM	#16 (permalink)
dksuddeth Junkie Location: bedford, tx	watching some of the diehard republican supporters really offends my independent sensibilities. sooner or later all of the 'so whats', redirections, and 'baseless liberal' remarks are going to backfire on you. Will you then raise the MSM flag when you're outed as 'out of touch with reality?' __________________ "no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything. You cannot conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him."

02-03-2005, 08:26 PM	#2 (permalink)
stevo Rail Baron Location: Tallyfla	Wow, you've been busy today slammin' the right. Did someone with a W'04 bumper sticker cut you off this morning?

02-03-2005, 08:45 PM	#4 (permalink)
maximusveritas Winner	this is only the beginning hopefully, if the media can be bothered to follow through for once.

02-04-2005, 04:42 AM	#11 (permalink)
Superbelt This vexes me. I am terribly vexed. Location: Grantville, Pa	This actually could be the part of something damning Lebell. This Jeff Gannon guy is being looked into as being an integral part of the revelation of Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA Agent. Again, an act of Treason

02-04-2005, 06:47 AM	#13 (permalink)
stevo Rail Baron Location: Tallyfla	cry cry cry. So what. They let someone in that is going to ask something other than, "So when is the president going to admit he was wrong?" I watch these press confrences and you've got this one guy and a dozen bush-haters. Whats the big deal? This is really a boring thread, next time find something dirtier about "bushco" so at least I can laugh instead of feeling sorry for such a feeble attempt.

02-04-2005, 07:12 AM	#14 (permalink)
Superbelt This vexes me. I am terribly vexed. Location: Grantville, Pa	Like I said, this guy is part of the investigation over Valerie Plame. He received top secret CIA memos from someone in the WH that identified Valerie as Joe Wilson's wife and as a CIA agent. And he revealed this in an interview with Wilson. And published it. That's so what.

02-04-2005, 11:36 AM	#17 (permalink)
stevo Rail Baron Location: Tallyfla	you talkin to me? I dunno probably not.

02-04-2005, 02:03 PM	#18 (permalink)
dksuddeth Junkie Location: bedford, tx	I didn't have any one person in particular that I was thinking specifically of when I wrote the post. __________________ "no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything. You cannot conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him."

02-04-2005, 09:26 PM	#21 (permalink)
matthew330 Banned	Chicks should not be CIA agents. Hopefully we've all learned our lesson. "Take notice." Agreed.

02-10-2005, 03:11 PM	#22 (permalink)
tecoyah Illusionary	Looks like it got a little too hot for the Pawn: Inside Politics White House reporter's credentials questioned Man worked for Web site owned by Republican activist Thursday, February 10, 2005 Posted: 9:04 AM EST (1404 GMT) James Guckert reported from the White House under the name "Jeff Gannon." WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A New York congresswoman asked the White House to explain Wednesday why a man who worked for a news Web site owned by a GOP activist was able to obtain White House press credentials under an assumed name. James Guckert, who reported from the White House for the Talon News Service under the name "Jeff Gannon," announced he was quitting the business "in consideration of the welfare of me and my family." "Because of the attention being paid to me, I find it is no longer possible to effectively be a reporter for Talon News," he said in a statement posted Wednesday on his Web site. In a letter to President Bush, Rep. Louise Slaughter, a Democrat, questioned why Guckert routinely received credentials for White House news briefings. Slaughter linked Guckert's case to recent revelations that two conservative columnists who supported Bush administration policies had received government money. "It appears that 'Mr. Gannon's' presence in the White House press corps was merely as a tool of propaganda for your administration," Slaughter wrote. The White House had no comment. The House and Senate press galleries declined Guckert's request for credentials in 2003. Julie Davis, chairwoman of the Senate press gallery's executive committee, said Guckert could not demonstrate any separation between Talon News and GOPUSA, a Republican consulting group. Both organizations are run by Bobby Eberle, a Texas GOP activist. Many Talon News articles also appeared as news releases on the GOPUSA Web site, said Davis, a reporter for The Sun newspaper of Baltimore, Maryland. In a statement on the Talon Web site, Eberle referred to "Gannon's" resignation and said, "I understand and support Jeff's decision." Slaughter said she was writing at the request of senior editors of the Niagara Falls Reporter in her Buffalo-area district. The newspaper ran an open letter questioning "how a partisan political organization and an individual with no credentials as a reporter -- and apparently operating under an assumed name -- landed a coveted spot in the White House press corps." During White House press secretary Scott McClellan's regular briefings, Guckert routinely offered administration-friendly questions. He became the focus of liberal and media Web sites after Bush called on him during his news conference January 26. Guckert asked Bush how he could deal with Democratic congressional leaders "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality." Guckert told The Washington Post in an article published Tuesday that his political leanings were "admittedly" conservative "and that point of view is not represented in the briefing room at all." "Call me partisan, fine, but don't let my colleagues off the hook," he said. "They're partisan too, but they don't admit it." Slaughter said ideology had nothing to do with the dispute. "It doesn't matter whether he's a conservative reporter. The question is, is he a reporter?" she said. She told CNN that she believed the White House gave Guckert credentials to get a friendly questioner into the room during White House briefings. "I don't want to be fed propaganda from this White House," she said. "I don't want people to be paid to give it to me. We deserve the facts, or this democracy will suffer." Last month, conservative commentator Armstrong Williams apologized for not disclosing that his company had received $240,000 from a public relations agency hired by the Department of Education to promote Bush's No Child Left Behind education overhaul. Syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher also apologized to her readers for not disclosing a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help create materials used to promote Bush's $300 million initiative encouraging marriage to strengthen families. At the January 26 news conference, Bush said he disapproved of such practices and wanted them to stop. "There needs to be independence," he said. "All our Cabinet secretaries must realize that we will not be paying ... commentators to advance our agenda. Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet," Bush said. (Full story) HHS later disclosed that a third conservative columnist, Mike McManus, had received $10,000 to promote Bush's marriage initiative, according to an Associated Press report. His weekly column appears in about 50 newspapers. Several congressional Democrats have introduced a bill to stop what they termed taxpayer-funded "covert propaganda campaigns" that violate a provision included in annual appropriation acts since 1951. Under the new bill, dubbed the Federal Propaganda Prohibition Act of 2005, the prohibition on propaganda would become a permanent part of federal law. Federal agencies would also have to notify Congress about public relations, advertising and polling contracts, and the funding sources of all federally funded public relations materials would have to be disclosed. http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/...ouse.reporter/ __________________ Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

02-10-2005, 03:30 PM	#23 (permalink)
uncle_el Crazy Location: n hollywood, ca	very interesting. sad, but very interesting. and sadly, probably nothing will come of this. hopefully people will wake up and pull the wool from over their eyes. __________________ An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of inprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law. - Martin Luther King, Jr. The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses. - Malcolm X

02-14-2005, 03:12 PM	#26 (permalink)
tecoyah Illusionary	And finally.....the crowning achievement of our journalistic hero. Seriously....you gotta go to this link...it is hilarious all by itself.....regardless of context Link NSFW http://web.archive.org/web/200107010....com/x/usmcpt/ Monday, February 14, 2005 A man called Jeff by John in DC - 2/14/2005 11:26:00 PM WARNING: A number of the links in this story are to x-rated photographs, and some of those might prove shocking to some people. Please exercise your own discretion when clicking. (And, as you read, please forgive the necessary typos - I'm going for rock-solid facts, rather than spelling.) WOLF BLITZER: Because one of the things, as you know, that were said is that you had some sexually explicit Web sites that you were working on. I don't understand what that is, but maybe you could explain that. JEFF GANNON: Well, several years ago, before I came to Washington, I had registered various domain names for a private client. I was doing Web site development. Those sites were never hosted. There's -- nothing ever went up on them. And the client went on to do something else. - CNN, 2/10/05 Site 1 The Web sites reflects the era in which it was built. A simple black background, white text, lots of kitschy images and bad puns. The theme is decidedly military. The logo at the top is borrowed from the US Marine Corps, an eagle standing atop an anchor. The letters USMCPT run across the logo, written in the colors of the flag. Below the strange acronym are four words: “Personal Trainer, Bodyguard, Escort.” Above it stands a muscular and headless man in black military boots, white socks, buck naked. In 1999, Paul Leddy, a Web designer and photographer, says he received an email from a man named Jeff from Wilmington, Delaware. Jeff wanted Paul to build him a new Web site for his business. Paul accepted the job, provided Jeff mailed him a check with half the money up front (Jeff had not provided a last name, and Paul wanted to make sure he was for real). Jeff sent the check, it cleared, and Paul built the site and launched it online for Jeff. Paul didn’t think about Jeff much until last week when he heard about a breaking scandal involving a man named Jeff who owned several military escort service Web addresses. “I saw the name Jeff Gannon, knew our Jeff, saw the militarystud.com Web address, and thought ‘hmmm, everything was military, that sounds like Jeff who we did the site for.’” Paul searched the Internet WhoIs director for militarystud.com and saw that the owner was Bedrock Corp of Wilmington, Delaware. “That’s definitely him,” Paul said. (Paul and a second source both recall Jeff paying with a check in the name of Bedrock Corp. The name stuck in their heads at the time because they asked Jeff why “Bedrock”? He replied something about the Flintstones, they recall.) Paul then went and checked his files. He found five invoices to Jeff from August 31, 1999 to March 30, 2000. (The file properties say they were created on those dates by Paul Leddy.)nsfw __________________ Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha Last edited by tecoyah; 02-14-2005 at 03:17 PM..

02-14-2005, 06:43 PM	#27 (permalink)
guy44 Somnabulist Location: corner of No and Where	Yeah. This is why the story matters: The White House gave a press pass to someone from a bogus right-wing "news" source (which actually came into existence only days before Gannon got his press pass) so that he could throw up softball questions to Bush or his press secretary when the real reporters were getting to tough. This guy was not only using a fake name, and had no press credentials, but also "wrote" his pieces by more or less copying verbatim the language used in Administration pamphlets, letters, and press briefings. This guy, however, is much more than just that. He is also the operative of at least two websites in which he prostitutes himself to men for money. More importantly, though, than the fact that an uncredentialled fake male prostitute news reporter was a White House plant during press briefings is the fact that this schmuck was given top-secret information on Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA operative by someone within the Administration, an act President George Bush the first calls treason. That is why this story matters. Edit - I almost forgot to mention that Gannon is also a tax evader. Tsk, tsk. __________________ "You have reached Ritual Sacrifice. For goats press one, or say 'goats.'" Last edited by guy44; 02-14-2005 at 07:32 PM..

02-14-2005, 09:06 PM	#28 (permalink)
loganmule Junkie Location: midwest	pan6467 pretty much nailed it. Both political parties try to influence the press and, through them, the inclinations of voters. Compounded upon that is the prejudice which every journalist brings to the table...hopefully, no one here is naive enough to believe that journalists aren't coloring, liberally or conservatively, the facts to the point of sometimes profoundly massaging them. Still, as Mephisto points out, we can't have it any other way. The lesson is a simple one...be critical of journalists, as they are trying to persuade us to adopt their views of facts or issues. This is a case in point, and one which makes the Bushies look pretty stupid. OT: loved your post, tecoyah; the nsfw link was a hoot

02-15-2005, 09:30 AM	#29 (permalink)
magnacarta Upright	Why this story matters is the way this Administration is basically dishonest about the press and the public; it pays commentators, it admits phony journalists who they know will provide supportive questions to their agenda, they ban all but supporters to public speeches by the President, and they produce phony news reports. I don't care that GannonGurket was a gay prostitute. I care that this is only the tip of the iceberg. Who else is the Administration funding? And, by the way, why the heck is the executive spending so much on PR firms? In a January report, the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform found that federal agencies spent more than $250 million on contracts with PR agencies between 2001 and 2004 – nearly twice as much as the $128 million that Clinton spent between 1997 and 2001. Why did not only the Bush administration but the Clinton administration spend money on PR firms? I don't want my $$$ going to push any administration's policies. We have whole departments that do that already!!! There. I feel better. __________________ "America is not always right—that's a fairy tale you tell your children. But America is always true. And it's in seeking this truth that we find a deeper patriotism. Remember, the country we carry in our hearts is waiting." - Bruce Springsteen

02-15-2005, 09:44 AM	#30 (permalink)
Superbelt This vexes me. I am terribly vexed. Location: Grantville, Pa	...And don't forget this man, which all his lies and illegal actions was given access to secret government documents that identified a CIA operative. It's very important to find out which individual(s) were so evil and treasonous to do something like that.

02-15-2005, 04:23 PM	#31 (permalink)
daswig Banned Location: BFE	Wait...are the Democrats now claiming that Kerry did NOT have anything to do with Fonda in the '60s and '70's???

02-15-2005, 04:47 PM	#32 (permalink)
tecoyah Illusionary	Way to direct a thread...........................Kerry as usual One has to wonder if there is a subject in this world, which you cannot tie into Mr. Kerry __________________ Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

02-15-2005, 06:24 PM	#34 (permalink)
guy44 Somnabulist Location: corner of No and Where	Perhaps I'm just an idiot, but does the fact that John Kerry protested the Vietnam War mean that Gannon WASN'T a plagiarizing, uncredentialed male prostitute plant for a fake news organization who was granted access to the White House Press Corps for the express purpose of giving Bush and/or McClellan easy questions? Maybe it's just me, but I don't see the connection. Perhaps someone could explain it to me. __________________ "You have reached Ritual Sacrifice. For goats press one, or say 'goats.'"

02-26-2005, 08:56 PM	#38 (permalink)
nofnway Insane Location: under the freeway bridge	In a room of committed anti-bush ideologues, why not plant a friendly. It is politics is it not. Did not the administration answer the questions everyone asked.... You will never convince me that the media didn't carry Bill Clintons water. I'd take jeff gannon over that damned Helen Thomas any day. __________________ "Iron rusts with disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold water freezes. Even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind" Leonardo Da Vinci

02-26-2005, 09:26 PM	#39 (permalink)
boatin Psycho	There would be so much credibility in someone saying: "this shit has got to stop, enough is enough, it's serious and it matters and it's sick and wrong." The trick is it has to come from both sides of the aisle, no matter who is doing the shit. Saying: "the other side did it too, there is no problem" just perpetuates the inanity. Not to mention the insanity. But everyone is just too partisen. More fun that way, i guess... edit: just for clarity, i don't exempt myself from that observation. but i sure as hell try more every day to live to values, not position. Last edited by boatin; 02-26-2005 at 09:31 PM..