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Post by RPankn on Feb 14, 2005 19:05:36 GMT -5
[ I did not include the links or post the pictures that accompany the expose on AmericaBlog re: Gannon so as not to offend anyone's sensibilities, and because some of the photos would violate this site's TOS. But if anyone wants to go look for themselves, here's the link to the story: americablog.blogspot.com/2005/02/man-called-jeff.html.
Personally, I think this story screams CIA 'honeypot' and we're witnessing the beginning of the end of this Bush administration.] 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.) The invoices are from BELDesigns for “Website Design”and “hosting.” The billing address? Bedrock Corp 5721 Kennett Pike Centreville, DE 19807 (Paul Leddy’s address, phone number and email were removed from this invoice by me before publishing, at Paul’s request. I am happy to show the full invoice to journalists.) According to the date the html files were created for the USMCPT Web site – files Paul still has - Paul built the site for Jeff in September 1999. Paul says he launched it within a matter of weeks. The site was eventually migrated to its own URL, USMCPT.com. While the site is no longer live on the Internet, archived copies of it show that it was live at the USMCPT.com address at least from October 31, 2001 until May 8, 2003. When asked what USMCPT meant, Paul said he asked Jeff that very question. The answer: United States Marine Corps, Part Time. Paul recalls Jeff telling him he was still in the Marines, but only part time. Paul also recalls Jeff being around 40 years old, even though the Web site said he was 32. The military theme continues at USMCPT.com. The “Ammunition” section contains the description of the escort. It reads: White, 200 pounds, hair “high and tight,” chest “46’ Usually Shaved or Clipped,” and under “Weapon” it says "8 inches cut." The escort mentions that he takes clients in the Washington, DC, Virginia and Maryland area, and that he prefers to “travel to your location or travel with you.”<br> The USMCPT home page never specifically mentions sex, though it’s clear this is not your run-of-the-mill personal trainer or bodyguard. Under a section entitled “Mission,” it says: Ex-USMC Jock: Available for hourly, overnight, weekend or longer travel - OUT ONLY! Personal Trainer: Safe-Sane-Strenuous-Satisfying workouts, Sports training, and competition, especially wrestling.... Big SPORTS Fan: Will go to the game with you, then take you home and.... "AGGRESIVE, VERBAL, DOMINANT TOP" I DON'T LEAVE MARKS....ONLY IMPRESSIONS Further on down the page, on at least the early versions of the Web site (several versions over the span of a year and a half are cached online), you can see the logo for BELDesigns, Paul's Web design business. There's also a button that says “SEE MORE OF ME.” This brings you to a page comprising 43 or so thumbnail-sized pictures of Jeff, in various states of undress. In one photo he’s lounging spread eagle on some pillows, fully erect. In another he’s bent over, naked, apparently checking something on his nightstand (while revealing a great set of lats), and in a third set of photos he is urinating. If you click on the thumbnail photos, you can see larger-sized versions (though not for all the photos, the archive is incomplete). If you look at the html source on this page, you will see that numerous of the photos are named “Jeff.” In several of the photos you will see Jeff wearing a distinctive silver watch with a solid black band. He likes to wear it on his left hand, slightly above the wrist joint. [Continued in next post]
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Post by RPankn on Feb 14, 2005 19:06:31 GMT -5
The site also contains a third page, called “Bulldog.htm.” (The bulldog is recurring theme on the site.) On this page we learn that Jeff is available as a travel companion, a workout partner/trainer, an event companion (“Want to see the Orioles, Caps, Wizards, or ‘Skins?”), tour guide, and bodyguard. Jeff then provides his email address, USMCPT@aol.com The USMCPT site has a link on its home page that, depending on which version in time of the home page you’re examining, says either “See more of me and my buddies at: Male Corps” or “Featured on Studfiles.”<br> Site 2 The Male Corps link takes you to another of Jeff’s escort pages, housed on a different escort service Web site called MaleCorps.com. The page contains the same spread-eagle picture that was on Jeff’s personal site, notes that his branch of service is “United States Marine Corps,” provides more personal information, and the email address for contact is USMCPT@malecorps.com. There’s also a link to see 30 more “x-pics” of Jeff, including “full bod, dick shots, jocks.” The link appears to be no longer accessible. Site 3 The StudFiles link on Jeff’s USMCPT site takes you to an escort Web site that is still live today. It’s for an escort named “Bulldog.” On the page there’s a picture of Bulldog’s torso, shirtless, wearing dog tags. He’s 32 years old, lives in Washington, DC, is “5’9”, 200 pounds, brown high and tight haircut, green eyes, 8+cut!” Under “position” it says “Top!” For an email – or “emale," as it says – contact it gives usmcpt@aol.com. There is also a link to visit “the Adult Photos” in Gallery 16. In order to access those photos, you need to buy an electronic Web ID that proves you are over the age of consent... Site 4 Once you buy the ID, for $20 a year (it’s a write-off), you enter the WorkingBoys.net Web site. You click on Gallery 16 and arrive on Bulldog’s adult page. It’s not unlike the PG-rated page except that Bulldog is now wearing a pair of dog tags, sitting spread eagle, and hard as a rock. The profile also has as link “Visit Bulldog on the Net!” – it links back to www.USMCPT.comThe WorkingBoys.net escort profile is still live today. Interestingly, the name of the html file for the page is “DC007.”<br> You can see a screen capture of that x-rated profile here and here. Site 5 A bit more Internet sleuthing turned up even more escort profiles for apparently the same escort on various other sites. Meetlocalmen.com contains a profile with the same spread-eagle picture as was on the other sites. This site includes the escort’s name as Jeff/Bulldog. His location, DC. His Internet address is yet another Web site that is no longer active. His rates, $1200/weekend. (While the profile is still live at MeetLocalMen.com, it takes a bit of hunting to find it. You need to click on "Meet Local Escorts," then click on DC, then skip through 16 pages or so until you find Jeff in DC, then click on that picture.) Sites 6 and 7 - A search for USMCPT on Google turns up two more escort sites for Bulldog, one in DC and one in Philly (both are still online, but in inactive status). One mentions the weekend rate of $1200/weekend, the other an hourly rate, $200. The sites also include feedback from satisfied customers. The most recent review is from 11/12/2002, from a man named Spaceman. An earlier review, dated 7/11/2000, is from a man who says he’s an active duty senior officer in the US Army. He notes that Jeff has a Marine background. There’s much more. Paul has additional photos that Jeff provided him. Some of the photos are exact copies of those on the USMCPT.com Web site, and then some. The buck naked photo on the logo, for example. Paul provided me with the entire complete photo. The head of the man in question looks remarkably like Jeff Gannon. Regarding the photo of "Jeff" urinating (it's actually a series of photos). Paul provided the entire photo of a man who looks remarkably like Jeff Gannon, even wearing the signature Gannon watch. Paul provided several more photos that he says Jeff gave him. Each photo looks remarkably like Jeff Gannon: Compare the above photos from the Web developers with photos, below, that we KNOW are of Gannon: Even more photos show Jeff wearing the same silver watch with a black band that Jeff Gannon is known to sport. Some show that Jeff and Jeff Gannon have the same short and pointed eyebrows, same ears, same face structure, chest structure and nipples. Same wrinkles/creases in their stomachs when they bend forward. The resemblance is astonishing. Jeff Gannon was contacted and asked to comment on the specific allegations that he is the owner of USMCPT.com and several other profiles that offer his services as an escort. He did not respond to this request. Why does this matter? So in the end, why does this matter? Why does it matter that Jeff Gannon may have been a gay hooker named James Guckert with a $20,000 defaulted court judgment against him? So he somehow got a job lobbing softball questions to the White House. Big deal. If he was already a prostitute, why not be one in the White House briefing room as well? This is the Conservative Republican Bush White House we're talking about. It's looking increasingly like they made a decision to allow a hooker to ask the President of the United States questions. They made a decision to give a man with an alias and no journalistic experience access to the West Wing of the White House on a "daily basis." They reportedly made a decision to give him - one of only six - access to documents, or information in those documents, that exposed a clandestine CIA operative. Say what you will about Monika Lewinsky - a tasteless episode, "inappropriate," whatever. Monika wasn't a gay prostitute running around the West Wing. What kind of leadership would let prostitutes roam the halls of the West Wing? What kind of war-time leadership can't find the same information that took bloggers only days to find? None of this is by accident. Someone had to make a decision to let all this happen. Who? Someone committed a crime in exposing Valerie Plame and now it appears a gay hooker may be right in the middle of all of it? Who? Ultimately, it is the hypocrisy that is such a challenge to grasp in this story. This is the same White House that ran for office on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. While they are surrounded by gay hookers? While they use a gay hooker to write articles for their gay hating political base? While they use a gay hooker to destroy a political enemy? Not to mention the hypocrisy of a "reporter" who chooses to publish article after article defending the ant-gay religious-right point of view on gay civil rights issue. Who in the White House is at the center of all of this? Who allowed this to go on in the People's House? Who committed the crime of exposing Valerie Plame? Jeff Gannon has the answers to these questions, and boy we know he loves to talk. Let him talk to Patrick Fitzgerald. [Please use this URL to link to this story, sorry, it kept changing with blogger: americablog.blogspot.com/2005/02/man-called-jeff.html ]
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Post by RPankn on Feb 14, 2005 19:26:46 GMT -5
This is a screenshot of a member profile from my AOL account. It looks like "Gannon's" AOL account is still active.
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Post by Moses on Feb 15, 2005 14:06:10 GMT -5
Note the similarity between the way "Gannon's" "publication" "Mens' News Daily" frames the issue, and the way Kurtz and Blitzer framed it. : The Destruction of Jeff GannonFebruary 15, 2005
by Cliff Kincaid
Conservative bloggers made a name for themselves by starting the process that led to the “Rathergate” scandal. They questioned the authenticity of some alleged National Guard documents that CBS used in a campaign to smear the President’s military service. This was a real scandal, in which CBS backed away from the documents, an investigation was launched, and four people were fired from the network for their work on the story. Left-wing bloggers have now made a name for themselves, and it is not pretty. They have taken the scalp of an on-line conservative journalist by the name of Jeff Gannon, who was virtually unknown until about three weeks ago. His crimes were that he was too pro-Republican, attended White House briefings, and asked questions unfair to Democrats. This became, for a group called Media Matters, the “White House press room scandal.” Never mind that “journalist” Helen Thomas has been giving anti-Bush political diatribes disguised as questions at these briefings for years. [Note their very fuzzy thinking, here, and Blitzer and Kurtz also according "Gannon" legitimate journalistic credentials] A massive left-wing investigation of Gannon’s personal and business affairs was launched and was said to reveal that he was associated with some homosexual-sounding website addresses. Ironically, the Media Matters group is run by former conservative and once-closeted homosexual David Brock. The Gannon “scandal” would be laughable, were it not for the fact that Gannon’s personal privacy has been invaded and his mother, in her 70s, had to endure harassing telephone calls from those on the political left trying to dig up dirt. The campaign against Gannon demonstrates the paranoid mentality and mean-spirited nature of the political left. But the mainstream media did their dirty work, too. Liberal journalists at The Boston Globe, using material from Brock, weighed in with their own account of this controversial journalist and his employer, Talon News, owned by a Texas Republican activist named Bobby Eberle. Despite all the innuendo and controversy, the fact remains that Gannon had done some excellent political stories on a wide range of subjects, including the CIA and former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle. Gannon could have survived the charge of having a conservative bias but when his personal life and family became targets, he decided to call it quits. It all started when Gannon’s writings were “exposed” for having too many statements taken directly out of White House press releases. Gannon apparently believed that covering the White House meant that he should actually report, in long and complete sentences, what the White House actually said on various public policy issues. He was also accused of tossing softball questions to White House spokesman Scott McClellan and the President himself. You could see the imaginations working overtime on the left. They suspected that Gannon was another Armstrong Williams- someone secretly getting federal money to promote the Bush line. Gannon had to be either a paid agent of the Bush administration or a phony journalist or both. In any case, in their view, he had to be exposed and discredited. Was Gannon a Bush plant? Was he secretly on the White House payroll? The conspiracy theories were fed by the fact that Jeff Gannon wasn’t his real name; he used a professional name because he didn’t like the sound of his real name-James Guckert. “ The left’s whole focus is wrong in this case,” Eberle told AIM[?]. “This is a private company owned by me, with no ties to the Republican Party. We’re on no one’s payroll, except what I choose to pay people.” Eberle has been running Talon News and GOPUSA for over four years. They send out news and commentary and “the conservative message” to about half-a-million subscribers a day. Despite the Republican-sounding name, GOPUSA, no accusations of direct links to the GOP establishment or President Bush have turned out to be true. Brock and his allies eventually got Gannon’s scalp because of the sex charges. These had nothing to do with his work for Talon News and reporting from the White House, and Eberle never conducted an investigation of Gannon’s financial or personal business before hiring him. But the charges were embarrassing and apparently concerned some private issues that Gannon didn’t want to discuss publicly. And despite what has been implied, he rarely wrote about anything related to the homosexual issue. Eberle, a major practitioner of the “new media,” apparently didn’t realize that he was threatening the dwindling power of the old media. Gannon didn’t realize that the purpose of the White House press corps is to make Republicans look bad. And when the left-wing media see their power slipping away, they go for blood and nothing is out of bounds. The political left doesn’t respect personal privacy when the potential victims are conservatives. Faced with criticism that the campaign may have had gone “too far” in personally attacking Gannon, as noted by Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz, some of the left-wing bloggers are saying that they were just concerned about security at the White House. How could the White House allow access to news briefings to someone using a pseudonym? Assuming this concern is genuine? and that’s a big “if”? Eberle says that Gannon used his real name and Social Security number when applying for White House press passes. “There was never a deception,” he said. So the case against Gannon boils down to being too pro-Republican, writing stories with a conservative slant, and being linked to conduct, homosexuality, that is accepted and celebrated by those who were going after Gannon in the first place. The standard of the liberal thought police is evidently that someone’s private life should be protected-except when the accused is a conservative. The old media and their new found friends in the left-wing blogging community will stop at nothing to maintain their political power. © 2005 Cliff Kincaid - All Rights Reserved
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Post by RPankn on Feb 16, 2005 6:20:36 GMT -5
Kurtz defends nude photos of rightwing boytoy GuckertSez: You liberals are so mean![/b][/size] Online Nude Photos Are Latest Chapter In Jeff Gannon SagaBy Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, February 16, 2005; Page C01 The Jeff Gannon story is still bouncing around the Internet, and now there are pictures. The kind you shouldn't open up in the office. The X-rated twist has made for a lot of clandestine clicking in a town where Deep Throat conjures images not of a porn star but of a man in a parking garage. But it has also deepened the debate over blogging and the tactics used to drive a conservative reporter from his job as White House correspondent for two Web sites owned by a Republican activist. In most Beltway melodramas, the resignation ends the story. The problem for Gannon, whose real name is James Dale Guckert, is that he told The Washington Post and CNN's Wolf Blitzer last week that he never launched the Web sites whose provocative names he had registered, such as hotmilitarystud.com. But a Web designer in California said yesterday that he had designed a gay escort site for Gannon and had posted naked pictures of Gannon at the client's request. The latest developments were first reported by John Aravosis, a liberal political consultant and gay activist who has a Web site called americablog.org. "What struck me initially was the hypocrisy angle," Aravosis said. He said he was offended by what he called Gannon's "antigay" writing. Gannon became a target of liberal bloggers after he asked President Bush at a news conference last month a loaded and inaccurate question about how he could deal with Senate Democrats "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality." They pointed to articles such as one last year in which Gannon wrote that John Kerry "might someday be known as 'the first gay president' " because he "has enjoyed a 100 percent rating from the homosexual advocacy group, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), since 1995 in recognition of his support for the pro-gay agenda." Saying his family was being harassed, the reporter quit last week after online critics began digging into his background. Gannon, who worked for Talon News and GOPUSA, denied any antigay writing last week, but did not return calls for comment yesterday and has told other journalists he will not comment on the racy Web sites. The contretemps sparked questions about why the White House had regularly cleared him for briefings, especially since he had been denied a press pass on Capitol Hill, where reporters control the credentialing process. Ana Marie Cox, who has been joking about the Gannon photos on her satirical site, wonkette.com, said they are creating a buzz because "obviously pictures of naked people are titillating." But, she added, "bloggers are wrong to bring that into the mix of things of why he shouldn't be a White House correspondent. Aren't we bloggers in favor of a lower bar of access, not a higher one? [ That's not the point Ana...the point is how a male prostitute got into the White House, within 20 ft. of the Resident using false ID and credentials. Who helped Gannon do this? ] "I'd like to be able to go to the White House briefing room, and I haven't even posed naked -- just been asked." Paul Leddy, the Web designer, said Gannon contacted him in an America Online chat room in 1999 and wound up paying him $200, plus $50 in monthly maintenance, into the following year to create a gay escort site. He said the checks came from Bedrock Corp. [ time to start some Googling], which Gannon has confirmed that he worked for at the time. Leddy, who has helped design a variety of Web sites, including porn sites, provided Microsoft Word files of several of his invoices to Bedrock, a Delaware-based company. At first, Leddy said, Gannon sent him nude pictures with the heads cropped out, or asked him not to post the faces. He said he had no doubt, after seeing Gannon in the news recently, that the explicit pictures were of the same man. Leddy said Gannon's postings later moved to another gay escort site, which Aravosis says remained active until March 2003, or shortly before Gannon began covering the White House. In one of the Web sites found by Aravosis, a man who Leddy said is Gannon was offering his escort services for $200 an hour, or $1,200 a weekend. Another describes him as "military, muscular, masculine and discrete [sic]" and provides an America Online e-mail address that matches the initials on a logo used by Gannon on several of the sites, including the one Leddy said he designed. Bedrock, Gannon's company, is listed as the owner of JeffGannon.com, as well as three sites with such names as hotmilitarystud.com. Aravosis posted the pictures with strategically placed gray boxes, although he provided links to the unexpurgated versions. Gannon is also embroiled in the Valerie Plame story. In 2003 he interviewed Plame's husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson, after unnamed administration officials leaked her role as a CIA operative to columnist Robert Novak. According to his Talon News story, Gannon asked Wilson about "an internal government memo prepared by U.S. intelligence personnel [detailing] 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." House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) this week questioned how Gannon got access to the documents and asked the special prosecutor investigating the Plame leak to include Gannon in his probe. To top things off, the Wilmington News-Journal, citing court records, reported Saturday that Gannon -- or Guckert actually -- failed to pay Delaware more than $20,700 in personal income tax from 1991 through 1994. More than anything, though, it is Gannon's personal online activities that has kept the story churning. Cliff Kincaid, editor of the Accuracy in Media report, wrote on the conservative group's Web site: "The Gannon 'scandal' would be laughable, were it not for the fact that Gannon's personal privacy has been invaded and his mother, in her 70s, had to endure harassing telephone calls from those on the political left trying to dig up dirt. The campaign against Gannon demonstrates the paranoid mentality and mean-spirited nature of the political left." [ Kurtz is so transparent here.] But Aravosis said: "If you were just looking at this as a matter of his hypocrisy, the story's over now that he's gone. The larger issue is how did someone like this get access to the White House." White House spokesman Scott McClellan told the trade publication Editor & Publisher that he didn't know Gannon was using a pseudonym until recent weeks and that he was cleared into the White House on a daily basis using his real name. "People use aliases all the time in life, from journalists to actors," McClellan said. He said he has discussed the Gannon matter only "briefly" with the president. www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27730-2005Feb15.html?sub=AR#nosmileys
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Post by RPankn on Feb 16, 2005 7:56:33 GMT -5
Chicago Sun-Times reports "Gannon" resignation, attributes it to asking loaded questions
Why is the so-called "mainstream media" mostly ignoring this story and why are those covering it ignoring "Gannon's" past prostitution?
Why are the wh0res running scared?Online newsman resigns amid questions about his credentials February 16, 2005 WASHINGTON-- A conservative writer who attracted attention by asking President Bush a loaded question at a news conference last month has resigned amid questions about his identity and background. James D. Guckert, who wrote under the name Jeff Gannon, said on his Web site that he is leaving "because of the attention being paid to me." He had been Washington bureau chief for Talon News, a conservative online news outlet associated with another Web site, GOPUSA. Guckert frequently attended White House press briefings over the last two years and asked pointedly conservative questions. Called on by Bush at a Jan. 26 news conference, Guckert said Senate Democratic leaders were painting a bleak picture of the economy and he asked Bush how he would work "with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality." The question prompted scrutiny, particularly from liberal bloggers. Guckert was linked with online domain addresses suggestive of gay pornography. Guckert, a former resident of Wilmington, Del., told The (Wilmington) News Journal that he had registered the domain names for a client while he was working to set up a Web hosting business. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Guckert did not have a regular White House press pass but was cleared on a day-by-day basis to attend briefings and used his real name. "He, like anyone else, showed that he was representing a news organization that published regularly and so he was cleared two years ago to receive daily passes just like many others are," McClellan said. "In this day and age, when you have a changing media, it's not an easy issue to decide, to try to pick and choose who is a journalist. It gets into the issue of advocacy journalism. Where do you draw the line? There are a number of people who cross that line in the briefing room." He said he had been was unaware of Guckert's affiliation with any sexually oriented domain addresses. www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-press16.html#nosmileys
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Post by Moses on Feb 16, 2005 8:46:43 GMT -5
"Cleared to receive daily passes just like many others are" ?
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Post by RPankn on Feb 17, 2005 0:05:43 GMT -5
Gannon in White House Briefing Room Before Talon News Existedby Rob in Baltimore - 2/16/2005 07:57:00 PM Kudos to Intelligence Squad for finding this and Kossacks for getting the screen grab up so quickly, as well as nailing down all the verifiable points. The screen grab is from the C-SPAN Web site White House Daily Briefing from February 28, 2003 here (RealVideo clip) ( rtsp://cspanrm.fplive.net/cspan/jdrive/iraq022803_whpb.rm). Fast forward to 32:05 and there he is. Well well well. Look at that, it's "Jeff"! So then, what an interesting question we have, huh? "Jeff Gannon" is sitting in the White House briefing room with absolutely no media organization affiliation. (But some live and active escort sites!) Just how does that happen? Not by accident, that's how. On the Intelligence Squad post, "Gannon" posts with a link to GOPUSA. Is that a "news" outlet? Not by my definition it's not. So Scott McClellan, answer me this -- what was "Jeff Gannon" doing in the White House briefing room before he worked for Talon? Why was he given access in the first place? And of course, how did he get the Valerie Plame information? Lots of questions that should be asked at tomorrow's daily briefing. Any members of the traditional media feel like asking these questions yet or shall the blogs continue to do your job? -- Rob in Baltimore UPDATE: Now that I've had some time to go through the video more closely, I highly encourage everyone to look at it. I have my own take on how uncomfortable "Jeff" looks. He's looking to his left and right like he's doing something and he's about to get caught. But judge for yourself. View it here. Start at 31:45. UPDATE 2: For due diligence, I decided to look up when talonnews.com was created. Domain Name: TALONNEWS.COM Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC. Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com Referral URL: www.networksolutions.comName Server: NS1.DATAPIPE.NET Name Server: NS2.DATAPIPE.NET Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK Updated Date: 07-feb-2005 Creation Date: 29-mar-2003 Expiration Date: 29-mar-2006 The C-SPAN link above is from February 28, 2003. Twenty nine days later talonnews.com was created. americablog.blogspot.com/#nosmileys
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Post by RPankn on Feb 17, 2005 0:57:27 GMT -5
A hireling, a fraud and a prostitute
Bush's agent in the press corps has given spin a new level of meaning Sidney Blumenthal Thursday February 17, 2005 The Guardian The White House press room has often been a thingypit of intrigue, duplicity and truckling. But nothing challenges the most recent scandal there. The latest incident began with a sequence of questions for President Bush at his January 26 press conference. First, he was asked whether he approved of his administration's payments to conservative commentators. Government contracts had been granted to three pundits, who had tried to keep the funding secret. "There needs to be a nice, independent relationship between the White House and the press," said the president as he called swiftly on his next questioner. Jeff Gannon, Washington bureau chief of Talon News, rose from his chair to attack Democrats in the Congress. "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?" For almost two years, in the daily White House press briefings Gannon had been called upon by press secretary Scott McClellan to break up difficult questioning from the rest of the press. On Fox News, one host hailed him as "a terrific Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent". Gannon was frequently quoted and highlighted as an expert guest on rightwing radio shows. But who was Gannon? His strange non-question to the president inspired inquiry. Talon News is a wholly-owned subsidiary of a group of Texas Republicans. Gannon's most notable article had asserted that John Kerry "might some day be known as 'the first gay President'". Gannon also got himself entangled in the investigation into the criminal disclosure of the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame. Plame is the wife of former ambassador Joseph Wilson, who was sent by the Bush administration to discover whether Saddam Hussein was procuring uranium in Niger for nuclear weapons. He learned that the suspicion was bogus; appalled that the administration lied about nuclear WMD to justify the Iraq war, he wrote an article in the New York Times about his role after the war. In retaliation, Plame's CIA cover was blown by administration officials. Gannon had called up Wilson to ask him about a secret CIA memo supposedly proving that his wife had sent him on the original mission to Niger, prompting the special prosecutor in the case to question Gannon about his "sources". His real name, it turned out, is James Dale Guckert. He has no journalistic background whatsoever. His application for a press credential to cover the Congress was rejected. But at the White House the press office arranged for him to be given a new pass every single day, a deliberate evasion of the regular credentialing that requires an FBI security check. It was soon revealed. "Gannon" owned and advertised his services as a gay escort on more than half a dozen websites with names like Militarystud.com, MaleCorps.com, WorkingBoys.net and MeetLocalMen.com, which featured dozens of photographs of "Gannon" in dramatic naked poses. One of the sites was still active this week. Thus a phony journalist, planted by a Republican organisation, used by the White House press secretary to interrupt questions from the press corps, protected from FBI vetting by the press office, disseminating smears about its critics and opponents, some of them gay-baiting, was unmasked not only as a hireling and fraud but as a gay prostitute, with enormous potential for blackmail. The Bush White House is the most opaque - allowing the least access for reporters - in living memory. Every news organisation has been intimidated, and reporters who have done stories the administration finds discomfiting have received threats about their careers. The administration has its own quasi-official state TV network in Fox News; hundreds of rightwing radio shows, conservative newspapers and journals and internet sites coordinate with the Republican apparatus. Inserting an agent directly into the White House press corps was a daring operation. Until his exposure, he proved useful for the White House. But the longer-term implication is the Republican effort to sideline an independent press and undermine its legitimacy. "Spin" seems quaint. "In this day and age," said press secretary McClellan, waxing philosophical about the Gannon affair, "when you have a changing media, it's not an easy issue to decide or try to pick and choose who is a journalist." It is not that the White House press secretary cannot distinguish who is or is not a journalist; it is that there are no journalists, just the gaming of the system for the concentration of power. · Sidney Blumenthal is former senior adviser to President Clinton and author of The Clinton Wars sidney_blumenthal@yahoo.com www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1416370,00.html
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Post by Moses on Feb 17, 2005 1:47:56 GMT -5
As bad as I knew Kurtz and Blitzer to be, and for whom they are working, I am shocked at the way they have been aggressively fronting for this gay prostitute (who most likely continued his activities during this time). Both have put out the same line/frame as "Gannon's" "employer", "Talon News"/GOPUSA. And Kurtz is the "media critic" for the Washington Post! Ergo, it is clear that both Blitzer and Kurtz are "in bed with" "Gannon" in some way, since their "defense" of him is so clearly unprofessional. Remember how Blitzer went after that congressman who had slept w/ Chandra Levy and implied he should be a suspect in her murder? He called it "the biggest story" in his 20 years of "journalism" in DC.
And they have drummed out Eason Jordon, and this clear propagandist -- a propagandist for Israel who wrote a book defending Jonathan Pollard on behalf of Israel to get him sprung-- is still on television. Kurtz, despite clear evidence of his conflict of interest in touting his wife's clients, is still working for both the Washington Post and CNN.
Both these orgs are clearly NO DIFFERENT from "GOPUSA"!
I am glad Blumenthal wrote about this.
Just think for one second what would happen to this story if this had been the Clinton White House, and you will realize, with horror, what the media has become.
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Post by RPankn on Feb 17, 2005 6:06:35 GMT -5
Bush's Barberini FaunBy MAUREEN DOWD Published: February 17, 2005 WASHINGTON I am very impressed with James Guckert, a k a Jeff Gannon. How often does an enterprising young man, heralded in press reports as both a reporter and a contributor to such sites as Hotmilitarystud.com, Workingboys.net, Militaryescorts .com, MilitaryescortsM4M.com and Meetlocalmen.com, get to question the president of the United States? Who knew that a hotmilitarystud wanting to meetlocalmen could so easily get to be face2face with the commander in chief? It's hard to believe the White House could hit rock bottom on credibility again, but it has, in a bizarre maelstrom that plays like a dark comedy. How does it credential a man with a double life and a secret past? "Jeff Gannon" was waved into the press room nearly every day for two years as the conservative correspondent for two political Web sites operated by a wealthy Texas Republican. Scott McClellan often called on the pseudoreporter for softball questions. Howard Kurtz reported in The Washington Post yesterday that although Mr. Guckert had denied launching the provocative Web sites - one described him as " 'military, muscular, masculine and discrete' (sic)" - a Web designer in California said "that he had designed a gay escort site for Gannon and had posted naked pictures of Gannon at the client's request." And The Wilmington News-Journal in Delaware reported that Mr. Guckert was delinquent in $20,700 in personal income tax from 1991 to 1994. I'm still mystified by this story. I was rejected for a White House press pass at the start of the Bush administration, but someone with an alias, a tax evasion problem and Internet pictures where he posed like the "Barberini Faun" is credentialed to cover a White House that won a second term by mining homophobia and preaching family values? At first when I tried to complain about not getting my pass renewed, even though I'd been covering presidents and first ladies since 1986, no one called me back. Finally, when Mr. McClellan replaced Ari Fleischer, he said he'd renew the pass - after a new Secret Service background check that would last several months. In an era when security concerns are paramount, what kind of Secret Service background check did James Guckert get so he could saunter into the West Wing every day under an assumed name while he was doing full-frontal advertising for stud services for $1,200 a weekend? He used a driver's license that said James Guckert to get into the White House, then, once inside, switched to his alter ego, asking questions as Jeff Gannon. Mr. McClellan shrugged this off to Editor & Publisher magazine, oddly noting, "People use aliases all the time in life, from journalists to actors." I know the F.B.I. computers don't work, but this is ridiculous. After getting gobsmacked by the louche sagas of Mr. Guckert and Bernard Kerik, the White House vetters should consider adding someone with some blogging experience. Does the Bush team love everything military so much that even a military-stud Web site is a recommendation? Or maybe Gannon/Guckert's willingness to shill free for the White House, even on gay issues, was endearing. One of his stories mocked John Kerry's "pro-homosexual platform" with the headline "Kerry Could Become First Gay President." With the Bushies, if you're their friend, anything goes. If you're their critic, nothing goes. They're waging a jihad against journalists - buying them off so they'll promote administration programs, trying to put them in jail for doing their jobs and replacing them with ringers. At last month's press conference, Jeff Gannon asked Mr. Bush how he could work with Democrats "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality." But Bush officials have divorced themselves from reality. They flipped TV's in the West Wing and Air Force One to Fox News. They paid conservative columnists handsomely to promote administration programs. Federal agencies distributed packaged "news" video releases with faux anchors so local news outlets would run them. As CNN reported, the Pentagon produces Web sites with "news" articles intended to influence opinion abroad and at home, but you have to look hard for the disclaimer: "Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense." The agencies spent a whopping $88 million spinning reality in 2004, splurging on P.R. contracts. Even the Nixon White House didn't do anything this creepy. It's worse than hating the press. It's an attempt to reinvent it. E-mail: liberties@nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2005/02/17/opinion/17dowd.html?hp
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Post by RPankn on Feb 17, 2005 9:13:23 GMT -5
The White House Stages Its 'Daily Show'
FRANK RICH
Published: February 20, 2005
THE prayers of those hoping that real television news might take its cues from Jon Stewart were finally answered on Feb. 9, 2005. A real newsman borrowed a technique from fake news to deliver real news about fake news in prime time.
Let me explain.
On "Countdown," a nightly news hour on MSNBC, the anchor, Keith Olbermann, led off with a classic "Daily Show"-style bit: a rapid-fire montage of sharply edited video bites illustrating the apparent idiocy of those in Washington. In this case, the eight clips stretched over a year in the White House briefing room - from February 2004 to late last month - and all featured a reporter named "Jeff." In most of them, the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, says "Go ahead, Jeff," and "Jeff" responds with a softball question intended not to elicit information but to boost President Bush and smear his political opponents. In the last clip, "Jeff" is quizzing the president himself, in his first post-inaugural press conference of Jan. 26. Referring to Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton, "Jeff" asks, "How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?" If we did not live in a time when the news culture itself is divorced from reality, the story might end there: "Jeff," you'd assume, was a lapdog reporter from a legitimate, if right-wing, news organization like Fox, and you'd get some predictable yuks from watching a compressed video anthology of his kissing up to power. But as Mr. Olbermann explained, "Jeff Gannon," the star of the montage, was a newsman no more real than a "Senior White House Correspondent" like Stephen Colbert on "The Daily Show" and he worked for a news organization no more real than The Onion. Yet the video broadcast by Mr. Olbermann was not fake. "Jeff" was in the real White House, and he did have those exchanges with the real Mr. McClellan and the real Mr. Bush.
"Jeff Gannon's" real name is James D. Guckert. His employer was a Web site called Talon News, staffed mostly by volunteer Republican activists. Media Matters for America, the liberal press monitor that has done the most exhaustive research into the case, discovered that Talon's "news" often consists of recycled Republican National Committee and White House press releases, and its content frequently overlaps with another partisan site, GOPUSA, with which it shares its owner, a Texas delegate to the 2000 Republican convention. Nonetheless, for nearly two years the White House press office had credentialed Mr. Guckert, even though, as Dana Milbank of The Washington Post explained on Mr. Olbermann's show, he "was representing a phony media company that doesn't really have any such thing as circulation or readership."
How this happened is a mystery that has yet to be solved. "Jeff" has now quit Talon News not because he and it have been exposed as fakes but because of other embarrassing blogosphere revelations linking him to sites like hotmilitarystud.com and to an apparently promising career as an X-rated $200-per-hour "escort." If Mr. Guckert, the author of Talon News exclusives like "Kerry Could Become First Gay President," is yet another link in the boundless network of homophobic Republican closet cases, that's not without interest. But it shouldn't distract from the real question - that is, the real news - of how this fake newsman might be connected to a White House propaganda machine that grows curiouser by the day. Though Mr. McClellan told Editor & Publisher magazine that he didn't know until recently that Mr. Guckert was using an alias, Bruce Bartlett, a White House veteran of the Reagan-Bush I era, wrote on the nonpartisan journalism Web site Romenesko, that "if Gannon was using an alias, the White House staff had to be involved in maintaining his cover." (Otherwise, it would be a rather amazing post-9/11 security breach.)
By my count, "Jeff Gannon" is now at least the sixth "journalist" (four of whom have been unmasked so far this year) to have been a propagandist on the payroll of either the Bush administration or a barely arms-length ally like Talon News while simultaneously appearing in print or broadcast forums that purport to be real news. Of these six, two have been syndicated newspaper columnists paid by the Department of Health and Human Services to promote the administration's "marriage" initiatives. The other four have played real newsmen on TV. Before Mr. Guckert and Armstrong Williams, the talking head paid $240,000 by the Department of Education, there were Karen Ryan and Alberto Garcia. Let us not forget these pioneers - the Woodward and Bernstein of fake news. They starred in bogus reports ("In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting," went the script) pretending to "sort through the details" of the administration's Medicare prescription-drug plan in 2004. Such "reports," some of which found their way into news packages distributed to local stations by CNN, appeared in more than 50 news broadcasts around the country and have now been deemed illegal "covert propaganda" by the Government Accountability Office.
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Post by RPankn on Feb 17, 2005 9:14:02 GMT -5
The money that paid for both the Ryan-Garcia news packages and the Armstrong Williams contract was siphoned through the same huge public relations firm, Ketchum Communications, which itself filtered the funds through subcontractors. A new report by Congressional Democrats finds that Ketchum has received $97 million of the administration's total $250 million P.R. kitty, of which the Williams and Ryan-Garcia scams would account for only a fraction. We have yet to learn precisely where the rest of it ended up. Even now, we know that the fake news generated by the six known shills is only a small piece of the administration's overall propaganda effort. President Bush wasn't entirely joking when he called the notoriously meek March 6, 2003, White House press conference on the eve of the Iraq invasion "scripted" while it was still going on. (And "Jeff Gannon" apparently wasn't even at that one). Everything is scripted. The pre-fab "Ask President Bush" town hall-style meetings held during last year's campaign (typical question: "Mr. President, as a child, how can I help you get votes?") were carefully designed for television so that, as Kenneth R. Bazinet wrote last summer in New York's Daily News, "unsuspecting viewers" tuning in their local news might get the false impression they were "watching a completely open forum." A Pentagon Office of Strategic Influence, intended to provide propagandistic news items, some of them possibly false, to foreign news media was shut down in 2002 when it became an embarrassing political liability. But much more quietly, another Pentagon propaganda arm, the Pentagon Channel, has recently been added as a free channel for American viewers of the Dish Network. Can a Social Security Channel be far behind? It is a brilliant strategy. When the Bush administration isn't using taxpayers' money to buy its own fake news, it does everything it can to shut out and pillory real reporters who might tell Americans what is happening in what is, at least in theory, their own government. Paul Farhi of The Washington Post discovered that even at an inaugural ball he was assigned "minders" - attractive women who wouldn't give him their full names - to let the revelers know that Big Brother was watching should they be tempted to say anything remotely off message. The inability of real journalists to penetrate this White House is not all the White House's fault. The errors of real news organizations have played perfectly into the administration's insidious efforts to blur the boundaries between the fake and the real and thereby demolish the whole notion that there could possibly be an objective and accurate free press. Conservatives, who supposedly deplore post-modernism, are now welcoming in a brave new world in which it's a given that there can be no empirical reality in news, only the reality you want to hear (or they want you to hear). The frequent fecklessness of the Beltway gang does little to penetrate this Washington smokescreen. For a case in point, you needed only switch to CNN on the day after Mr. Olbermann did his fake-news-style story on the fake reporter in the White House press corps. "Jeff Gannon" had decided to give an exclusive TV interview to a sober practitioner of by-the-book real news, Wolf Blitzer. Given this journalistic opportunity, the anchor asked questions almost as soft as those "Jeff" himself had asked in the White House. Mr. Blitzer didn't question Mr. Guckert's outrageous assertion that he adopted a fake name because "Jeff Gannon is easier to pronounce and easier to remember." (Is "Jeff" easier to pronounce than his real first name, Jim?). Mr. Blitzer never questioned Gannon/Guckert's assertion that Talon News "is a separate, independent news division" of GOPUSA. Only in a brief follow-up interview a day later did he ask Gannon/Guckert to explain why he was questioned by the F.B.I. in the case that may send legitimate reporters to jail: Mr. Guckert has at times implied that he either saw or possessed a classified memo identifying Valerie Plame as a C.I.A. operative. Might that memo have come from the same officials who looked after "Jeff Gannon's" press credentials? Did Mr. Guckert have any connection with CNN's own Robert Novak, whose publication of Ms. Plame's name started this investigation in the first place? The anchor didn't go there. The "real" news from CNN was no news at all, but it's not as if any of its competitors did much better. The "Jeff Gannon" story got less attention than another media frenzy - that set off by the veteran news executive Eason Jordan, who resigned from CNN after speaking recklessly at a panel discussion at Davos, where he apparently implied, at least in passing, that American troops deliberately targeted reporters. Is the banishment of a real newsman for behaving foolishly at a bloviation conference in Switzerland a more pressing story than that of a fake newsman gaining years of access to the White House (and network TV cameras) under mysterious circumstances? With real news this timid, the appointment of Jon Stewart to take over Dan Rather's chair at CBS News could be just the jolt television journalism needs. As Mr. Olbermann demonstrated when he borrowed a sharp "Daily Show" tool to puncture the "Jeff Gannon" case, the only road back to reality may be to fight fake with fake. www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/arts/20rich.html
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Post by Moses on Feb 17, 2005 10:18:30 GMT -5
Great article.
But does he really think "Wolf" (not his real name!) Blitzer is a "real" "newsman"?
If so, he is just scratching the surface. But, sadly, as great as this article is, these real journalists, like Rich, don't go after their own.
The tears he shed over Miller's potential jail term, e.g., without mentioning that she is personally responsible for mass murder.
We need someone to dig deeper.
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Post by RPankn on Feb 17, 2005 17:23:55 GMT -5
Why is David Corn using Gannongate to attack bloggers?
Corn sez: You bloggers are so mean!
The Bizarre Gannon Affair
Tue Feb 15, 3:30 PM ET Op/Ed - The Nation
David Corn
There is something about the fuss over the White House reporter formerly known as Jeff Gannon that makes me uneasy. No, it's not the sexually explicit photos of him that accompany what appears to be ads in which he offers himself as a gay prostitute for clients seeking a military type. (These photographs were discovered by blogger John Aravosis. Click here--but not if you are faint-hearted.) These photos are an issue because the Bush White House granted Gannon--whose real name seems to be James Guckert--entry to press briefings conducted by press secretary Scott McClellan and press conferences with George W. Bush. Gannon/Guckert, who wrote for the conservative Talon News service (which is run by a Republican activist), was awarded such access even though he did not qualify for a congressional press pass--the standard press pass in Washington. It is legitimate to ask why the White House permitted a fellow with a spotty past and questionable credentials to become part of the press corps. Did he get special treatment because he was a conservative? After all, this whole to-do started when Gannon/Guckert at a January 26 press conference aked Bush a softball question in which he characterized Senate Democratic leaders as "people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality."
But let me raise a cautionary note or two. The blogosphere in recent months has become the piling-on-osphere. When there is blood in the water--or on the keyboard--bloggers rush in for the kill. (Gannon resigned from Talon News a few days ago.) So far all of the victims have deserved the whacks. Dan Rather was pigheaded and defiant when he should have responded to questions about his 60 Minutes report on Bush's dodgy military service by saying, "Those are interesting and troubling points, we'll check them out immediately." [Why do sleepers like Corn ignore the fact that the contents of those documents was factually correct? Further, why does Corn ignore that Gannon/Guckert played a role in the discrediting campaign that began at Free Republic, where Gannon is a memeber?] Trent Lott was going to escape his stupid remark hailing Strom Thurmond's days as a segregationist until bloggers orchestrated a drumbeat. [Is Corn suggesting he's ok had Lott gotten away with his remark?] CNN executive Eason Jordan did not immediately clarify, back up or retract comments in which he reportedly claimed that US troops in Iraq (news - web sites) had purposefully targeted and killed journalists. Yet the speed and drama of these trials-by-blog may be cause for quasi-concern not unfettered celebration. Am I being a semi-old fuddy-duddy? Could be. When I have a hot story I move as fast as possible to get it out. No one wants to be scooped. And I, too, delight in producing stories that expose hypocrisy and wrongdoing. [I'm sure you do as part of the status quo ]
But with the Gannon/Guckert case, I wonder if there was a touch of blog-hysteria. (Bloggers, don't jump on me. I blog too. Click here. I'm only wondering, not accusing.) I am not suggesting, as I noted above, that the who-is-Gannon story was not appropriate grist for the blog-mill. But is it possible that significance of this odd tale was inflated during the red-hot pursuit of this fellow? [So Corn is ok with gay prostitutes getting into the White House and posing as journalists when it's clear he was a plant put there by someone in Bush's inner circle?] I've met Gannon a few times. For some reason, he was eager to say hello to me when I last visited the White House press room and was handing out invitations to the party for my book, The Lies of George W. Bush. He struck me as mostly innocuous. [Did Corn just out himself here?Someone should look at Gannon's credit card receipts to see if Corn's name is among them] At the White House daily briefings conducted by McClellan, Gannon/Guckert did ask ideologically loaded questions. But so do other reporters. Until he suffered a heart attack last month, radio commentator Les Kinsolving was known for posing long-winded questions that revealed a sharp rightwing bias. [Either Corn is incredibly stupid, or he's just disingenuous. Gannon/Guckert/Williams/etc. have been exposed as plants and paid propagandists but it doesn't dawn on Corn that Kingsolving could be one as well] There is nothing wrong with a real journalist hurling at the press secretary--or the president--a pointed question with an ideological foundation. The heroic Helen Thomas does that often. Russell Mokhiber of the Corporate Crime Reporter often challenged Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) in this fashion. Arguably, the Q&As at the White House could use more of this sort of questioning. I'd be delighted to see journalists from conservative publications press Bush on the administration's lowball estimates of Medicare drug benefits. Gannon/Guckert's pursuers ought to be careful and note that the problem with Gannon/Guckert was not that he was a reporter with an obvious political bent but that he had weak credentials and an iffy background. [In other words, Corn thinks bloggers should focus on salacious details and gossip and ignore Gannon/Guckert's connection to Bush's inner circle]
Gannon/Guckert's critics have portrayed him as a White House plant. That could be an overstatement. At the White House daily briefings, most of the journalists present tend to be called upon by McClellan. This is different from what happens at press conferences with Bush. During the briefings, reporters are able to ask multiple questions and return to issues after McClellan has not answered their queries and moved on to other journalists. It's not a one-shot deal. So Gannon/Guckert was not much help to the McClellan at these briefings. If he asked McClellan an easy question, that would not change the course of the entire briefing and save McClellan from other reporters. [Someone has put together a montage of the questions Gannon/Guckert asked Scotty. In watching it, it's apparent Scotty called on Gannon/Guckert when the other sleepers started doing their jobs and asking questions Scotty didn't like. Someone should forward this video montage to Corn.]
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