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Post by Moses on Feb 19, 2005 17:56:42 GMT -5
They do?
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Post by RPankn on Feb 19, 2005 18:21:20 GMT -5
Yes, Vicky Toensing appeared as a "legal expert" all over the MSM prior to, and during, Clinton's impeachment. She helped put the meme out there that what Clinton had done was an impeachable offense. DiGenova was frequently used by CNN after Sept. 11th and during the Iraq invasion as a "terrorism expert," although I haven't seen him on CNN recently.
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Post by RPankn on Feb 19, 2005 18:27:00 GMT -5
Reporter exposed as GOP operative Guckert linked to male escort sites, Va. orgy party: sources This is one of two photos sources provided to the Blade of a man who appears to be Jeff Guckert, who worked in the White House press corps as ‘Jeff Gannon.’ The sources claim Guckert attended a sex party for gay men in 1998. In the other photo, which the Blade is not publishing, the man who appears to be Guckert is embracing another man while exposing his thingy. By JOE CREA Friday, February 18, 2005 Several members of Congress have intensified criticism of the White House’s media credentialing process and are demanding an investigation after a conservative reporter with dubious credentials was unmasked as working for a GOP political operative. But the story of James D. Guckert, who worked under the alias “Jeff Gannon,” took on a more salacious tone early this week, when gay activist John Aravosis provided evidence that Guckert had worked as a gay escort and posted profiles featuring nude pictures of himself on various Web sites, including MaleCorps.com and MeetLocalMen.com. Aravosis reported that Guckert’s profile on an escort site remained active until May 2003 — just before he began writing for Talon News. Since the Aravosis report, two sources have confirmed to the Washington Blade that Guckert attended a December 1998 Christmas party near Leesburg, Va., that “always turns into an orgy toward the end.” The party was described as being predominantly for gay men, though not exclusively. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that about 25 people attended. The sources provided to the Blade two photos from that party of a man who appears to be Guckert. In one image which the Blade has decided not to publish, the man poses with his arm around another man and his thingy is exposed. Guckert responded to inquiries for this article, but declined to comment. He has not commented publicly about his sexual orientation. The gay revelations are significant, some gay rights advocates have asserted, because Guckert worked for anti-gay employers. Guckert worked for Talon News and GOPUSA, which are both owned by Texas Republican activist Bobby Eberle. Talon News is a Web site regarded as a Republican propaganda outlet and not a reputable journalistic enterprise. Eberle acts as editor in chief for Talon News. Guckert, writing under the name Gannon, regularly reported on the news of the day including a few gay-related stories. In one article, “California Gays Celebrate Domestic Partner Law,” Gannon reported that “Homosexual advocates in California are hailing a new law that went into effect on Jan. 1 that established ‘gay marriage’ in the state.” In another piece, he wrote that an aide to Sen. John Kerry used a gay smear to defeat an incumbent senator. He also wrote about the federal gay marriage amendment and about the journalistic integrity of CBS News in light of Dan Rather’s 60 Minutes II story about President Bush’s tenure at the Texas National Guard that turned out to be based on forged documents. Guckert, who was a fixture at the daily White House press briefings, gained national attention after he asked President Bush a loaded question last month about how the president planned to work with Democrats on Social Security when they “have divorced themselves from reality.”<br> Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) is insisting that all documents relating to the credentialing of Guckert be released. Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-N.Y.) is calling on the White House to explain the matter more fully and, along with Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), wants to know of Guckert’s possible involvement in the leaking of a classified memo containing the identity of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame. House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said in a statement that “valid questions” are being raised over Guckert’s White House press credentials since he was denied a congressional press pass because he did not write for a valid news organization. “This issue is important from an ethical as well as from a national security standpoint,” Hoyer said in a statement. “It is hard to understand why a man with little real journalism experience was given a White House press corps credential let alone access to sensitive security documents. In fact, it only raises questions as to the nature of the relationship between ‘Jeff Gannon’ and the White House, and whether there was an alliance of interests that did not conform to ethical and security standards.”<br> “This is an important story because this is the latest in a long line of the Bush administration using fake news outlets to promote their agenda,” said Jamison Foser, a senior adviser at Media Matters for America, a liberal media group that first broke the Guckert story. “We found that there was no reason to consider [Talon News employees] journalists since they are advocates,” Foser said. “His questions, sure, were over the top but some of the things that were written … they were lengthy pieces from the White House briefings, not independent reports. Yes, Fox News or the Washington Times, they are conservative but they are legitimate news organizations.”<br> Bloggers expose personal life Guckert resigned from Talon News on Feb. 8. Since then, bloggers and media watchdog groups have dug deeper into his personal life. First came reports that Guckert had ties to a number of gay sex sites. The same person who had registered his personal Web site also registered others, including HotMilitaryStud.com, MilitaryEscorts.com and MilitaryEscortsM4M.com. Late last week, Guckert was asked about those sites in an interview on CNN’s “Wolf Blitzer Reports” and said, “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.”<br> Guckert first discussed his sudden departure from Talon News in that CNN interview. He resigned with the hope that the harassment of his family would cease, he said. When pressed by Blitzer to be more specific about his family, Guckert replied “Well, I mean — I mean my — when my mother and my brother and his wife received telephone calls that — you know, that contained threats and all kinds of terrible things being said about me, it’s very disturbing. And that’s way over the line. And I needed to put that to an end.”<br> Timothy Karr, executive director of MediaChannel.org and Media for Democracy, said he is concerned that the White House is using journalists in a way to create friendly media reports. “Journalists used to be ranked very high in terms of their ethical standing in public polls. This scandal is dangerous because journalism does serve an essential role in Democracy. Talon News is clearly an organization intent on spreading conservative ideas and they do it in a sloppy fashion,” Karr said. “The questions Gannon was asking were not about trying to get the truth but more about grandstanding and presenting a very partisan point of view.”<br> Joe Crea can be reached at jcrea@washblade.com. www.washblade.com/2005/2-18/news/national/reporter.cfm
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Post by RPankn on Feb 19, 2005 18:49:23 GMT -5
Saturday, February 19, 2005
The Lies of Gannongate
An ADVOCATE EDITORIAL
Thus far, the only truth being told in the Gannongate scandal is that being offered up by the progressive internet media.
Current White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, and former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, can't seem to get their stories straight on precisely when, or how, or why, the White House became suspicious of the "non-journalist journalist" Jeff Gannon--and when, or how, or why Gannon got a coveted White House press pass.
First McClellan told the press Gannon was admitted to the White House as a "Talon News" reporter, and there was never any doubt as to his legitimacy in that role.
Then we were told that, in fact, he was admitted as a correspondent for a patently-partisan non-journalistic enterprise, GOPAUSA.com.
Next Ari Fleischer disclosed that the White had become suspicious of Gannon early on--and checked out his employer, Talon News, to determine whether it was a legitimate news operation. That "checking out" involved nothing more than a phone call between Fleischer and Republican activist Bobby Eberle, to hear Fleischer tell it.
Not so, said McClellan.
In fact, the check involved a thorough review of Gannon's employer--which, says McClellan, was not Talon News at the time, but GOPUSA.com.
McClellan said he didn't know Gannon; now we find out that Gannon sent McClellan a card when the White House Press Secretary got married--and was given a coveted invite to the White House's exclusive Christmas Party, an event which, according to several White House correspondents, signifies that the White House believes a journalist is in good standing with the Washington establishment. More recent revelations suggest that the "degrees of separation" between Jeff Gannon ("James Guckert") and Karl Rove ("Minister of Evil") is precisely "one": Morton C. Blackwell, Rove's mentor and Gannon's teacher at the conservative quack-factory The Leadership Institute.
We were told by McClellan, on Bush's behalf, that Bush called on Gannon/Guckert randomly at a rare presidential press conference on January 26th, 2005.
Nobody--not in the establishment press, not in the internet media--believes this. White House press conferences are without question, as a matter of course, scripted right down to who gets to ask the President a question (as well as, you know, who gets to be in the room--within ten feet of a sitting President--in the first place).
[On the video of the press conference, you can see the President briefly grimace with nervousness when he asks "journalist" Gannon/Guckert a question].
We were likewise told by McClellan, on Bush's behalf, that the President has never met and doesn't know Bobby Eberle, the founder of GOPUSA.com, the creator of "Talon News," and--nominally, at least--Gannon/Guckert's "editor." That denial raised some eyebrows, as well; Bush and Eberle have both been members of the Board of Directors of the Texas Lyceum Association (including, we believe, at the same time) and Eberle was a member of the Texas Delegation to the 2000 presidential convention, where Bush was, you know, "put over the top" for his nomination by, you know, the Texas Delegation.
Does anyone believe Eberle never even got a photo op with Bush for his years and years of service to the Texas Republican Party, the Party from which Bush himself was originally spawned?
Indeed, Eberle's involvement with the Texas Republican Party could best be described as "heavy" to "obsessive," as could be said of his wife, as could be said of his closest business associate, Bill Fairbrother, with whom he started GOPUSA.com. [Since the Gannongate scandal was uncovered, his wife's and Bill's biographies have since been suspiciously wiped from the GOPUSA.com website; but hey, what's a little political whitewash among friends and spouses?].
Of course, you wouldn't know about Eberle's deep investment in the Republican Party of Texas if you listened to, say, the Republican Party of Texas--which has denied knowing him.
Which, of course, is also a lie.
Speaking of denials, how often do you see a conservative advocacy outlet like "Accuracy in Media" (good Lord, the irony!) defending prostitution?
And how! -- it's gay prostitution, too!
According to AIM, Guckert's only "crime" was asking softball, partisan questions to a sitting President.
On the other hand, in the U.S. (even red states!) being a $200-an-hour sleeper is, in fact, sort of illegal.
Now comes Jeff Gannon (James Guckert), already a liar by virtue of the fact that we had to print not one, but two names for him in this sentence, lifting his brief, self-imposed exile from making a fool of himself on national television by returning to CNN for another gorge-inducing interview.
[Continued in next post]
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Post by RPankn on Feb 19, 2005 18:51:34 GMT -5
In which interview, he: - inexplicably explained changing his first and last name by saying that they were harder to "pronounce, remember, and spell" than his pseudonym, leading CNN's Anderson Cooper to wonder, along with the rest of America, how "James" is harder to pronounce or spell than "Jeff";
- "categorically" denied that the White House knew anything of his sexual past (which position he retreated from within less than twelve hours, telling The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz the next day that "as far as [he] knew" the White House wasn't aware he was a gay prostitute (memo to...wait, how do you spell that name?...oh, that's right, "James": look up the difference between "categorical" and "conditional," friend, it's a handy thing for a journalist to know);
claimed, incredibly, that despite wanting very much to become a journalist--"I asked to attend the White House briefing because...I wanted to report on the activities there"--he could not remember the date of his first published article as a journalist (a fact Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank has publicly said he finds absolutely incredible, in the literal sense of that word: "straining or breaking credulity"; there's now some reason [see also here] to believe Guckert had been in the White House for three years before his forced "retirement," not the two he and the White House have been claiming);
- refused to answer whether he had recently posted nude pictures of himself on the internet, while attempting to imply (as we already know is untrue, Jeff/James) that he hadn't done so for years;
couldn't or wouldn't explain how he got a White House press pass despite not being a reporter ("You'll have to ask the White House that");
- lied baldly in saying that he got his incredibly high-profile job as a White House correspondent for GOPUSA.com because "[GOPUSA.com was] aware of...the writing I did," when, in fact, Gannon/Guckert had not done any journalistic reporting to that point, for anyone;
- changed tack on whether he had received a confidential C.I.A. memorandum (he had implied that to CNN's Wolf Blitzer that he had, but categorically denied it a week later to CNN's Anderson Cooper--Jesus, doesn't he know these guys talk with one another?);
tacitly acknowledged that GOPUSA.com and Talon News (which are one and the same) are now refusing to talk about the whole affair, thus leaving certain questions about the whole affair continually unanswered (because he wouldn't answer them either, that is, as "I don't represent them any longer");
- conceded that much of his White House "reporting" consisted of "relying on transcripts from the [White House] briefings [and]...on press releases," which bizarre, paint-by-numbers manner of "reportage" he considered an important attempt to "communicate to my readers exactly what the White House believes on any certain issue...an unvarnished, unfiltered version of what they believe";
- asserted, hilariously, that "what's been done to me is far in excess of what has ever been done to any other journalist that I can remember," failing only to mention that, putting aside mere "journalists" for a moment, a recent President of the United States received much, much worse for much, much less (as prostitution, unlike adultery, is illegal); and
conceded that he lied when he said, one week ago, that his only involvement in a series of gay/pornographic/prostitution/pimping sites was as a website "designer"--(yes, designer!)--rather than the featured (and decidedly nude, and decidedly ready to trade sex for cash) main attraction.
But then again, Guckert--known in gay prostitution circles as "The Bulldog"--has always billed himself as "discrete" [sic]. And McClellan, Fleischer, and the Republican Party of Texas--prostitutes, undoubtedly, of a different sort altogether--are likewise "discrete," aren't they? To the tune of so many lies, misdirections, and evasions we're forced to return, once more, to the fully-sourced investigative articles of The Nashua Advocate and the many other advocacy-based and news-oriented outlets which have covered this story so well and so thoroughly, such as Editor & Publisher and America Blog. Without them, Americans might actually be fooled into thinking Gannon's "critique" of his critics was good enough, and not, as Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Leonard Pitts recently wrote, a situation in which "I'm still waiting for a good explanation of what Jeff Gannon was doing in the White House--and for you to be upset about it." Well, we are upset, Leonard. Because a hundred accurate words ought to outweigh, in the mainstream media, a thousand words of deception. So if you want the truth about Gannongate, rather than the spin and the damage control Mr. Guckert's been offering up in front of every video camera which will have him (after several years spent, apparently, offering himself to every photographic camera which would have him), you can read the last week of coverage in The Advocate: here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here. See? This story ain't dead by a d**n sight. It's just beginning. nashuaadvocate.blogspot.com/2005/02/lies-of-gannongate.html
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Post by RPankn on Feb 19, 2005 18:58:23 GMT -5
Saturday, February 19, 2005 Jeff Gannon and Karl Rove Attended the Same "School"; Or, "The Best Theory Yet for How Gannon Got Hired By GOPUSA and Karl Rove Got In Touch With Him" By ADVOCATE STAFF CBS has put (once again) its credibility on the line and speculated that Karl Rove is the man responsible for bringing Jeff Gannon (James Guckert) into the White House. Now, why would they say a thing like that? Is it because Rove controls everything in the White House down to the lifespan of houseplants in the West Wing? Or because it's a near certainty that, beyond the two men meeting at a White House Christmas party--as Gannon has already asserted--Rove and the ex-Talon News "reporter" have likely crossed paths on other occasions, too? Well, let's see. Karl Rove is a graduate of Morton C. Blackwell's Leadership Institute. So is Jeff Gannon. Rove went to the Institute's "Youth Leadership School," graduating from that grist-mill of conservative quackery in 1979. Gannon went to the Institute's "Broadcast Journalism School," graduating (to the extent $50 in cash enabled that "achievement") in 2003. Both "schools" cost substantially less than a bargain-basement television set, and provide approximately the same degree of instruction in critical thinking. [See website ( www.leadershipinstitute.org/)]. The Leadership Institute Gannon (and Rove) graduated from has an Employment Placement Service/Intern Program which, according to the Institute's solicitation to prospective "students," "open doors for you which would otherwise remain shut."
And how!
The "Intern Program" boasts "weekly private dinners with Washington VIPs," including (as a sampling, from the website) Fox News commentators, Reagan Administration officials, former Republican U.S. Attorneys General, and sitting U.S. Members of Congress (e.g., Representative Tom DeLay [R-TX]; former House Majority Leader, Dick Armey [R-TX]).
And perhaps -- [gasp] -- former graduates of the Institute, like Karl Rove?
Hell, if "The Texas Hammer" can make time for old friend Morton C. Blackwell, why can't "the boy genius"? After all, doesn't Blackwell serve with Rove on the Advisory Board for the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project? Didn't Blackwell, according to the conservative Washington Times, "train" Rove to become the virulent little blackguard he is today?
Says the Institute's website, "on a weekly basis our interns meet with some of the conservative movement's top 'movers and shakers.' These dinners are prepared and served to our interns and their private guest."
The Institute also crows about the fact that, each week, "[Institute] interns correspond with, meet, and have dinner with top conservative leaders. From Congressmen to Supreme Court Justices to heads of major public policy groups, interns receive personal mentoring on how to achieve success and make a difference in government, politics, and the media....n addition to weekly speaker nights arranged by the Leadership Institute, interns are encouraged to attend issue briefings by other conservative organizations like the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation."
"Make a difference in the media" -- indeed!
And speaking of cushy internships, how about Jeff Gannon's "volunteer" position as a "reporter" for GOPUSA, which he acquired despite having no journalistic experience whatsoever?
[According to Daily Kos, the CEO of one of GOPUSA's sponsors, Campaign Secrets' Mark Montini, is also the Vice President for Programs at -- you guessed it -- The Leadership Institute. And if you check out the GOPUSA website, you can see that the only event on the GOPUSA "calendar" is a late September 2004 Silver Anniversary Gala for the Leadership Institute, featuring "special appearances by Leadership Institute graduates who have become star leaders over the past twenty-five years." Hmm, like Rove?].
And what if employers -- or, say, White House staffers, like Karl Rove -- want to find someone to "do a job" for them?
Easy!
According to the website's entreaty to prospective employers of Institute graduates (see here(www.leadershipinstitute.org/03CAREERS/eServices.htm)), "[the Institute's] free conservative job bank provides a pool of applicants from which to hire qualified candidates. Resumes arrive within 24 hours, so you can begin to fill open positions immediately. Our prospective candidates can fill every position from chief-of-staff to press secretary. We curb the frustration factor by supplying all the necessary information to make your selection process easier."
Wow!
Are you saying you can find a high-priced gay prostitute with an eerie military fetish to pose for more than two years as a credible White House "journalist" in less than twenty-four hours?
Oh Mort, you devil!
Imagine that: all it would have taken Rove was a single phone call or a click of the mouse to get hooked up with (no pun intended) journalist/prostitute (or is that "prostitute/journalist"?) Jeff Gannon/James Dale Guckert.
nashuaadvocate.blogspot.com/2005/02/jeff-gannon-and-karl-rove-attended.html
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Post by RPankn on Feb 19, 2005 19:12:17 GMT -5
[ There seems to be some confusion as to whether Bobby Eberle is related to Bruce Eberly, Paula Jones' lawyer. The Houston Chronicle said they're not, but Bruce sold his Millions of Americans PAC and mail list to Bobby, who folded it into GOPUSA. Feb. 18, 2005, 12:59AM Web sites operator stirs up politics, journalism debateScandal places his Pearland-based Internet enterprise under a microscope By RACHEL GRAVES Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Bill Olive/For the Chronicle Bobby Eberle, former aerospace engineer, operates two conservative Web sites out of his home in Pearland. Until employing a reporter who used a fake name to gain access to the White House and insult Democrats during a nationally televised briefing, Bobby Eberle managed to keep a low profile while amassing a conservative Internet following. Though Eberle was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2000, Texas Republican officials this week declined to talk about him and even denied knowing him. But Eberle — a former aerospace engineer who has never contributed to a political candidate and works out of his $225,000 home in a sprawling Pearland subdivision of new, color-coordinated burgundy and beige brick houses — finds himself a key player in a tawdry scandal that has captivated Washington. Eberle is the owner, president and CEO of two Web sites, the openly partisan GOPUSA (gopusa.com) and what he says is a nonpartisan news organization, Talon News (talonnews.com). The sites hit the national radar when Talon's Washington bureau chief, going by the name Jeff Gannon, asked President Bush during a White House briefing last month about working with Democrats, whom he described as "divorced from reality." Details emerge That sparked the curiosity of Media Matters for America (mediamatters.org), a Web site that monitors conservative media. The group began scrutinizing Gannon, learning that his real name is James Guckert and saying that his stories were largely regurgitated White House press releases and his questions in White House briefings were softballs. Bloggers linked Gannon to gay porn Web sites and prostitution. Naked photos of him and his Web profile of sexual preferences are in wide e-mail circulation. Gannon is no longer with Talon News, and his articles have been removed from the Web site. He declined to comment for this story. Eberle would not discuss Gannon, but he portrayed himself as a do-gooder who got involved in journalism and politics to spread information and the conservative message. "I've loved to write my whole life, short stories, poetry here and there that my mom has saved," the newcomer to political punditry said in an interview. In college, Eberle said, "I couldn't have told you the difference between a conservative and a liberal." An engineer with Lockheed Martin until recently, Eberle became interested in politics after hearing about the violent 1993 deaths of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16, at the hands of drunken gang members. He was motivated to get involved, he recalled, because, "There's something really, really messed up in the world." Eberle, who holds a bachelor's degree from Texas A&M University and master's and doctorate degrees in engineering from Rice University, got involved with Young Republicans and worked on a losing 1994 congressional campaign. He was immediately hooked. "This was a whole new world of issues and how they affect people," he said. Witnessed 9/11 attack Eberle said his interest was further heightened when, during a trip to Washington, he witnessed American Airlines Flight 77 crash into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. [ Rather convenient I'd say] Eberle and friend Bill Fairbrother decided to combine their technical skills and political interest to create GOPUSA. Fairbrother described Eberle in a recent interview as "very dedicated, very energetic and extremely intelligent." "If he puts his mind to something, I certainly wouldn't want to bet against him," he said. Fairbrother has decreased his involvement in the companies but remains on the board of directors. Eberle's older brother, Bruce, runs a conservative Web site, Millions of Americans (millionsofamericans.com). The two sites joined forces in 2004, and Bruce Eberle started referring his readers to Bobby Eberle's site. Bobby Eberle's wife, Kathleen, a neurologist, serves on the GOPUSA board. They have two children, Charlotte, 8, and 3-year-old Robert "Tres" III. Public records show that Eberle has never donated to a political campaign, and the Texas Ethics Commission reports only one time that Eberle gave or received money from the GOP. He was paid $165 last year for travel expenses to deep East Texas to speak to the Smith County Republicans. Several local Republican elected officials did not return phone calls regarding Eberle. "I'm not going to comment because I don't know him, and nobody here does," said Sherry Sylvester, a spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Texas, when asked about Eberle. How scandal started Furor over Eberle's Web sites began when media critics realized that an unknown organization with few reporters and close ties to a partisan Web site was able to secure coveted White House press credentials. Astonishment deepened as details of Gannon's personal life began to emerge. Media Matters has dubbed the scandal Gannon-gate. "How all this happened still hasn't been sufficiently answered," said David Brock, president of Media Matters and author of four political books. Brock said his organization's analysis of Gannon's questions over the past two years shows that White House officials called on him to change the subject when they faced intense questioning from other reporters. The controversy comes on the heels of another Bush administration media scandal, over federal agencies' paying journalists to speak favorably about their projects. Eberle said Talon merits White House credentials because of its large number of readers (he claims 500,000 unpaid subscribers), its regular publishing schedule and its differentiation between news and opinion journalism. Media experts, though, dispute Talon's credibility and legitimacy. They say the brouhaha has heightened an ongoing debate, in an age of ideology journalism and bloggers, about how journalism is defined. Ethics expert weighs in Kelly McBride, an ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, a journalism school, said the criteria for legitimate news organizations must include attempts to avoid conflicts of interest and biased reporting. Ideological and opinion journalism could still meet this criteria, she said, but only if they are upfront about their stances. Talon News, she said, is "using a journalism format, but they're not employing the practices of journalism." Eberle claims that, although GOPUSA is clearly partisan, Talon offers unbiased news "without the liberal filter" that he believes mainstream media contain. The two sites, though, are inextricably linked. Talon News contains only blurbs of stories. Users who want to read more are directed to GOPUSA. "Talon News is not designed to be a destination Web site," Eberle said, explaining that Talon provides content for other Web sites, including GOPUSA. "The GOPUSA site is designed to be a destination site." Eberle told the Chronicle that Talon's reporters are a mixture of volunteers and paid staffers, but he would not disclose how many reporters are on staff. The three stories posted on the Talon site Thursday had no bylines or datelines and seemed to involve no original reporting, taking quotes from televised news conferences and news releases. Eberle said his reporters have a range of experience, from those with 10 years of journalism experience to others who simply sent in writing samples. Asked if he has any non-Republican activists among his reporters, Eberle said, "I don't really know. I mean, I don't think I have any Democrats working for us." Appeal to kids planned Eberle is unapologetically conservative. His opinion pieces include one, written before the United States gave up the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that declared Saddam Hussein's possession of such weapons a "fundamental truth ... as dependable as the sun rising in the East."Another of Eberle's works declared former President Carter, a Democrat, "should stick to picking peanuts." Eberle is a churchgoing Catholic who is against abortion and in favor of prayer in school.He believes religious people are "almost persecuted" in the United States.[/u] Eberle is now focusing his attention on increasing his Web businesses. He plans to start a Web site that will offer history lessons to children through games, facts and figures, and a yet-to-be-named petition site that will share users' views with Congress and others. It will likely focus on conservative issues. Eberle, saying he hopes the adage is true that there is no such thing as bad publicity, expressed astonishment at the glut of attention to his sites just as he is expanding his business. They have gotten so many hits in recent days that the sites have occasionally bogged down, he said. Though his current goal is to grow his media companies, Eberle said he might run for public office "some day down the line." rachel.graves@chron.com www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/tech/news/3045613#nosmileys
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Post by Moses on Feb 19, 2005 19:58:19 GMT -5
This is where the investigation into the media should expand. Joe DiGenova is NOT a terrorism expert. Any show/network that puts on Vicky Toesing (sp?) -- DiGenova's wife-- is in bed w/ this nest of vipers.
And that of course, very much includes Howie Kurtz and his sleeper wife (for whom he dumped his real wife and kids). They attend the same dinner parties w/ Ted Olsen, Clarence Thomas, et al. What a bunch of losers -- Reagan left-overs.
Above it states that real journalistic entities try to avoid conflicts of interest. Well then the Washington Post and CNN, MSNBC, NBC, & ABC , and CBS (Schieffer brothers), and the New York Times are no better than GOPUSA.
There should be strict rules against journalists socializing w/ the people they are supposed to be reporting on. And if, like Kurtz, they engage in adulterous affairs w/ political operatives, they should be fired.
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Post by Moses on Feb 19, 2005 20:03:28 GMT -5
I think that we can rule out that he is another Israeli spy (though this should be investigated) -- though the practice of setting up politicians w/ "mates" who then are ensconsed in their offices is clearly an m.o. of these sleezy entities like Israel and its political friends.
But if Steny Hoyer is calling for an investigation, he most likely cleared it with AIPAC first. He answers to them first and foremost.
So Jonathan Pollard defender/Israeli agent Blitzer-- there must be some other really dirty connectiion here for Blitzer to have been one of the first to frame the issues according to the way the WH wanted them framed-- Blitzer is not a real journalist either. He's exactly the same as "Gannon".
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Post by Moses on Feb 19, 2005 20:04:57 GMT -5
Was this guy really in the military? The Marines? Or is that fake, too? Has anyone confirmed this?
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Post by Moses on Feb 19, 2005 20:13:41 GMT -5
Israel's m.o.: Example: feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=1868c3a6ed039eea&cat=c08dd24cec417021Sex for secretsBy SIMON BENSON AND IAN McPHEDERAN February 19, 2005 AN Israeli spy was kicked out of Australia for trying to seduce female spies, diplomats and defence specialists employed by some of the most sensitive national security agencies, security sources said yesterday. Amir Laty, expelled on December 28, even targeted journalists in the hope of cultivating young women with access to government secrets. "It was an attempt at high-level espionage,'' a national security source said. Apart from Laty's friendship with Attorney-General Philip Ruddock's 26-year-old daughter Caitlin, he is also believed to have had liaisons with a woman from the Defence Intelligence Organisation and another from the Prime Minister and Cabinet Office's international policy unit. Intelligence experts claimed he used the "honeypot" method, pretending a love interest to entrap woman in middle-level intelligence organisations. Under ASIO rules regarding Commonwealth employees, any contact with a foreign official must be reported to it. While romancing by a young, single male diplomat is not considered serious enough to warrant expulsion, selecting well-placed female government officials for "careful cultivation" to obtain high-level information is a different matter. It also emerged that ASIO was alerted to Laty's activities after what they claim was a "suspicious meeting" with a former Israeli Army intelligence officer serving time in a NSW jail for drug importation.The Daily Telegraph has discovered that the former consul last year visited the man who had served 19 years in a special unit of the Israeli Army. It was one "highly suspicious" visit which raised alarm bells and prompted contact with ASIO. Under ASIO rules Mr Ruddock would have been required him to report the contact to the spy agency he is responsible for. Mr Ruddock's spokeswoman yesterday said all the guidelines for contact reporting under ASIO had been adhered to, but would not confirm whether Mr Ruddock had contacted ASIO himself. Mr Ruddock has ruled out any link between Laty's expulsion and his long-time friendship with Caitlin. "Any acquaintance she may or may not have had with this particular gentleman was totally irrelevant to his departure from Australia, and his departure is not something we're commenting on," he said. Opposition leader Kim Beazley said the Opposition was happy with the Government's response.
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Post by RPankn on Feb 19, 2005 23:28:47 GMT -5
Was this guy really in the military? The Marines? Or is that fake, too? Has anyone confirmed this? No, "Gannon" never served in the military. Like the clique of gay war-loving, military worshipping, religious cultist, crypto-fascists (anymore adjectives?) at Smirking Chimp (e.g., BoloBoffin, Mateo, etc.), and the chickenhawks on both sides of the aisle, apparently "Gannon" only romanticized the idea of military life. By the way, he's 47 years old. It's sick when you think that while real Marines have been dying in Afghanistan and Iraq, this loser has been playing dress up for his johns. My guess is Blitzer is one of "Gannon's" johns and "Gannon" has the goods on Blitzer. Blitzer certainly fits the typical profile of "Gannon's" clientelle.
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Post by RPankn on Feb 19, 2005 23:55:07 GMT -5
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. [I don't know why they were laughing because there's essentially no difference between Talon and CNN, The Post, NY Times, etc.]
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? [A de facto state propaganda organ]
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.' [If Harris wants to know why the MSM is held in such low esteem, this should answer the question.]
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. [Harris gives the MSM way too much benefit of the doubt because it's clear the MSM is complicit in the neocon agenda.]
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. [Even Judith Miller?]
[Continued in next post]
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Post by RPankn on Feb 19, 2005 23:55:48 GMT -5
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 [ I'm not sure if Harris just outed himself here, but only wingnuts say "Democrat" instead of Democratic] 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. [ Notably, Drudge hasn't touched the "Gannon" story at all and instead has continued with his campaign against Chris Rock for making the wisecrack that only gay men watch the Oscars] 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. [ I wonder why Harris fails to mention "Gannon's" role in that.] 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. observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1418539,00.html
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Post by RPankn on Feb 20, 2005 0:10:38 GMT -5
Web Site Owner Says He Knew of Reporter's 2 IdentitiesMichael Stravato for The New York Times. Robert R. Eberle, owner of Gopusa.com and Talon News, said he "had no reason to think" his reporter was not meeting professional standards.By RALPH BLUMENTHAL Published: February 20, 2005 HOUSTON, Feb. 19 - The operator of an activist Republican Web site and news service said Friday night that he had known for two years that his White House correspondent went by two identities. But the operator, Robert R. Eberle, denied in an interview that the correspondent, Jeff Gannon, whose real name is James D. Guckert, was an administration plant or was given preferential treatment as a Republican partisan to ask soft questions at briefings. Mr. Guckert, who wrote for the Gopusa.com Web site and its offshoot Talon News, agreed. In an interview on Saturday, he said had never even made phone calls to administration officials, not even to ask routine questions or clarify basic facts. "My relationship with the White House and with Talon News was on the basis of a reporter and a reporter only. And all that, all of this other stuff out there that I was given favorable treatment, access to things - is absolutely, categorically untrue," Mr. Guckert said. Mr. Eberle, breaking his silence about details of the events, which have been portrayed by Democrats as a Republican effort to manipulate news, said it took him by surprise in early 2003 when the freelancer he had taken on as Jeff Gannon said he was gaining White House accreditation under the name James D. Guckert. "He said Gannon was his professional name; he didn't like the sound of his other name," Mr. Eberle recounted. Mr. Eberle, 36, an aerospace engineer with a penchant for conservative politics, said the disclosure raised no red flags about Mr. Guckert's journalistic credentials or professionalism. Mr. Eberle said that in the two years that Mr. Guckert worked for him, he had not kept track of his volunteer reporter. "Jeff did his thing, I did my thing," Mr. Eberle said. He also said that while he saw some of Mr. Guckert's writing samples before engaging him, "I don't know if I actually asked about his background and training." Mr. Guckert said Saturday that he had no journalism experience before arriving at Gopusa, apart from working for his high school and college newspapers. Asked why he did not, in his function as a White House reporter, even try to interview White House officials, he said, "I thought there was a lot of meat that came out of the press briefings." "You may say that lacks some kind of journalistic ambition," he added. Mr. Guckert denied seeing a Central Intelligence Agency memorandum disclosing the identity of Valerie Plame, a C.I.A. operative, even though he had strongly insinuated as much in an interview with her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, the transcript of which he posted on the Internet. Mr. Guckert's phrasing in that interview so strongly suggested he had seen the classified memorandum that it brought F.B.I. officials to his house as part of the Plame leak investigation, he said. But he said referring to the memorandum as though he had seen it was merely an interview technique. "What I said was no more than what was reported in The Wall Street Journal a week before," he said. Mr. Guckert resigned soon after a news conference when he asked Mr. Bush: "How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?" referring to Senate Democrats. Mr. Eberle said it was not his idea of a proper question. "I would have phrased it differently," he said. Still, he said, the backlash surprised him. "I had no reason to think he was not adhering to professional news standards." The White House generally reserves slots for professional reporters, not political activists. Mr. Guckert said he had never worked on political campaigns, or for the Republican Party, but admitted asking "pointed" questions at regular White House briefings from the point of a conservative. "Did my writing have a slant? Absolutely," he said. He said he has hired lawyers to examine whether he can take legal action over some of the information posted about him on the Internet, including the public posting of his Social Security number. Mr. Eberle also said he had no inkling that Mr. Guckert had created pornographic Web sites or offered himself as a gay escort. [ Liar, liar pants on fire. There's a mid-30s man who used the screen name 'spaceman' that left a positive review of "Gannon's" skills as a prostitute on a website out there Eberle. So who was that?] Those revelations came in recent accounts in The Washington Post. If he had known, Mr. Eberle said, "I don't think I would have brought him on." Mr. Guckert would not address the salacious details of his personal life - including sexually explicit photographs of him online but said "all of these personal things" have nothing to do with the administration or Talon News. Mr. Eberle said that he and some friends founded Gopusa out of his Houston home about five years ago and later created Talon News. They expanded by buying another conservative site called MillionsofAmericans.com. [ "Coincedentally" from another person named Eberle, Paula Jones' lawyer] Mr. Eberle, who once worked for Lockheed Martin and says he prefers to keep his current employer unidentified, said that he was not bankrolled by any backers and that he and his wife had made few Republican contributions. Texas Republicans said he was not well known in the party. [ I can't believe the Times lets that one go without asking Eberle about serving on the board of the Lyceum Foundation with Bush, being a Bush delegate to the 2000 covention, etc.] Before engaging Mr. Guckert on "a volunteer basis," Mr. Eberle said he himself got temporary press credentials to attend a White House briefing. "I think I asked a question about a U.N. resolution on Iraq," Mr. Eberle said. [ Someone needs to look into this as well] Mr. Guckert, having disclosed his real name, which he needed to use for even the cursory White House checks for a nonpermanent accreditation, then began attending briefings, Mr. Eberle said. "He would go as often as he could; he would try to go every day," he said. Mr. Guckert did not travel with the president. The question, Mr. Eberle said, was, "Can this person take information and put a news product together?" Mr. Eberle said the answer was yes. Mr. Guckert's stories have since been removed from the Web site. As for Mr. Guckert's reporting, Mr. Eberle said, "I've gone on record against softball questions on any side," but said that he did not monitor correspondents' performance. "I thought he was doing a good job. He did a good job, until that question." [ How would he know if he didn't monitor "Gannon"? Why didn't the Times follow up on this?] Anne E. Kornblut contributed reporting from Washington for this article. www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/national/20gannon.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1108876284-3+5Y7DiXY/UUN874fO46ig#nosmileys
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