| Author | Message | ||
     Innisowen Citizen Username: Innisowen Post Number: 420 Registered: 3-2004 |
I'm finding it soooooo interesting that Jeff (Gannon) (Guckert?), the Talon News Service "White House Correspondent" who always lobs the cream puff questions at President Bush and Scott McLellan, turns out to be a fraud, given press credentials by the White House, so that he precisely will be the one sure source of soft ball questions and tendentious phrasings that call into question the integrity of the opposition. He is, to boot, a frequent visitor and contributor to gay male websites in his "spare time." Nice work, White House! I really feel good about our freedom of the press guarantees under this administration. | ||
| themp Supporter Username: Themp Post Number: 1486 Registered: 12-2001 |
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/arts/20rich.html?8hpib=&pagewanted=all&positio n= Good article. | ||
| Innisowen Citizen Username: Innisowen Post Number: 421 Registered: 3-2004 |
This article from Salon: Last week, Republican activist Bobby Eberle, the man behind the now infamous conservative Web site Talon News, insisted that before hiring "Jeff Gannon" as his White House correspondent, he never looked into Gannon's background. If true, Eberle probably wishes he had. And the same could be said for the White House officials who bent the rules to make way for Gannon in the press briefing room. There's new evidence that the Talon reporter, who lobbed softball questions at Bush during press conferences on behalf of a dubious news operation, recently worked as a male escort. Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert, made headlines last week when he resigned from Talon after days of intensive scrutiny from bloggers. Online critics first raised questions about Guckert's questionable journalistic methods and his lack of experience (he often cut and pasted White House press releases into his "news" stories), as well as Talon's lack of independence from Eberle's purely partisan GOPUSA Web site. Then questions arose about why the Talon reporter was given access to the White House press room after being turned down for Capitol Hill press credentials. The final straw for Guckert came when bloggers revealed associations that Guckert and his Delaware-based company had with a handful of gay-themed male escort services. Guckert insisted his only involvement with the sex sites was as a software consultant and, he added: "Those sites were never hosted. There's -- nothing ever went up on them," as he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Feb. 10. In an interview posted Feb. 11 with Editor & Publisher magazine, Guckert made the same claim: "They were done through a private company [Bedrock Corp.] I was involved with doing Web site development about five years ago. The sites were never hosted, and nothing was ever posted to the sites." On Monday, John Aravosis posted on his liberal site AmericaBlog.org detailed evidence indicating that not only was Guckert personally involved with the Web sites, but he was also offering his escort services for $200 an hour, or $1,200 a weekend. Aravosis received on-the-record confirmation, complete with five invoices paid by Delaware's Bedrock Corp., from the person Guckert hired to build the gay Web site USMCPT.com, which features X-rated photos. The Web designer also forwarded to Aravosis dozens of unused photos that Guckert sent him when the site was being built. "Each photo looks remarkably like Jeff Gannon," Aravosis writes. AmericaBlog also details scores of other gay escort sites featuring photos and personal profiles of Guckert, such as MaleCorps.com, WorkingBoys.net, and MeetLocalMen.com. Guckert's first site remained live until May 8, 2003, one month after he began covering the White House for Talon. According to Aravosis' research, Guckert's escort profile on WorkingBoys.net was still active as of Monday. Aravosis says he contacted Guckert for comment for the story but received none. Guckert appeared on Michelangelo Signorile's talk show on Sirius satellite radio Monday afternoon, during which time he was asked specifically about his gay escort past. "I'm just not going to address it," Guckert said. Addressing the question of why Guckert's personal life matters, Aravosis wrote, "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.'" Revelations about Guckert's past certainly do not square with Talon's openly conservative approach. Talon has defended Bush on the issue of a gay-marriage ban and supported the notion of "ex-gays." In an article last year, Guckert, as Gannon, wrote that Democratic Sen. John Kerry "might someday be known as 'the first gay president.' The Massachusetts liberal 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." Guckert's brand of openly partisan journalism was often suspect. Last February he reported that a former Kerry intern had taped an interview with "one of the major television networks" to discuss her affair with the senator, an assertion that was completely false. The intern never appeared on television and never claimed to have had an affair with Kerry. (Since quitting, all of Gannon's stories have been scrubbed from the Talon site.) Describing its editorial mission, Eberle told the Dallas Morning News that if he, as editor, came across a story that was critical of Republicans, "you bet we'd be covering it." To date, there's no evidence Talon has come across any such story. News of Guckert's past, or at least how he was able to land a coveted White House press pass without submitting himself to a full-scale FBI background check, will likely be addressed at Tuesday's meeting between leaders of the White House Correspondents Association and White House press secretary Scott McClellan. According to E&P, the two sides are getting together in the wake of the Guckert scandal to discuss ways of adjusting the criteria for White House press passes. Most White House reporters obtain a permanent, or "hard," press pass only after passing an FBI background check, and only after first securing Capitol Hill credentials. Guckert was denied Hill credentials when the committee in charge of issuing them could not confirm Talon was a legitimate, independent news organization. Instead, Guckert, with the help of someone inside the White House press office, used a daily pass for nearly two years. Daily passes require only instant background checks, compared to the ones the FBI conducts for hard-pass applicants, which can take several months to complete. According to Eberle, Guckert provided White House officials with his real name, which means they knew he was writing under a false one. White House officials refuse to discuss why they let Guckert in or what, if any, criteria they used to determine his qualifications. "We're trying to get more details about how this was done," says Mark Smith, vice president of the White House Correspondents Association. Last week, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., requested from McClellan all documents related to Guckert's press passes. "As you may know, Mr. Guckert/Gannon was denied a Congressional press pass because he could not show that he wrote for a valid news organization. Given the fact that he was denied Congressional credentials, I seek your explanation of how Mr. Guckert/Gannon passed muster for White House press credentials," Lautenberg wrote. On Monday, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer noted, "This issue is important from an ethical as well as from a national security standpoint. It is hard to understand why a man with little real journalism experience was given a White House press corps credential." The gay escort angle may also force Guckert's conservative defenders to rethink their position. Writing last week for Men's News Daily, a conservative site often aligned with Talon, columnist Sher Zieve insisted, "My, most reliable, source advises that ... before coming to Washington D.C., Jeff was in software. The site domain names were registered, by Jeff, for a client or clients. The same source advises that these sites were never brought on-line, for said clients." Writing for the right-wing media advocacy group, Accuracy in Media, Cliff Kincaid dismissed the controversy as "laughable," insisting Guckert's only "crimes" were "that he was too pro-Republican, attended White House briefings, and asked questions unfair to Democrats." And at Power Line, the conservative outpost that wrote relentlessly about CBS's troubles with its Bush National Guard story last year, the site has confessed bewilderment about the Guckert controversy. "I can't figure out what the story is," wrote one of Power Line's contributors. Whether news that Guckert was able to go from posting his gay male escort services online to being ushered into the White House under a phony name on behalf of a fake news organization -- and was never asked to pass an FBI background check -- constitutes a real "story" among the Republican Party faithful, or the mainstream press corps, remains to be seen. | ||
| Strawberry Alarm Clock Supporter Username: Strawberry Post Number: 4538 Registered: 10-2001 |
how about shut up...old news. | ||
| Innisowen Citizen Username: Innisowen Post Number: 422 Registered: 3-2004 |
Strawberry Alarm Clock: How about YOU observe the seemingly vanishing American right of freedom of expression? When did you decide to curtail it for the rest of us? And who do you think gave you the right to make that decision? | ||
| Joe Citizen Username: Gonets Post Number: 698 Registered: 2-2004 |
Oh, it's old news that male prostitutes gain access to White House press conferences? Since you claim to have gained access to these press conferences, you ought to know. | ||
| Rastro Citizen Username: Rastro Post Number: 720 Registered: 5-2004  |
Nice comeback, Straw. Or should we call you Jeff?  It might be old news to you, but the mainstream media is just starting to pick it up. Who decides what news should be talked about? Assuming any of your career claims are truthful, I'd think you'd want this cleared up so as not to sully the good name of the right-wing press. | ||
| LibraryLady(ncjanow) Supporter Username: Librarylady Post Number: 2203 Registered: 5-2001  |
As Maureen Dowd so elequently put it "a jihad against journalists" Combine this thread with the one in the South Orange section on South Orange's own Matt Cooper and you can see this administration's opinion of freedom of the press . -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- February 17, 2005 OP-ED COLUMNIST Bush's Barberini Faun By MAUREEN DOWD ASHINGTON 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 Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | RSS | Help | Back to Top | ||
| notehead Supporter Username: Notehead Post Number: 2074 Registered: 5-2001  |
I don't always like Ms. Dowd, but she nailed it on this one. That she would have to have a months-long background check by the Secret Service, while this male prostitute with zero experience is given a pass, speaks VOLUMES. | ||
| dave23 Citizen Username: Dave23 Post Number: 174 Registered: 5-2001 |
Now it turns out he was allowed into the briefing room in Feb 2003, before Talon even existed. Curiouser and curiouser. | ||
| Innisowen Citizen Username: Innisowen Post Number: 425 Registered: 3-2004 |
Perhaps somebody in the administration thought Guckert was "cute," as it were, and provided a press pass for Guckert (and Talon News) in return for some extracurricular favors. The lengths to which the Bush administration will go to bend, twist, pervert, misrepresent, and avoid the truth and hard questions, never cease to amaze and mystify me. From SBVT against Kerry to all the misrepresentations about Iraq, we face an un-ending stream of lies, half-truths, and continual deception. If you believe Porter Goss, the administration's own preference for Director, CIA in testimony yesterday, Iraq, thanks to our misguided policies, is proving to be the world's most prolific basic training camp for terrorists. Give me the days of Bill Clinton any time. Jesus, even give me the days of Millard Filmore over what we have in the White House now. | ||
| joeltfk Citizen Username: Joeltfk Post Number: 116 Registered: 8-2001  |
I'm in agreement that allowing this creep into the press room is a scandal, and I agree that his being allegedly gay represents a certain irony, and I agree that his being a prostitute impugns not only his character, but that of the administration in allowing him access as a journalist... But there's also a subtext here that makes me uncomfortable, an idea that somehow his being merely gay is a further slur on his character: Not only is he not a reporter but he also HAS SEX WITH MEN! This guy is no role model, but simply being Gay shouldn't be on the list of things that are wrong with him. Has anyone else picked up on this or am I just being hypersensitive? Maybe the right wing is fueling the gay angle, as if to say, "See, he not one of US either!" | ||
| Innisowen Citizen Username: Innisowen Post Number: 426 Registered: 3-2004 |
That he is gay should not be a concern for anyone. That he easily misrepresented himself to White House vetting and background checking is disturbing, for two reasons: Either the White House really blew it or was willing to overlook his background in order to plant a flinger of cream puff questions in the WH press corps; secondly, the administration's virulently anti-gay rhetoric and initiatives are in stark contrast to its complicity or stupidity in letting this character, with a questionable background, infest the WH press room. Either way, the WH has a big credibility loss in this one. Explain that one away, Rush Limbaugh! | ||
| Bobkat Supporter Username: Bobk Post Number: 7633 Registered: 5-2001 |
Joe, I don't think that anyones sex life should be a criteria for getting a White House pass. However, it is ironic that the Bushies choose a gay man as what essentially was their shill. given the current GOP phobia about sexual orientation. I am sure that many of the same people who are defending Guckert are among those dismissing Scott Ritter because of his alleged sexual, uhm, peculiarities, I guess is the word I am looking for. | ||
| LibraryLady(ncjanow) Supporter Username: Librarylady Post Number: 2206 Registered: 5-2001 |
Perhaps it's not that he is gay but that he offered himself for money as an all weekend "escort"????? | ||
| Strawberry Alarm Clock Supporter Username: Strawberry Post Number: 4540 Registered: 10-2001 |
uhh sorry bobk, If Republicans excused Guckert we'd be Democrats. | ||
| Innisowen Citizen Username: Innisowen Post Number: 428 Registered: 3-2004 |
But Republican money and hard right Texas Republican backers are the ones who slipped Guckert under the noses of everyone in the WH. I wonder if the person who does security screening for the WH is the same one who's in charge of everyday security for the "Homeland." Now there's a nice Nazi-sounding term. I wonder when the administration will start calling it "the Fatherland." | ||
| Mustt_mustt Citizen Username: Mustt_mustt Post Number: 283 Registered: 8-2003 |
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/001942.html#001942 has links to the Jon Stewart show last night, which dealt extensively with the Jeff Gannon affair; it was a thematically integrated show, with all segments dealing with a certain topic. | ||
| themp Supporter Username: Themp Post Number: 1507 Registered: 12-2001 |
Now it's heating up! From Seatle Post " But yesterday, the online magazine Salon cited C-SPAN television clips showing Gannon attending White House news briefings as early as Feb. 28, 2003, a month before his Internet news site, Talon News, was registered and online. And McClellan's predecessor, Ari Fleischer, told Editor & Publisher magazine that in early 2003, during his tenure as President Bush's spokesman, he became so concerned about Gannon's possible ties to the Republican Party that he would not call on him at news briefings. Fleischer said he later determined, after meeting with Gannon and his employer, Texas Republican activist Bobby Eberle, that Gannon was working for "a conservative news organization" rather than the GOP. They "assured me they were not part of the Republican Party," " From "Daily Kos" "It would be interesting to see if "Talon News" was created as a front to create "distance" between GOPUSA and Gannon. Remember, Gannon was in that room prior to the creation of Talon News." Whattaya bet Ari made a "suggestion" at that meeting, like: "Hey I need a little coverage here. If he worked for some kind of website or something...that would work for us." Ari was suspicious and had his meeting "early" in 2003. Talon came into being in March of 2003? | ||
| notehead Supporter Username: Notehead Post Number: 2082 Registered: 5-2001 |
There's gonna be more coming out about this silliness, I can feel it. I'm sure the bloggers are hard at work! One downside, though, is that Guckert will probably end up writing a book and becoming a millionaire. |
