The Jeff Gannon/James Guckert Scandal

[sspadowsky]

Once upon a time, there was a guy named "Jeff Gannon" (not sure whether this is his real name), who started a "news" website called Talon News. Talon News was actually run by GOP activists, and did little more than post White House press releases.

Somehow, this Gannon fellow, a guy who has no journalistic credentials whatsoever, gets daily passes to White House press conferences every day for, I think, two years. Basically, this guy's purpose is to lob softball questions at Scott McClellan when the other press folk start putting the heat on him.

Well, the press gets pissed at this guy, so they, and a shitload of bloggers, all started digging for info on Mr. Gannon. Here's what they found:
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www.americablog.org
Holy crap
by John in DC - 2/8/2005 07:03:51 PM

Update: He just resigned.

Let me say again, holy crap.

The blogosphere has dug up some really really really creepy stuff about that pseudo-reporter with the pseudonym who the White House lets ask all the softball questions about their briefings. His pseudonym is Jeff Gannon, and well, the folks at DailyKos, and Eschaton, have been doing a little digging around on him.

It's a long and sordid tale, but let me give it to you in a nutshell. Mr. Gannon's home page is JeffGannon.com. Well, JeffGannon.com is owned by a person and company that owns the following Web addresses as well:

Hotmilitarystud.com
Militaryescorts.com
Militaryescortsm4m.com

And for those of you who are really straight or really clueless, "m4m" is a gay online term for men who are looking to have sex with other men, and "escort" means prostitute. And being a military escort is also against the Uniform Code of Military Justice in at least two different ways, if not more.

Now, I'm not one to judge how folks like to get their jollies (assuming no children are involved and it's consensual), but then again, I don't suck up to the family values agenda like Mr. Gannon does. I've been through Gannon's archives, and it's a horrendous accumulation of religious right suck-up pieces on gay issues. Some are concerned that perhaps it's not fair to hit him with the gay card, if he is gay. Well, take a look at some of the stories from Gannon's Talon News Service: here, here, here Talon is promoting "ex-gays," defending Bush on gay marriage, and Gannon himself writing a story defending Santorum on his man-dog-sex commments about gays. There are lots more, you get the picture.

Oh, and speaking of pictures, they found photos too.

The big issue here is whether the White House has been knowingly opening its doors to a pseudonymous male hustler (or pimp) so he'll pose softball questions to the president. If that's the case here - and in all fairness, we still need to hear from Gannon - it's not just creepy, it's outrageous and an incredible violation of the country's trust, and just as importantly, White House security. Do these people do a background check on anyone?

Just go and read it all (http://blogs.salon.com/0002874/2005/02/08.html) for yourself.

[mburbank]

I hope that regular media follows up on this. They covered this story today inlcuding hi admission that he set up the gay websites for clients when he was starting a web hosting business (not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just funny, so I'm glad it's true) .

But Mclellan is inisting the White House had no connection to this guy, which could be true, but seems HIGHLY suspicious since he got Whitehouse press passes every day AND he got called on very frequently for an unknown journalist from and unknown website. It seems pretty likely to me it will turn out this guy got paid to be a shill, and if that's true, than Mclellan at all have STILL not learned the lesson of watergate, or Monica Lewisnky for that matter, ie. the coverup is worse than the crime.

[sspadowsky]

I hope that regular media follows up on this. They covered this story today inlcuding hi admission that he set up the gay websites for clients when he was starting a web hosting business (not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just funny, so I'm glad it's true) .

But Mclellan is inisting the White House had no connection to this guy, which could be true, but seems HIGHLY suspicious since he got Whitehouse press passes every day AND he got called on very frequently for an unknown journalist from and unknown website. It seems pretty likely to me it will turn out this guy got paid to be a shill, and if that's true, than Mclellan at all have STILL not learned the lesson of watergate, or Monica Lewisnky for that matter, ie. the coverup is worse than the crime.

Oh, totally. This was the first of many articles I've read about this guy, and the whole situation is highly suspicious. The gay website thing is just a hilarious topper to the story.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Yeah, apparently this guy got into the White House under his pseudonym of Jeff Gannon, which is supposed to be a no-no.

I kind of wish he'd stay on. I think it'd be great, while either McClellan or whoever may be getting grilled, he were to just stand up and ask "yeah, can you, Mr. Secretary, explain why America is so totally awesome? I don't think the rest of the press gets it."

Government is boring. Planted pseudo-journalists will make it more like theater.

[sspadowsky]

NY Times gets in on the act
by kos
Thu Feb 10th, 2005 at 23:02:08 PST

And no mention of sex. Just pure substance.

Two Democrats in Congress are pressing for investigations into how a Washington reporter who used a pseudonym managed to gain access to the White House and had access to classified documents that named Valerie Plame as a C.I.A. operative.

The Democrats, Representatives John Conyers Jr. of Michigan and Louise M. Slaughter from Rochester, wrote yesterday to Patrick Fitzgerald, the independent prosecutor appointed in the Plame case, seeking an investigation into how the reporter, James D. Guckert, who used the name Jeff Gannon, had access to classified documents that revealed the identity of Ms. Plame.

Bingo.

Remember, Talon News existed a mere couple of days before "Gannon" was given White House press creds. A few months later, he was receiving classified CIA documents and getting to ask questions while other reporters get shut out or outright excluded.

There's something going on.

The Propagannon crew have issued a press release (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/10/224122/709) summarizing the story to date.

The plot thickens.......

[mburbank]

Do I have to say it?

Follow the fuckin' MONEY!

Get the bank records, find out how much 'Talon' was paying ths guy, find out who owns 'talon' and who owns the series of shell companies bound to have funded it and crack this open.

Jesus lord, are we going to find out who 'deep throat' was before there's a journalist with a goddamn spine in this country?

It's one thing to use tax dollars to set up a shill in the Whitehouse press room. Bad, maybe even criminal, but small enough beans. It's something else entirely to use that fake journalist to spread illegally transfered top secret documents to punish your enemies.

THAT is serious shit, that is Watergate shit. And where there's one instance of that kind of evil crap, there's more. Most folks don't recall this because it was so long ago and the main news swallowed up all the details, but the watergate break in was just a single criminal act in an entire nest of burglaries, money laundering and criminal activities.

This Guckert shit should be hip deep in reporters twenty four hours a friggin' day.

[ziggytrix]

What are you, some kind of terrorist sympathizer, Max? :P

[sspadowsky]

Here's some more insight into Gannon's possible involvement with the Plame leak scandal:
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http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/01/1717988.php

Valerie Plame outed via state propaganda mouthpiece?
by dailykos Friday, Jan. 28, 2005 at 8:09 PM

State propaganda is illegal in the U.S. This is why the three journalists that have been identified to have been given money in order to promote Bush policy were in violation of the law. David Brock's Media Matters organization has found a number of bits of evidence that the Bush administration outed Joseph Wilson's wife Valerie Plame as a CIA worker via a state news agency, 'Talon News' probably equivalent to Pravda in the Soviet Union. Links at dailykos

Plame leaked by fake news source?
by SusanG
Fri Jan 28th, 2005 at 17:30:14 PST

Did the White House dribble the Plame leak through its own fake mouthpiece news source?

Consider:

A fake news service employs a fake reporter who apparently was the only one "identified by the Washington Post as having knowledge of the [leaked CIA] memo's existence." What leaked CIA memo, you ask? The one in which "Wilson ... suggests his wife was instrumental in his selection for the fact-finding trip to Africa." [cites in block quotes below.]

Let's back this pony up and look at what's come out in the past week.

Media Matters for the past couple of days has been delving into the mysterious "Talon News Service" and its mysterious, oh-so-helpful shilling reporter at White House press conferences, "Jeff Gannon."

First, from Media Matters:

Talon News, a conservative company whose Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent Jeff Gannon is well-known for asking loaded pro-Republican questions at White House press briefings,appears to be more a political organization than a media outlet.

Media Matters for America recently highlighted three Gannon articles that were little more than reprints of Republican and Bush administration releases; Media Matters has also noted Gannon's role as White House press secretary Scott McClellan's lifeline and Talon editor in chief Bobby Eberle's partisan political activities. A more in-depth look at Talon,Gannon,and Eberle casts additional doubt on Talon's claim to be a media outlet and raises questions about whether Gannon should be a credentialed member of the White House press corps.

Eberle is also,as Media Matters has previously noted,president and CEO of GOPUSA,a "conservative news,information,and design company dedicated to promoting conservative ideals." Though Eberle has claimed on the September 13,2004,edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country that GOPUSA and Talon News are separate companies,they overlap heavily.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200501280006

But wait! "Jeff Gannon" isn't really Jeff Gannon after all, according to Atrios:

Special Treatment for Gannon?

According to sources, Jeff Gannon's real name is not, in fact, Jeff Gannon. According to the same sources, his White House press credentials list him as "Jeff Gannon" - they let him use his pseudonym -- even though married female reporters, who use their maiden name professionally, are given credentials with their married name and aren't allowed to be credentialed under their maiden names...

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2005_01_23_atrios_archive.html#110695056420863397

And then, a little Googling reveals this, from a March 9, 2004, "Talon News" release:

Talon News has learned that one of the journalists being targeted is Jeff Gannon, Washington Bureau Chief and White House correspondent for Talon News.

According to a subsequent Talon News story by Bobby Eberle regarding the Washington Post piece, "The Washington Post cites an unnamed source who says, 'The CIA is angry about the circulation of a still-classified document to conservative news outlets.'

They point to a memo referenced in a Talon News interview of Wilson that suggests his wife was instrumental in his selection for the fact-finding trip to Africa."

Talon News was the only service identified by the Washington Post as having knowledge of the memo's existence.

http://www.jeffgannon.com/Making%20News/federal_grand_jury_could_subpoen.htm

So am I reading more into this than I should be? And why would "Talon News" fink its own self out about the grand jury subpoena? Has the Bush administration and its evil ways turned me into a permanent paranoiac? Does anyone want to join me in useless speculation as to what this complicated crapola means?
www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/28/203014/655
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[sspadowsky]

Op-Ed from yesterday's Houston Chronicle (http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/3038061). I think this story still bears watching. Most in the mainstream press who have given this any attention at all are still missing the point that this guy was at least partly involved in the Valerie Plame scandal, but the important thing is that this issue still gets some coverage.

Max made a great point in relating this scandal to Watergate. If we think of what we already know this administration has gotten away with, ponder what they're doing that we don't yet know about. An administration this brazen is bound to stub its toe at some point.
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MORE PROPAGANDA
Fake reporter's questioning of the president fits into the administration's widening pattern of manufactured journalism.
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

The unmasking of an alleged journalist who used a pseudonym to gain access to White House briefings and news conferences raises more questions about the Bush administration's tactics for securing favorable news. James Guckert, who used the Talon News byline "Jeff Gannon," managed to get access to the White House on a daily basis for two years.
ADVERTISEMENT

Guckert questioned President Bush at a January news conference last month, tossing a softball query that ridiculed Democrats for "being divorced from reality." The organization Guckert worked for turned out to be an arm of a partisan group, GOPUSA, a conservative Web site based in Houston and dedicated to "spreading the conservative message throughout America." It turns out Talon News was created only a few days before Guckert first applied for a White House daily pass.

Guckert was denied similar credentials to cover Capitol Hill because of questions about his legitimacy as a reporter. His identity was exposed by bloggers, and he turned out to be associated with a number of sexually oriented Web sites. Guckert resigned, claiming harassment by liberals.

Guckert's only credential as a journalist appears to be attendance at a two-day seminar by the conservative Leadership Oriented Broadcast Journalism School. He apparently gained access to the White House using little more than a fake name, a Social Security number, and date of birth. In an age of heightened security, it's hard to believe this lapse could occur without someone inside the White House vouching for Guckert. The alternative would be little meaningful security at the executive mansion.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said President Bush did not know who Guckert was. A journalist familiar with the process says it's likely Bush was tipped by his press staff that "the bald guy would lob him an easy one." If so, setting up ringers to toss fawning questions to the president is another indication, if any were needed, that the administration prefers the media to be propagandists rather than independent inquisitors.

At least there's no indication the White House was involved in directly paying Guckert for his services, as the administration did in three other recent incidents. Last month, conservative commentator Armstrong Williams apologized for not disclosing that his company had received $240,000 from a public relations agency hired by the Department of Education to promote Bush's No Child Left Behind Act.

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

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

The practice of buying ostensibly independent reporters and writers to shill for politicians deceives the public and corrupts the free media. Allowing fake reporters to compete with credentialed journalists for sparse press conference time with the leader of the free world demeans the whole process.

[sspadowsky]

OK, of all places to mention Guckert's relationship to the Plame leak scandal, The Conservative Voice (http://www.theconservativevoice.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2908) has done so. It takes them a bit to get to it, but they do. Pay special attention to Congresswoman Louise Slaughter's remark at the end......
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Discredited reporter owes back taxes
Ex-Delawarean didn't pay $20,700 over three years

By ESTEBAN PARRA

The former Wilmington resident who gained notoriety asking softball questions at White House press conferences has an outstanding tax bill from the state of Delaware.

James D. Guckert, who reported under the pseudonym Jeff Gannon, failed to pay Delaware more than $20,700 in personal state income tax from 1991 through 1994, according to documents filed in Superior Court in Wilmington.

State Division of Revenue Director Patrick Carter said the assessment has not yet been satisfied.

"When it rains, it pours," Guckert said Friday from his Washington home. He would not comment further.

According to court records, Guckert owed $9,484 in taxes; $7,697.69 in fines and $3,560.71 in interest.

The judgment, which was filed Oct. 18, 1996, said interest would continue to accrue at a rate of 1 percent a month on the unpaid balance, and the penalty would accrue at 0.5 percent on the tax.

Carter said he is prohibited by law from telling how much Guckert has paid of the judgment, if any.

Although the matter carries no potential prison time, if Guckert were to win the state lottery or sell any property in the state, Delaware would collect whatever debt he owed.

Guckert resigned Tuesday from Talon News, a conservative Internet news outlet owned by the Web site GOPUSA, following criticism from Democrats and news media watchdogs on the Web that he acted more like an administration ally at news conferences than an objective journalist.

Online writers called "bloggers" published his real name and the Wilmington address where his Internet domain was registered around the time that he resigned. They also discovered that several gay pornographic domain names had been registered through his domain.

Guckert said he registered those domain names for a client while he was working to set up a Web-hosting business in Wilmington.

Guckert applied for a congressional press pass in April but was rejected on grounds that he did not work for a bona fide news organization.

Now, Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., and Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., are calling on Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the leaking of a classified CIA memo containing the identity of undercover agent Valerie Plame to Guckert, according to Slaughter's Web site.

Federal authorities are still investigating the identity of the person who leaked Plame's identity to syndicated columnist Robert Novak last year. Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, has claimed the leak may have been intended to discredit his assertions that the Bush administration exaggerated Iraq's nuclear capabilities to bolster its argument for going to war in 2003.

"We now know that 'Jeff Gannon' had access to classified CIA documents that contained the identity of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame," Slaughter said. "This is more than an issue of media manipulation by the White House ... this is now an issue of national security."

[sspadowsky]

No mention of Gannon, but he could definitely be called back in for this one. I'm not sure how to feel about the ruling or how it's going to affect journalism in the future, but the Plame story is definitely growing.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Clicky (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6974266/)

Reporters ordered to testify in CIA leak
2003 case involves New York Times, Time magazine
The Associated Press
Updated: 11:36 a.m. ET Feb. 15, 2005

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a ruling against two reporters who could go to jail for refusing to divulge their sources to investigators probing the leak of an undercover CIA officer’s name to the media.

advertisement
The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with prosecutors in their attempt to compel Time magazine’s Matthew Cooper and The New York Times’ Judith Miller to testify before a federal grand jury about their confidential sources.

“We agree with the District Court that there is no First Amendment privilege protecting the information sought,” Judge David Sentelle said in the ruling, which was unanimous.

Prison time possible
In October, Judge Thomas Hogan held the reporters in contempt, rejecting their argument that the First Amendment shielded them from revealing their sources. Both reporters face up to 18 months in jail if they continue to refuse to cooperate.

The special prosecutor in the case, Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, is investigating whether a crime was committed when someone leaked the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame. Her name was published in a 2003 column by Robert Novak, who cited two senior Bush administration officials as his sources.

The column appeared after Plame’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, wrote a newspaper opinion piece criticizing President Bush’s claim that Iraq had sought uranium in Niger. The CIA had asked Wilson to check out the uranium claim. Wilson has said he believes his wife’s name was leaked as retaliation for his critical comments.

Disclosure of an undercover intelligence officer’s identity can be a federal crime if prosecutors can show the leak was intentional and the person who released that information knew of the officer’s secret status.

How reporters are involved
Cooper is a White House correspondent for Time who has reported on the Plame controversy. He agreed in August to provide limited testimony about a conversation he had with Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, after Libby released Cooper from his promise of confidentiality.

Fitzgerald then issued a second, broader subpoena seeking the names of other sources.

Miller is facing jail for a story she never wrote. She had gathered material for an article about Plame, but ended up not doing a story.

Prosecutors have interviewed President Bush, Cheney, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and other current or former administration officials in the investigation. Journalists from NBC and The Washington Post also have been subpoenaed.

[mburbank]

Tough call on this one. Well, actually not. Making the pres choose between revealing sources and jail is a very, very, very, bad thing.

Even if it is Judith Miller who ought to be in jail for her sheer credulessness if nothing else.

This is the NYT 'reporter' who filled stories about WMD having been found (in one case describing a 'scientist' pointing to the very spot they were buried) without ever checking anything out.

But ever her. Set this precedent and it will be used.

[mburbank]

NEWSFLASH! It turns out "Gannon" worked as a male prostitute! Prostitution, last I checked was a crime. So, a criminal with no Journalism experiecne at all, was getting a daily white house press pass. Speaks well to security, at least.

The articles are too long to post here, but here's the link; check it out.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021505Z.shtml

There's also a cute article about how Talons parent company wrote an article calling George Soros "A descendant of Shylock".

[KevinTheOmnivore]

According to Britt Hume of Fox News, writing under a pseudonym is a "time honored tradition," like Mark Twain. Yes....he made that comparison. :(

[mburbank]

I hear Mark Twain also rented his penis to other guys, never wrote for a legitimate newspaper and had daily access to the whitehouse.

It's EERIE.


Have you at last no shame, Britt Hume? NO SHAME AT ALL?!

[sspadowsky]

Most of the 'liberal' media isn't sinking its teeth into the Gannon scandal. Let 'em know that they should. Gay prostitution has little to do with the real scandal here. Tell them they need to re-acquaint themselves with the lost art of investigative journalism.

Yell at CNN (http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form1.html?35)
Yell at Fox News: speakout@foxnews.com
MSNBC: viewerservices@msnbc.com


I'll add more as I find them.

[sspadowsky]

The Gannon/Guckert story takes another twist! Turns out he was allowed access to the White House Press Briefing room in February 2003, before Talon News even existed. Thank God for the bloggers, 'cause the mainstream media isn't doing fuck-all with this story.

What's more, the White House is refusing any further comment.

Curiouser and curiouser......
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Dig it (http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/02/17/gannon/)

"Jeff Gannon's" incredible access
There's evidence he got into White House briefings before he was a "reporter."

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Eric Boehlert

Feb. 17, 2005 | James Guckert's mysterious career as a White House correspondent for Talon News just took another strange twist. And once again, the newest revelation begs the central question: Who broke the rules on Guckert's behalf to give him access to the White House? Despite administration claims that Guckert simply followed established protocol in order to routinely slip inside the White House briefing room, it now appears clear that Guckert, who just months before his 2003 debut as a cub reporter was offering himself up online as a $200 an hour male escort, benefited from extraordinary preferential treatment, likely granted by someone inside the White House press office.

Thanks to the continued digging by online sleuths, there's now documented evidence that Guckert attended White House briefings as early as February 2003. Guckert, using his alias "Jeff Gannon," once boasted online about asking then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer a question at the Feb. 28, 2003, briefing. The date is significant because in order to receive a White House press pass, Guckert would have needed to prove that he worked for a news organization that, in the words of White House press secretary Scott McClellan, "published regularly," in itself an extraordinarily low threshold. Critics have charged that while Talon News may publish regularly, it boasts a nearly all-volunteer news team which includes not a single person with actual journalism experience. (The team does, though, have quite a bit of experience working on Republican campaigns.) In other words, the outfit is not legitimate nor independent, two criteria often used in Washington, D.C., to receive press credentials.

But what's significant about the February 2003 date is that Talon did not even exist then. The organization was created in late March 2003, and began publishing online in early April 2003. Gannon, a jack of all trades who spent time in the military as well as working at an auto repair shop (not to mention escorting), has already stated publicly that Talon News was his first job in journalism. That means he wasn't working for any other news outlet in February 2003 when he was spotted by C-Span cameras inside the White House briefing room. And that means Guckert was ushered into the White House press room in February 2003 for a briefing despite the fact he was not a journalist.

Whereas it was once suspected that White House press officials in charge of doling out coveted press passes went easy on Guckert, a Republican partisan working for an amateurish news outlet who would routinely ask softball questions, it now appears those same unnamed White House officials simply ignored all established credential standards -- including detailed security guidelines -- and gave Guckert White House access, even though he had no professional standing whatsoever.

For more than a week White House officials have refused to answer any of Salon's questions regarding the credential process used for Guckert's press passes.

Democrats on the Hill are also looking for answers. Last week, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., requested from McClellan all documents related to Guckert's press passes. On Wednesday, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., filed a Freedom of Information request with the Department of Homeland Security, in search of all information related to Guckert's credentials and security clearance to cover the White House. "Access to the President and his press corps is highly competitive, and many seasoned journalists have not had the honor of attending the events or enjoying the access Mr. Guckert has," the two wrote.

President Bush called on Guckert during a Jan. 26 press conference. "It is a huge deal for Bush to pick on you at a press conferences," says a member of the White House press corps. "There are people in the press room who have covered Bush for four years and haven't had a chance to ask him a question." Ironically, it was Guckert's time in the spotlight on Jan. 26 that triggered his downfall. After asking a loaded, partisan question, in which Guckert mocked Democratic leaders for being "divorced from reality," liberal critics online began digging into his qualifications, Talon's partisan ties, and eventually into Guckert's unusual past. Guckert resigned as Talon White House correspondent on Feb. 9.

The question about credentials remains key. The vast majority of reporters covering the White House have what's called a "hard," or permanent, pass. To obtain one they have to verify they work for a recognized news organization with job responsibilities covering the White House. They have to submit to a lengthy security background check conducted by the FBI, which can take months to complete and requires being photographed and fingerprinted. Journalists also must verify to the White House they already have credentials to cover Capitol Hill. Without them, the White House won't complete a hard pass request.

In late 2003 Guckert applied for a Capitol Hill pass and was denied because Talon, which enjoys close ties to GOPUSA.com, was not deemed to be a legitimate, independent news outlet. That in and of itself should have been a red flag for the White House press office. Yet for nearly two years, it allowed Guckert to circumvent the hard pass system by using a day pass whenever he needed White House access. The day pass requires just a minimal background check. It was designed to be used on a temporary basis, such as for reporters coming in from out of town to cover the White House for a brief period. Guckert, though, with the help of somebody inside the press office, turned the day pass system into his own revolving door. That was when he was at least working for Talon News.

To learn Guckert was waved into the White House for fourth estate briefings even before he was affiliated with any kind of news outlet is startling.

[sspadowsky]

And curiouser still......
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Americablog (http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/02/breaking-news-gannon-reportedly-knew.html)

Friday, February 18, 2005

BREAKING NEWS: Gannon reportedly knew about Iraq attack four hours before it happened
by John in DC - 2/18/2005 09:57:00 AM

A news producer for a major network just told me that Gannon told the producer the US was going to attack Iraq four hours before President Bush announced it to the nation.

According to the producer, Gannon specifically told them that in four hours the president was going to be making a speech to the nation announcing that the US was bombing Iraq. The producer told me they were surprised that Gannon, working with such a small news outfit, could have access to such information, but "what did you know, he was right," the producer said today. The producer went on to say that Gannon often had correct scoops on major stories, including information about Mary Mapes and the Dan Rather BUSH/AWOL scandal that this news outlet got from Gannon before any had the information publicly.

This more than a few questions and points:

1. Assuming this news producer is telling the truth, and I have no reason to believe they are not, how did Gannon get access to such highly classified information as to when the US was going to bomb Iraq?

2. Even if Gannon were part of a press gaggle that was told embargoed information about the war by the White House, this producer alleges that Gannon would have broken any such embargo, which is a security risk to the operation, and more generally shows that concerns about Gannon's White House access posing a risk to national security might now be warranted.

3. How would someone on a day pass, who hadn't gotten the requisite 3-4 month FBI background check that other full-time White House employees get, get access to such highly classified information? Certainly the White House didn't include someone with simply a day pass in the highly-classified pre-briefing about details of the war (assuming such a briefing even occurred)? If the White House did a briefing and Gannon were included, this would mean ANYONE could walk in off the street, say they're a reporter, and provided by they don't have a criminal record, the White House will simply tell them at what hour we're launching a major attack? And if there was no briefing for reporters, then how did Gannon allegedly find out?

4. Even if the White House had simply told the press pool that Bush was speaking to the nation in a few hours, and the press had figured out that this meant were were attacking Iraq, was the information about the upcoming speech embargoed? Was the information about the upcoming speech also announced to the public four hours before? Or did Gannon get access to inside information concerning the war simply because of his presence in the White House - a presence that should have required an FBI background check considering how often he was there?

5. How would Gannon get inside information on the Dan Rather scandal BEFORE the rest of the major media? Assuming the producer is correct, did it come from a White House source, and if so, what does this say about possible White House involvement in creating this scandal in the first place?

According to my source, Gannon's insider tidbits were always on the mark. "Gannon's stuff was always golden," the producer says. My source says they kept asking themself, "how does this small news outfit get this info?"

How indeed.

[ziggytrix]

Shit, my friend in the Air Force told me we would be invading Iraq MONTHS before Bush annouced it.

[sspadowsky]

:lol

Well, I think we all knew it was coming. But to know about the official announcement from the Prez himself? I'll bet there was some pillow talk going on between this guy and someone high up in the White House, as some have (unofficially) stated.

[ziggytrix]

Oh man, I can't wait for this guy to be the "new Monica Lewinsky, only gay" - I'll be sadly disappointed if it doesn't happen, what modern media outlet could resist something so scandalous??! Even FOX would bite on that one.

[sspadowsky]

And even more curiouser........ Nothing conclusive, but certainly some interesting points herein.....
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOT A BLOG! (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/18/opinion/lynch/main675050.shtml)

Karl Rove's Warning To GOP

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2005

Karl Rove's hope to become a respected policymaker will be hampered if the dirty tricks from his political past are more apparent than his desire to spread liberty around the globe.

Karl Rove took a victory lap at an SRO lunch at the Conservative Political Action Committee meeting at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington on Thursday. After a glowing introduction by Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association, Rove proclaimed "conservatism as the dominant political creed in America," but warned Republicans not to get complacent or grow "tired and timid." He recalled the dark days when the Democrats were dominant and cautioned that that could happen again if they let down their guard. The new White House deputy chief of staff also called on conservatives to "seize the mantle of idealism."

Tired and timid are two adjectives never applied to Rove. The architect of the Bush victories in 2000 and 2004 came through the ranks of college Republicans with the late Lee Atwater, and their admitted and alleged dirty tricks are the legends many young political operatives dream of pulling off. So when Jeff Gannon, White House "reporter" for Talon "News," was unmasked last week, the leap to a possible Rove connection was unavoidable. Gannon says that he met Rove only once, at a White House Christmas party, and Gannon is kind of small potatoes for Rove at this point in his career.

But Rove's dominance of White House and Republican politics, Gannon's aggressively partisan work and the ease with which he got day passes for the White House press room the past two years make it hard to believe that he wasn't at least implicitly sanctioned by the "boy genius." Rove, who rarely gave on-the-record interviews to the MSM (mainstream media), had time to talk to GOPUSA, which owns Talon.

GOPUSA and Talon are both owned by Bobby Eberle, a Texas Republican and business associate of conservative direct-mail guru Bruce Eberle who says that Bobby is from the "Texas branch of the Eberle clan." Bobby Eberle told The New York Times that he created Talon to build a news service with a conservative slant and "if someone were to see 'Gopusa,' there's an instant built-in bias there." No kidding.

Some of the real reporters in the WH pressroom were apparently annoyed at Gannon's presence and his softball, partisan questions, but considered him only a minor irritant. One told me he thought of Gannon as a balance for the opinionated liberal questions of Hearst's Helen Thomas. But what Gannon was up to was not just writing opinion columns or using a different technique to get information. He was a player in Republican campaigns and his work in the South Dakota Senate race illustrates the role he played. It is also a classic example of how political operatives are using the brave new world of the Internet and the blogosphere. Gannon and Talon News appear to be mini-Drudge reports; a "news" source which partisans use to put out negative information, get the attention of the bloggers, talk radio and then the MSM in a way that mere press releases are unable to achieve.

One of Gannon's first projects was an attempt to discredit the South Dakota Argus Leader, South Dakota's major paper, and its longtime political writer, David Kranz. According to the National Journal, which reported on this last November, Gannon wrote a series of articles in the summer of 2003 alleging that Kranz, who went to college with Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle, was not only sympathetic to him but was an actual part of the Daschle campaign. These articles then got a huge amount of play on the blogs of John Lauck and Jason Van Beek, and were picked up by other conservative sites and talk radio. The paper was bombarded with messages about its bias and acknowledges that these had an impact on its coverage.

Daschle opponent John Thune's campaign manager was Dick Wadham, an old political crony of Karl Rove's; the kind of pal Rove could ask to hire his first cousin, John Wood, a few years back. Wadham put the bloggers on the campaign payroll and the symbiotic relationship between the campaign, the bloggers and "reporter" Gannon” continued. On September 29, Gannon broke the story that Daschle had claimed a special tax exemption for a house in Washington and the bloggers jumped all over it. According to a November 17 posting on South Dakota Politics – a site that Van Beek, who has become a staffer for now-Sen. Thune, has bequeathed to Lauck – "Jeff Gannon, whose reportage had a dramatic impact on the Daschle v. Thune race (his story about Sen. Daschle signing a legal document claiming to be a D.C. resident was published nearly the same day Thune began to run an ad showing Daschle saying, "I'm a D.C. resident) has written an analysis of the debacle."

Daschle aides told Roll Call, "This guy (Gannon) became the dumping ground for opposition research." The connections are so strong that there is an FEC challenge which could be a test case on the limits of the use of the Internet in federal campaigns.

Gannon also had Thune on his radio show "Jeff Gannon's Washington," and the White House correspondent for Talon became touted as the "resident D.C. expert on South Dakota politics" by the bloggers. Thune and Wadham (who has been hired by aspiring White House Republican Sen. George Allen) have become go-to guys on the use of blogs in campaigns. Thune was cited in The New York Times as introducing "Senators to the meaning of 'blogging,' explaining the basics of self-published online political commentary and arguing that it can affect public opinion."

This week Democrats, who have serious case of Rove envy, went a little nuts and started sending around information and graphic pictures of Gannon and his porn Web sites. But it is the more routine part of Gannon's life that deserves serious scrutiny. Planting or even just sanctioning a political operative in the WH press room is a dangerous precedent and Karl Rove's hope to become a respected policymaker will be hampered if the dirty tricks from his political past are more apparent than his desire to spread liberty around the globe.

(CBS) Dotty Lynch is the Senior Political Editor for CBS News. E-mail your questions and comments to Political Points

[kellychaos]

The noose tightens! :AutoeroticAsphyxia

Hint: There's very little real journalism left anyway. In other words, even what's considered legitimate news sources have to "play ball" with the press secretary for a continuing press relationship else they get nothing at all. I've yet too many journalists really "dig into the prez's shit" during a press conference anyway. They can't afford to do it.

[sspadowsky]

I'm posting this just as much because it's a good op-ed, as much as I'm doing it to irritate Vinth.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0221-23.htm

Published on Monday, February 21, 2005 by the Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin)
Bush's Journalism Jihad Exposed
by Dave Zweifel


If you're into reading political columnists, you've no doubt heard of Maureen Dowd, the prominent liberal columnist for the New York Times.

You may not have heard of a fellow named Jeff Gannon, but he, too, is somewhat of a political columnist. He has worked as a conservative correspondent for two political Web sites owned and operated by one of George W. Bush's pals in Texas.

Dowd has won the Pulitzer Prize and numerous other awards and appears on the editorial pages of hundreds of newspapers across the country. Gannon, however, hasn't won any journalism prizes.

In fact, Jeff Gannon isn't even his real name. He's actually James Guckert, who, it turns out, is also a reporter and contributor to several Web sites, among them, Hotmilitarystud.com, Militaryescorts.com and Meetlocalmen.com. According to the Washington Post, a California Web designer created a gay escort site for him and, at his request, posted naked pictures of Gannon on it. Further, the Wilmington News-Journal in Delaware has reported that he's delinquent in his state income taxes to the tune of $20,700.

Gannon, however, has had credentials to get into the White House press briefing room for the past two years.

Maureen Dowd does not. In fact, although she had credentials since 1986, the Bush people turned down her request to have her pass renewed when they took office in 2001. Dowd doesn't often write nice things about Bush. Gannon does.

In fact, all this information about his double life was exposed after some began to wonder about the questions he was asking at the briefings. The most recent one was, "Mr. President, how can you work with Democrats who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"

Several Webloggers suspected he was a plant. An investigation revealed that he has been shilling for Bush for quite some time. During the campaign last fall, he mocked John Kerry's "pro-homosexual platform" and a headline on one of his stories claimed that Kerry would become the nation's first gay president. This from a guy who it turns out was running his own gay Web sites.

Ironically, getting a White House press pass isn't easy. They are usually reserved for the bigger papers, national TV networks, wire services and national commentators. Because those who hold them often sit in the same room as the president himself, they are subjected to an intense security investigation.

The fact that a tax dodger who appears on Web sites for a lifestyle that the Bush people themselves have vilified in their four-plus years in office doesn't say much for that security. The poor guy wouldn't have been able to get in the Army, much less meet face-to-face with the president.

But, as Dowd said in a recent column, "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."

Dave Zweifel has been editor of The Capital Times since 1983.

[sspadowsky]

I'm posting this just as much because it's a good op-ed, as I'm doing it to irritate Vinth.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0221-23.htm

Published on Monday, February 21, 2005 by the Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin)
Bush's Journalism Jihad Exposed
by Dave Zweifel


If you're into reading political columnists, you've no doubt heard of Maureen Dowd, the prominent liberal columnist for the New York Times.

You may not have heard of a fellow named Jeff Gannon, but he, too, is somewhat of a political columnist. He has worked as a conservative correspondent for two political Web sites owned and operated by one of George W. Bush's pals in Texas.

Dowd has won the Pulitzer Prize and numerous other awards and appears on the editorial pages of hundreds of newspapers across the country. Gannon, however, hasn't won any journalism prizes.

In fact, Jeff Gannon isn't even his real name. He's actually James Guckert, who, it turns out, is also a reporter and contributor to several Web sites, among them, Hotmilitarystud.com, Militaryescorts.com and Meetlocalmen.com. According to the Washington Post, a California Web designer created a gay escort site for him and, at his request, posted naked pictures of Gannon on it. Further, the Wilmington News-Journal in Delaware has reported that he's delinquent in his state income taxes to the tune of $20,700.

Gannon, however, has had credentials to get into the White House press briefing room for the past two years.

Maureen Dowd does not. In fact, although she had credentials since 1986, the Bush people turned down her request to have her pass renewed when they took office in 2001. Dowd doesn't often write nice things about Bush. Gannon does.

In fact, all this information about his double life was exposed after some began to wonder about the questions he was asking at the briefings. The most recent one was, "Mr. President, how can you work with Democrats who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"

Several Webloggers suspected he was a plant. An investigation revealed that he has been shilling for Bush for quite some time. During the campaign last fall, he mocked John Kerry's "pro-homosexual platform" and a headline on one of his stories claimed that Kerry would become the nation's first gay president. This from a guy who it turns out was running his own gay Web sites.

Ironically, getting a White House press pass isn't easy. They are usually reserved for the bigger papers, national TV networks, wire services and national commentators. Because those who hold them often sit in the same room as the president himself, they are subjected to an intense security investigation.

The fact that a tax dodger who appears on Web sites for a lifestyle that the Bush people themselves have vilified in their four-plus years in office doesn't say much for that security. The poor guy wouldn't have been able to get in the Army, much less meet face-to-face with the president.

But, as Dowd said in a recent column, "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."

Dave Zweifel has been editor of The Capital Times since 1983.

[ziggytrix]

edit: WTF, I swear I posted this in a different thread

[sspadowsky]

Good documentation of the backpedaling, spin, and outright lies by all parties involved in this scandal.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Axis of Logic (http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_15843.shtml)

United States
The Lies of Gannongate
By Editor
Feb 21, 2005, 09:43

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 whore 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.

In which interview, he:

1. 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";
2. "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);
3. 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);
4. 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;
5. 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");
6. 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;
7. 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?);
8. 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");
9. 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";
10. 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
11. 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 damn sight.

It's just beginning.

http://nashuaadvocate.blogspot.com/2005/02/lies-of-gannongate.html

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Just to be fair and add a little balance.....

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB110929763947364024-5Fnsnyb8rdTiVhIlOprCuMfxxhQ_20050327,00.html?mod=b logs

White House Press Room as Political Stage

By CHRISTOPHER COOPER and JOHN D. MCKINNON
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

February 25, 2005; Page B1

WASHINGTON -- The question at the regular White House press briefing on Feb. 1 came straight out of left field: "Does the president believe in Commandment No. 6 -- 'Thou shalt not kill' -- as it applies to the U.S. invasion of Iraq?"

White House spokesman Scott McClellan didn't miss a beat. "Go ahead, next question," he said to the roomful of reporters.

Mr. McClellan's rebuff notwithstanding, the questioner, former Ralph Nader campaign volunteer Russell Mokhiber, got his first entry of the month for a Web diary he writes called "Scottie & Me (formerly Ari & I)." The diary, made up entirely of exchanges between Mr. Mokhiber and the president's chief spokesman, is a standing feature for the Common Dreams News Center, an organization of self-described progressives.

Both the question and the questioner exemplify a steady evolution that has occurred in the White House briefing room in recent years. Once the clubby preserve of big-name newspapers and networks, it has lately become a political stage where a growing assortment of reporters, activists and bloggers function not only as journalists but as participants in a unique form of reality TV.

The power of the presidency has always attracted offbeat characters to the White House briefing room. But the trend accelerated in the late 1990s, when cable outlets like C-SPAN began broadcasting the White House briefing in its entirety. That has drawn more fringe journalists seeking a forum to voice their points of view. The trend has been further fueled in recent years by the rise of alternative media, Internet news sites and Web logs that have given just about everyone who wants it a platform for punditry.


The result is that "the entire nature of the briefing has changed," says former Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart. "It's become a show."

The show's plot took a dramatic twist after a man known as Jeff Gannon piped up with a question that harshly criticized Democrats during a nationally televised press conference by President Bush in January. Liberal bloggers went to work researching the man, a reporter for an obscure conservative news site, and quickly discovered that he was writing under a pseudonym and also had registered domain names for several Web sites with sexually suggestive names. The man, whose legal name is James D. Guckert, quickly resigned from his reporting position at Talon News, a site staffed mostly with volunteers and bankrolled by a Texas Republican named Bobby Eberle.

While Mr. Gannon has attracted a lot of attention, other lesser-known reporters have traveled a similar path to get inside the White House bubble. He never received a White House press pass because he lacks a congressional pass, which is one of the requirements for permanent clearance into the White House. Instead, like other reporters without permanent credentials, he gained access to the White House briefing room by getting a daily press-office clearance through security.

Before such clearance is granted, security officials do a fast check based on the petitioner's date of birth and Social Security number. White House officials and Mr. Gannon himself say he used his real name rather than his pseudonym to get his clearance.

Mr. Gannon believes he was singled out by liberal bloggers for investigation because he is a conservative. "Am I a partisan? Absolutely," he says. "I never said I was anything else."

Another reporter who frequents the briefing room, Bill Jones, has written for a news organization called Executive Intelligence Review that lists perennial candidate Lyndon LaRouche as its founder and contributing editor on its Web site. Mr. Jones often asks tough questions about the administration's foreign policy and intelligence record, according to transcripts and other reporters. Mr. Jones didn't return calls or e-mails seeking comment.

Over the years, the White House press corps has included an array of characters -- Naomi Nover, for one, who inherited her husband's press pass after he died.

Barnet Nover had founded Nover News Service in 1971, after retiring from the Denver Post's Washington bureau, in an effort to keep his column on foreign policy going. After he died two years later, Ms. Nover attempted to keep the news service alive but did less and less reporting over time. Nonetheless, she went on virtually every overseas White House press trip until her death, in 1995. "Pretend journalist loved D.C.," said the headline on her obituary in the Times-Picayune of New Orleans.

The Clinton White House was kinder, issuing a statement praising Ms. Nover for her "years of dedication to her craft."

In the Clinton era, a voluble Baltimore radio talk-show host, Les Kinsolving, asked questions that annoyed the White House press office to the point that it briefly considered barring him, but decided against it out of concern for a backlash among right-wing media.

On his Web site, Mr. Kinsolving proudly displays quotations about him from eight White House press secretaries, most of them concerning how outrageous his questions can be.

But the atmosphere for fringe journalists of all stripes is getting decidedly less friendly, thanks in part to the rise of blogs. Last week, for example, Mr. Mokhiber, the Web diarist, took a shot from Accuracy in Media, a group that frequently attacks what it sees as the liberal bias of the press. AIM compared Mr. Mokhiber to Mr. Gannon.

"Left-Wing Activist Poses as Reporter at White House Press Briefings," said the site, which pointed out that Mr. Mokhiber had no journalism training and that he limited his questioning to offbeat subjects such as industrial hemp, the possibility of war-crimes charges against Mr. Bush and Israel's 1967 attack on the USS Liberty.

Mr. Mokhiber rejects the comparison with Mr. Gannon. But like him, Mr. Mokhiber doesn't deny bias, adding that that shouldn't be a disqualifier. "Who's to decide if you're getting a check from General Electric Corp., and working for NBC, that you don't have a political bias?" Mr. Mokhiber says.

For about the last four years, Mr. Mokhiber, a volunteer for Mr. Nader's 2004 presidential campaign and former board member of his charity, has been showing up at West Wing press briefings. Generally, he toils in relative obscurity, putting out his Web diary and publishing "Corporate Crime Reporter," a weekly newsletter that he says goes out to about 200 clients and provides him with a modest living.

The question about the Sixth Commandment is fairly representative of Mr. Mokhiber's Web feature -- in the past year, he has asked Mr. McClellan whether President Bush believes in deliberately misleading reporters during wartime, whether the president knows off the top of his head how many soldiers have died in Iraq, and whether the White House counsel has prepared for the possibility that President Bush will be hauled up on war crimes.

In the wake of the Gannon incident, Mr. McClellan has said that he is considering tightening the standards for admission to briefings. Mr. Lockhart, the former spokesman for Mr. Clinton as well as John Kerry, thinks the standards have grown too loose, allowing political operatives in.

But drawing that line won't be easy. And some think there's a risk that something valuable will be lost in the process. "The fact is that the history and tradition of the White House have been much more open and accepting" of nonmainstream journalists than other Washington institutions, such as the Congress, says Ari Fleischer, Mr. McClellan's predecessor. "I think it would be a real shame if that tradition ended. It might be good for the press secretary but not for diversity of opinion."

[sspadowsky]

Good article, Kev. Thanks.

I don't deny for a second that the Press Room is a perfect place for opportunists to make a political statement, or make a name for themselves, etc. That's fine and dandy, and of course, I recognize that every human being is biased to one extent or another.

My gripe about this whole situation is that the administration was clearly complicit in Guckert gaining access to the White House. He was definitely a plant, definitely a pawn, and now he's certainly a patsy. He was part of the Bush admin's master plan of media control. He was intended to be a gadfly, and probably a leaker of info harmul to Bush opponents. He had access to shit that he should not have seen, and there can be no doubt that someone on the inside was part of it.

[ziggytrix]

Well, actually there can be doubt. It wouldn't be a Karl rove plan without room for doubt left when the shit hit the fan. That's his style.