Fake reporter unmasked at White House

[Maeve_Mari]

Okay, this one is really over the top:

Fake reporter unmasked at White House

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday February 11, 2005
The Guardian

The White House faced fresh accusations of a clandestine propaganda campaign yesterday after it emerged it granted regular access to a rightwing blogger with a habit of asking President Bush easy questions.
Jeff Gannon, who represented a rightwing site owned by a Texas-based Republican activist, had been a regular at White House briefings since 2003 but aroused reporters' suspicions after posing ideologically loaded questions.

The fake White House correspondent quit his job at the Talon News site on Wednesday after liberal bloggers found he had been operating under a pseudonym, and that he was linked to several gay pornographic web domain addresses under his real idenity, James Guckert.

The White House spokesman, Scott McLellan, has dismissed charges that Gannon was part of an underground propaganda effort as "just a wild conspiracy theory".

But questions remained yesterday about why the White House suspended the normally rigorous vetting process to issue daily passes to an organisation rejected by the Senate last year for not being a legitimate media outlet.

The extent of Gannon's links to an earlier White House scandal - the leaking of the name of the CIA agent Valerie Plame - also remained unclear yesterday. Gannon has been targeted for questioning in that case.

"It's just common sense that the White House knew who Jeff Gannon was, and they were waving him in for a reason," said David Brock, director of Media Matters for America, the liberal monitoring group which named the reporter last week.

Gannon's unmasking comes only weeks after the Bush administration admitted paying handsome sums to three conservative commentators to promote its social programmes in print, radio and TV, and has led to calls from Democrats for an explanation.

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

In its investigations, Media Matters for America discovered that Talon News was owned by a Texas-based Republican activist called Roger Eberle, and that its so-called correspondent was in the habit of lifting verbatim large chunks of White House and Republican party press releases without attribution.

It also discovered a disturbing pattern at White House press conferences during the year or so when Gannon was a regular fixture.

"You could see there was a pattern in which the White House press secretary, Scott McLellan, would be getting a more aggressive and less friendly question, and then would seem to call on Jeff Gannon to change the subject. And when he did he got a softball question in return," Mr Brock said.

The fake reporter's downfall came last week when he attracted suspicion with a particularly loaded question to the president on how he would enlist Democratic support for his social security reforms.

After falsely attributing quotes to Democratic leaders, Gannon asked: "How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"

Mr Brock then launched his investigation. Subsequent inquiries by liberal bloggers uncovered Gannon's links to gay porn domain addresses under his real name, and a posted photograph of a man posing in his underwear with his initials.

The exposure prompted Gannon to resign his job at Talon, although he has shown no remorse about his conduct at the White House.

"I asked a question at a White House press briefing and this is what happened to me. If this is what happens to me, what reporter is safe?" he told a newspaper in his hometown in Delaware yesterday.

Meanwhile, Talon News was looking for a replacement correspondent on its website yesterday.

[Larrison]

I really don't understand what the scandal is about this -- at least regarding the White House. If you go read the AP story on this, http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...reporter_quits

it points out that White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Guckert (the reporter) did not have a regular White House press pass but was cleared on a day-by-day basis to attend briefings and used his real name to get press passes for those briefings/ press conferences. The White House Press Secretary said that the press passes were given out as ""He, like anyone else, showed that he was representing a news organization that published regularly and so he was cleared two years ago to receive daily passes just like many others are," McClellan said. "In this day and age, when you have a changing media, it's not an easy issue to decide, to try to pick and choose who is a journalist. It gets into the issue of advocacy journalism. Where do you draw the line? There are a number of people who cross that line in the briefing room."

So... question 1 -- was he a "real journalist"? I'd say he probably qualified as well as some of the free lance journalists who apply for and get press passes, and certainly as well as some of the bloggers who get press passes to events.

Question 2 -- should he have been excluded from the briefings because his political beliefs appear that he is a more conservative reporter? I'd say no.

Question 3 -- Is it uncommon for a politico or press officer to try to vary picking questions between the reporters at the press briefing? I'd say that's not uncommon. I can also see them varying the questions between the domestic and international press, and between print and other media. And I can see them varying the questions between folks of different political partisanship. Doesn't seem like a scandal for the white house so far.

Now.. did this guy apparently have a really stupid attempt at business on the side to perhaps advertise and sell something strange on the internet? If you believe the press reports, it certainly looks like it. Is this a scandal to the White House? I don't think so...

Do I think the White House might reconsider granting him a one-day access press pass until he cleans up his personal life? Yeah, possibly -- but I don't think he's broken any law at this point, other than exercising bad judgement in what he's chosen to pursue as a side business under a psuedonym, compared to what he's purusing as a highly public business under his real name.

So.. all in all. Is there a scandal here for the White House?

[Rogue]

Here, here!
I guess only real journalist ask the Pres. if he is going to apologize, or admit being wrong 20 times in one press conference.

[esskreemr]

Yes, you're right. There is absolutely nothing wrong with allowing someone in under false pretenses who has line of sight access to the President. In addition, McCelland apparently knew that the reporter was being admitted under a fake name and called him by his pseudonym during several conferences.

This falls into the "Bush Admin can do no wrong" category and the Republican apologists would find a "suitable" reason to explain their actions.

[esskreemr]

Originally Posted by Rogue

Here, here!
I guess only real journalist ask the Pres. if he is going to apologize, or admit being wrong 20 times in one press conference.

There! There! You're completely right. Every strong President should have a shill in the audience to take the heat of when the questions get too hard. I mean why should they have to tacke the difficult questions when they can have someone spewing party rhetoric at their beck and call.

In addition, he has been implicated in the Plame case:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200501260015

Newsday reported on March 6, 2004, that when the federal grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of CIA covert operative Valerie Plame subpoenaed White House records on contacts with many journalists, Gannon was among them. Froomkin explained in his March 10, 2004, column that "the reason Gannon is on the list is most likely an attempt to find out who gave him a secret memo that he mentioned in an interview he had with Plame's husband, former ambassador and administration critic Joseph Wilson." Froomkin continued:

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

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

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

On March 9, 2004, Talon News also reported that it "learned that one of the journalists being targeted [in the federal grand jury investigation of the Plame leak] is Jeff Gannon." According to that article, Gannon told Talon News that the memo he cited in his interview with Wilson "did not come from inside the administration." "I don't know why I'm on the list of journalists being called before the Grand Jury," Gannon said. "I have been an outspoken critic of the leak probe and an aggressive questioner of the motives behind it. That seems to have drawn the attention of someone with the authority to issue subpoenas."

Gannon's syndicated column, "Jeff Gannon's Washington," appears on his website. RIGHTALK, which airs radio programs "from leading conservatives and organizations," and bills itself as a "conservative web alternative to National Public Radio," airs Jeff Gannon's Washington weekly.

Are you Rogue, a God-fearin' 'merican, suggesting that there is nothing what counts as high treason in many countries? Are you a communist? Do you have something against the US of A? Are you hoping that we are overran by the Canadians and declared a province? Sounds like the more corruption and disinformation in government the better for you...

[Rogue]

Originally Posted by esskreemr

There! There! You're completely right. Every strong President should have a shill in the audience to take the heat of when the questions get too hard. I mean why should they have to tacke the difficult questions when they can have someone spewing party rhetoric at their beck and call.



In addition, he has been implicated in the Plame case:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200501260015

Yes, he's one of many journalist being investigated.

Originally Posted by esskreemr

Are you Rogue, a God-fearin' 'merican, suggesting that there is nothing what counts as high treason in many countries? Are you a communist? Do you have something against the US of A? Are you hoping that we are overran by the Canadians and declared a province? Sounds like the more corruption and disinformation in government the better for you...

Brother

[telkanuru]

Originally Posted by Rogue

Yes, he's one of many journalist being investigated.

If you're going to put something in bold to make a point, you should probly get your grammar correct.

[MikeHarm]

So who cares if he did put stooges in the audience? Most of the reporters ask weak fluff questions anyways that barely piques my interest.

We should smuggle FTH for one of the press conferences, he might actually make it entertaining.

[mrbiggs]

Originally Posted by MikeHarm

So who cares if he did put stooges in the audience? Most of the reporters ask weak fluff questions anyways that barely piques my interest.

We should smuggle FTH for one of the press conferences, he might actually make it entertaining.

"Excuse me, Mr. President, but I beleive that you're supposed to put food on your table. By the way, you're a douche bag."

Yeah, that would be awesome.


By the way, "AYE!"

[Epee_Pox]

Originally Posted by MikeHarm

We should smuggle FTH for one of the press conferences, he might actually make it entertaining.

Excellent idea! I don't think he'd have any problem coming up with a press pass on his own, otherwise I'd suggest we band together to get him one. All those who want FTH lobbing questions at the prez, say "aye!"


Aye!

[Larrison]

Originally Posted by mrbiggs

"Excuse me, Mr. President, but I beleive that you're supposed to put food on your table. By the way, you're a douche bag."

Yeah, that would be awesome.

By the way, "AYE!"

There's a story about Sam Donaldson, one of the ex-ABC major political reporters if memory serves, from the Reagan Adminstration...

When the President walks to the helicopter, the reporters draw lots for the one reporter who has time to shout a question to the President. This time, Sam Donaldson won.

As President Reagan walked to the helicopter, Sam Donaldson shouted "Mr President! Mr President!"

"Yes Sam?" President Reagan replied

"Do you know the sound a satisfied woman makes, Mr President?" Sam shouted.

President Reagan stops, and turns to the reporter, standing with a number of reporters some distance away, while the helicopter waits, its blades turning.

"Why no Sam, I don't."

Sam Donaldson shouts back "I didn't think you did! Mr President!"

The White House Press Corp was aghast, and dead silent.


Ronald Reagan cracked up, and almost fell over laughing... Still laughing, he waved and got on the helicopter, still smiling...

[Rogue]

Originally Posted by telkanuru

If you're going to put something in bold to make a point, you should probly get your grammar correct.

Hey Pot, shall I go back and critique some of your past post?

[gojujay]

Originally Posted by Epee_Pox

Excellent idea! I don't think he'd have any problem coming up with a press pass on his own, otherwise I'd suggest we band together to get him one. All those who want FTH lobbing questions at the prez, say "aye!"


Aye!

AYE!!!!!!!!!

[Soldier]

Just imagine Inq questioning Bush.

The rest of the press corps would be out cold in their seats, drooling from the corners of their mouths...and Bush would be calling in aides to help translate all the Latin.

[Inquartata]

What?! Me, QUESTION anything he says or does? Are you high?

[telkanuru]

Originally Posted by Rogue

Hey Pot, shall I go back and critique some of your past post?

Certainly, if you ever find me misspelling in bold...

[telkanuru]

Originally Posted by Soldier

Just imagine Inq questioning Bush.

The rest of the press corps would be out cold in their seats, drooling from the corners of their mouths...and Bush would be calling in aides to help translate all the Latin.

Ah but cui bono?

Nevermind the Latin, what about the English?

[Soldier]

Not like anybody left in America really speaks English anyway...

[Maeve_Mari]

Originally Posted by Inquartata

What?! Me, QUESTION anything he says or does? Are you high?

Hey wait! I'm supposed to say that!