Truly Outstanding
There's been a growing concern about one of the reporters frequently seen in the White House Briefing Room.
A man calling himself Jeff Gannon, reporting for an organization called Talon News, seemed to asking questions that weren't just "softball," they were like little gifts to the White House press offfice. It seemed like Scott McClellan had developed a habit of calling on Jeff whenever he was getting trapped on a subject he didn't want to talk about. Jeff would respond with a long question, the first clauses of which were usually attacks on Democrats or their positions.
The lefty blogosphere has been ranting about this guy for weeks. Talon News appears to be nothing but a website run by the guy who runs the agressively right-wing GOPUSA website. Gannon's stories often contained language lifted directly from Republican press releases. "Jeff Gannon" appeared to be a pseudonym. However, he got White House credentials using it, in an era when married female reporters must use their legal married name on their credentials, not their bylines. Who intervened to approve the exception for him? And why? Gannon appears to have no journalism background, and some of his "stories" were merely partisan anti-gay spew, like the one titled "Kerry Could Become First Gay President."
The mainstream press had finally started taking notice, after a recent question to President Bush included a "quote" from Harry Reid that Reid had never said, (it was actually a "joke" from the Rush Limbaugh program) and Gannon accused Reid and other Democrats of being out of touch with reality.
Jeff Gannon made the mistake of commenting online ridiculing this press attention. Apparently he forgot that many bloggers are computer-saavy, and taunting them is risky. Yesterday, the already pathetic story went into warp-drive.
A little online research revealed that Jeff Gannon's website IP address was registered to a corporation in Delaware. The same corporation holds the registry for two other IP domain names, one for gay porn, and the other for gay "escort services." The address of this corporation turns out to be the address of one JD Guckert. Since many already knew that Gannon was a pseudonym, but not his actual name, the plot thickened.
JD Guckert happened to have a profile on AOL with a fairly homoerotic picture of himself. With his shirt back on, oddly enough, he would look just like "Jeff Gannon" on the Jeff Gannon site. Jeff Gannon also has another website. The HTML for that home page was created using Microsoft Word, which puts the author's name into the code automatically. That name? JD Guckert! (Darn that Microsoft!)
So, a "reporter" for a fake news organization that was actually a Republican propaganda outlet, got White House credentials under a false name, printed articles that were essentially reprintings of Republican talking points, and served as the "emergency go-to guy" in press briefings where dodging questions was getting difficult. McClellan calls him by his first "name". In addition to serving as briefing room plant, he created various partisan and anti-gay stories. But in real life, he was operating a gay porn site and a male escort service, and may, himself, be a gay prostitute. Incredible? Yes!
But wait! Don't answer yet!
In an October 2003 interview with Joseph Wilson "Jeff Gannon" asked:
That's right. As if the briefing room stuff weren't bad enough, he may also have been involved in the leaking of Valerie Plame's connection to the CIA, destroying her career and endangering those she worked with abroad, trying to combat nuclear proliferation.
Apparently, these blogospheric revelations made things a bit too hot for "Jeff." Last night he posted his farewell to his readers. Talon News has taken down all "Jeff Gannon" articles, though lefty bloggers are copying them from Google's cache's, last stop before the memory hole. It remains to be seen how much coverage this gets in the mainstream media. For continuing developments, see Media Matters.
Imagine what would be going on right now if this were the Clinton White House. Just imagine.
A man calling himself Jeff Gannon, reporting for an organization called Talon News, seemed to asking questions that weren't just "softball," they were like little gifts to the White House press offfice. It seemed like Scott McClellan had developed a habit of calling on Jeff whenever he was getting trapped on a subject he didn't want to talk about. Jeff would respond with a long question, the first clauses of which were usually attacks on Democrats or their positions.
The lefty blogosphere has been ranting about this guy for weeks. Talon News appears to be nothing but a website run by the guy who runs the agressively right-wing GOPUSA website. Gannon's stories often contained language lifted directly from Republican press releases. "Jeff Gannon" appeared to be a pseudonym. However, he got White House credentials using it, in an era when married female reporters must use their legal married name on their credentials, not their bylines. Who intervened to approve the exception for him? And why? Gannon appears to have no journalism background, and some of his "stories" were merely partisan anti-gay spew, like the one titled "Kerry Could Become First Gay President."
The mainstream press had finally started taking notice, after a recent question to President Bush included a "quote" from Harry Reid that Reid had never said, (it was actually a "joke" from the Rush Limbaugh program) and Gannon accused Reid and other Democrats of being out of touch with reality.
Jeff Gannon made the mistake of commenting online ridiculing this press attention. Apparently he forgot that many bloggers are computer-saavy, and taunting them is risky. Yesterday, the already pathetic story went into warp-drive.
A little online research revealed that Jeff Gannon's website IP address was registered to a corporation in Delaware. The same corporation holds the registry for two other IP domain names, one for gay porn, and the other for gay "escort services." The address of this corporation turns out to be the address of one JD Guckert. Since many already knew that Gannon was a pseudonym, but not his actual name, the plot thickened.
JD Guckert happened to have a profile on AOL with a fairly homoerotic picture of himself. With his shirt back on, oddly enough, he would look just like "Jeff Gannon" on the Jeff Gannon site. Jeff Gannon also has another website. The HTML for that home page was created using Microsoft Word, which puts the author's name into the code automatically. That name? JD Guckert! (Darn that Microsoft!)
So, a "reporter" for a fake news organization that was actually a Republican propaganda outlet, got White House credentials under a false name, printed articles that were essentially reprintings of Republican talking points, and served as the "emergency go-to guy" in press briefings where dodging questions was getting difficult. McClellan calls him by his first "name". In addition to serving as briefing room plant, he created various partisan and anti-gay stories. But in real life, he was operating a gay porn site and a male escort service, and may, himself, be a gay prostitute. Incredible? Yes!
But wait! Don't answer yet!
In an October 2003 interview with Joseph Wilson "Jeff Gannon" asked:
TN: 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?Yes, that's right. "Jeff Gannon" may have played a part in the leaking of Valerie Plame's name, allegedly having access to a government memo not available to other reporters. He apparently has been called before the grand jury investigating the case.
That's right. As if the briefing room stuff weren't bad enough, he may also have been involved in the leaking of Valerie Plame's connection to the CIA, destroying her career and endangering those she worked with abroad, trying to combat nuclear proliferation.
Apparently, these blogospheric revelations made things a bit too hot for "Jeff." Last night he posted his farewell to his readers. Talon News has taken down all "Jeff Gannon" articles, though lefty bloggers are copying them from Google's cache's, last stop before the memory hole. It remains to be seen how much coverage this gets in the mainstream media. For continuing developments, see Media Matters.
Imagine what would be going on right now if this were the Clinton White House. Just imagine.
posted by Paul at 1:53 PM |
|
email this
