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Jeff... Gannon!

03:20 / 18.02.05

http://www.talkaboutgovernment.com/group/alt.politics.greens/messages/353046.html

*snort* *phfff* Bwah ha ha!

Alright, so let's get the story straight so far. A planted White House "reporter" in what has been described by many as the most cowed WH press corps in recent history who was likely cherry-picked by administration officials to lob not just softballs, but to practically give the President a public blowjob, all while using a fake name.

Oh yeah, and he also runs/makes use of gay personals sites. After a number of articles in which he professed the belief that homosexuality is something that can be cured.

Did I catch most everything? I certainly hope so. Because this is filthy, filthy bastardry here.

03:59 / 18.02.05

Did I catch most everything?

Mmm... I think the whole "how did a guy with virtually no journalistic experience get White House media credentials and access to confidential and dangerous CIA information" (discussion of outing of Valerie Plame here) might be worth including in the top paragraph.

Daily Kos has been following this one pretty closely, as I gather has AMERICAblog, from which this post has been quoted:

More blah blah blah about Jeff Gannon's private life being offlimits. Let's all say it again, loud and clear. Jeff's previous job, and apparently current job since the Web sites are still live, is not his private life any more than outing Hotline reporters as, well, Hotline reporters is their private life. Whether they like or not, whether I like it or not, running a prostitution service goes against every family value that this administration and Guckert supposedly stand for.

Where was the high-and-mighty Hotline when George Bush, with the help of buddies like Guckert, tried to write me and 20 million of my friends out of the Constitution last year? Where was Accuracy in Media, the conservative bloggers, and everyone else who is defending Guckert's "private life" when my private life was going to singled out and savaged in our nation's most sacred document simply to get a few votes?

And so on and so on...

More, possibly, when it's not six in the morning.

20:22 / 18.02.05

I love the smell of scandal in the morning. Smells like...
Hypocrisy.

But I have to admit to a certain amount of unease at the fucus on te homosexual aspect. Whore? Seems to be the case. Media whore? Yes. Pundit-for-hire, without the benefit of actually being a journalist? Looks like. But a lot of the less-reputable, less restrained blogs seem to delight in screaming "uyo = faggit! Lol!!!"

I can't wait for this to actually develop. All Things Considered has covered it, but they focused exclusively on the escort service angle. How is the BBC viewing this?

22:38 / 18.02.05

Of all people, ROGER EBERT was discussing this story durring his radio interview with HOWARD STERN this morning... how weird is that!?!?

10:44 / 19.02.05

But I have to admit to a certain amount of unease at the fucus on te homosexual aspect.

I can appreciate the focus on that, though, in relation to the quote from AmericaBlog above. Lovely case of pot n' kettle. There are irresponsible bits of stupidity out there as you said, but there always are. They'll eventually be rendered irrelevent in whatever arises from this...

16:51 / 19.02.05

... Quite. Criticising someone for working as a gay hooker is far from on, but I'd say that criticising them for coupling that with writing articles for a website containing stories about the "so called 'hate crime' against Matthew Shepard" is pretty fair game.

Other recent occurences on the story, courtesy again of AMERICAblog:

"Gannon" knew about Bush's speech announcing the invasion of Iraq four hours before it happened (one more in a line of "JeffJames having rather surprising insider information" revelations...)

And:

Video: "Gannon" apparently (not watched it just yet, but the story relating to it seems pretty damning) torn apart on Anderson Cooper's CNN show.

01:58 / 21.02.05

What bothers me about this is it's another example of Bush going beyond what even I thought him capable of, and yet, it still isn't causing that big a stir in the media. You'd think between lying about the WMDs, planting fake 'independent' commentators all over the press, and now this, that someone would have to seriously be talking impeachment, even if it's just to fuck with him, like the Republicans did with Clinton. But, it doesn't seem to matter. For everyone who's against him, this is just more reason to hate, and the people who like him ignore it. I can't imagine any story that could bring Bush down in the way that Watergate did to Nixon.

02:04 / 21.02.05

Maybe.. but if Google News is any indicator, for some reason this story and the newly released tapes of Bush admitting to marijuana use are gaining teeth.

I don't have my hopes up though. The bastard's made of Teflon.

04:16 / 21.02.05

I love that marijuana use story, not just because of the admitting he used marijuana, but because right there, you can see everything behind his presidency. "Baby boomers have got to grow up and say, yeah, I may have done drugs, but instead of admitting it, say to kids, don't do them," is a step on the path that leads to, the war in Iraq wasn't about a threat, it was about liberation, and numberous other re-inventions of reality. If something's bad, just lie about it seems to be his motto.

13:49 / 03.03.05

Made of Teflon indeed. Seen any major network news stories on Jeff Gannon lately? Yeah, me neither.

But I have to admit to a certain amount of unease at the fucus on te homosexual aspect.

You see, this is precisely the thing that give me a bad, bad feeling... a feeling that Gannon was a more calculated plant that we might dare to dream. I have to wonder if he was very carefully chosen for reasons including his "homosexual aspect" - because now Republicans are turning right around and accusing anyone who even mentions this story of being anti-gay. Because, right, we all know about the massive anti-gay bias of the liberal media/conspiracy. Are they kidding? And yet, damn, they're so smart. Because accuse "us" of any kind of discrimination - of anything unsavory at all - and we go running (see: Kerry campaign, 2004). Have you noticed how there's always always a really good built-in defense whenever a Republican/Bush wrongdoing is uncovered? Think that's a convenient coincidence?

15:10 / 03.03.05

I'm starting to think the homosexual spin on this is less to make the left look bad, and more to make the right feel good. Co-opting the tolerance card while playing hate games. Brilliant, really.

15:46 / 03.03.05

... Quite. Criticising someone for working as a gay hooker is far from on, but I'd say that criticising them for coupling that with writing articles for a website containing stories about the "so called 'hate crime' against Matthew Shepard" is pretty fair game.

I want to add that this really isn't the crux of the issue. It's not that there's a gay plant writing anti-gay articles. It's not that there's a crappy journalist with a shady past working in the White House.

It's that there is a prostitute with NO journalistic credentials working for the White House under an assumed name and an undetermined amount of coverup and a lot of access to sensitive information (see Pingle's mention of Plame upthread). Note that his stint as an online "escort" (website ran until May 2003) overlaps with his service as a WH "journalist" (Feb of same year). There seems to be more going on than we realize, and more than we're likely to find out unless someone other than bloggers (I'M LOOKING AT YOU BROKAW. JENNINGS. ANYONE.) There is the question of how he got such an incredible job that he's so unqualified for. It's not outside the realm of possibility that one of his Johns helped him out, right? Must have been someone pretty high up, right? It's not outside the realm of possibility that he's still "escorting" some important people in Washington, right? And isn't it pretty easy to see why they'd go to some extreme lengths to prevent this being investigated or covered by the media?

God, where is Ken Starr when you need him?

10:48 / 04.03.05

Goodness, yes; it never fails to amaze me how the US right are not only able to manipulate the mainstream media to cover every single talking point in exactly the way they wish, even to the extent of pretty much being able to dictate exactly what language they use, but are then able to successfully convince most of the public that the media is, in fact, rampant with "liberal bias". As has been pointed out repeatedly, if something like this happened in Clinton's White House, the Republicans would be calling for impeachment by now.

... But perhaps there's some hope yet: 26 House Dems Seek Action on Gannon.

... By the way, ibis, that "shady past" you mention? Last I was aware, his escort profile was still up on a couple of sites. And I'm still tempted to say that it is pretty central, mostly because it ties very closesly into your questions about how he got a job which usually requires extremely detailed background checks; by all accounts, White House press passes are extremely difficult to get, and someone working as a prostitute, with no journalistic experience, working for a fake news organisation and going under an assumed name really wouldn't cut it. And it would be very nice to know where his huge quantities of insider information came from...

12:05 / 04.03.05

... Wow. I take it back, partly at least: the mainstream media hasn't entirely ignored the scandal. Who covered it? FOX News:

FOX News covers Gannon, and actually obliterates him. Hell freezes over. Chickens grow lips. (Courtesy again of AMERICAblog)

I worked in the White House for 6 years and I can tell you that... [to get a press pass] on a daily basis takes an incredible amount of intervention from somebody high up in the White House.

12:38 / 04.03.05

And I'm still tempted to say that it is pretty central, mostly because it ties very closesly into your questions about how he got a job which usually requires extremely detailed background checks; by all accounts, White House press passes are extremely difficult to get, and someone working as a prostitute, with no journalistic experience, working for a fake news organisation and going under an assumed name really wouldn't cut it.

Well, yes, right. What I meant to say, sorry for the lack of clarity, is that it's not that we should get all puffed up with moral outrage (a la Clinton likes blowjobs?!?!) over the mere fact that someone who once worked as a hooker could be a journalist, because the moral outrage is not the central issue there. If Gannon (or anyone else) had once upon a time been an online escort and then decided to get a journalism degree or somehow work up from the mailroom of CBS to being a reporter, well then, hooray for him. (But of course that's not the case here.) I only mention it because Repubs are so skilled at leading discussions into an irrelevant tangent and then barking, "Oh! So you're just judging his sexual choices!" or some ridiculous thing.

Now I'm off to read the FOX link.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

13:59 / 13.03.05

And in the end, the right wing of the US shows just how smart they are.

Gannon's "scandal" has pretty much blown over, and he has a right wing radio show on satellite and some far right wing radio stations. It doesn't matter how many laws you break, as long as you bad mouth Barbara Streisand and Clear Channel will give you a talk radio show.

01:17 / 14.03.05

Lasted almost half as long as the tsunami coverage...

That's a large part of the reason why the Repubs have gotten so successful lately; they either manage to disappear, water down, appropriate or yell louder about all the major issues that come along. "It's not that gay people are bad, but... MARRIAGE, people, MARRIAGE!!"

20:20 / 16.03.05

Yeah whatever, did you hear Michael Jackson wore pajamas to court? PAJAMAS, PEOPLE!

10:12 / 20.03.05

Hmm. After watching a portion of Tucker Carlson Unfiltered this morning, I half-wish I could sub-sub-title this thread How does Tucker Carlson sleep at night?

The rampaging stupidity of his first guests' views on gay marriage aside, Tucker had 'Jeff' on the program. However, before the interview, he frames his own position on the issue of Guckert's deception by showing seemingly 'loaded' questions from other White House press staff (i.e., "The Iraqi people didn't ask for us to bring them freedom; aren't we forcing our policy on them?") There are at least a couple of vital differences between these other WH reporters and good ol' Jeff:

1. Those people are at least in there under their actual names.

2. While most reporters these days are generally spineless weenies, I was under the impression that the job of the press is to question, not kiss ass. Also, while the question above may have been loaded, it wasn't an unfair one.

He gets into the press corp under a FAKE name, and Carlson treats it like he was using a pen name for a shitty checkout lane romance book.

13:50 / 20.03.05

Don't forget

3. Actual journalism credentials!

17:22 / 20.03.05

The fact that Carlson has a show on PBS now all but signals the death knell of the channel to me.

They'll be kneecapping FRONTLINE soon enough, I bet. Sons-a-bitches. *grumble*grumble*

20:56 / 20.03.05

I'm paraphrasing a quote I heard from one of the guys on the Daily Show, but one of the things the Bush administration has done very well is creating things that look like journalism but are in fact just PR flacks and shills for the Bushes. Anyway, The Bush administration is also regularly creating fake news to go with its fake reporters.

unheimlich manoeuvre

20:51 / 22.03.05

That's sickening! Republican political broadcasts paid by the taxpayer being passed off by the media as news.
Where is the dreaded liberal media now?

20:42 / 24.03.05

That's sickening! Republican political broadcasts paid by the taxpayer being passed off by the media as news.
Where is the dreaded liberal media now?
That's a trend that goes back through every presidency since Nixon. G.W. just uses it a little more ruthlessly than others have.

In other news, The Daily KOS is claiming that Gannon was never in the millitary. Our list of what Gannon ISN'T is biger than our list of what he IS.

17:29 / 27.03.05

That's a trend that goes back through every presidency since Nixon. G.W. just uses it a little more ruthlessly than others have.

Lekvar, can you post some facts about this? I just say that because, according to the article I read, it said that the Clinton administration prepared similar video press releases, but didn't use them nearly to the extent the Bush administration does. They didn't mention any other administrations.

I agree that other presidents have tried to spin things a certain way, but I think we should be careful not to brush these allegations with a "but everyone else has done it" comment. The president is essentially creating and disseminating propaganda, and the seriousness of this should be remembered.

21:36 / 30.03.05

Lekvar, can you post some facts about this?
Crap! Busted again...
No, I don't have any direct links handy. I could probably find some given enough time, but I was merely parroting what I'd heard on NPR.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

09:50 / 02.04.05

Tucker Carlson's show is dead...he's leaving to do a show on MSNBC and said he can't do both. My feeling is that he was pushed out of the PBS slot since a lot of stations simply weren't buying that show, and he wasn't really doing a news show, so much as a infomercial for the GOP, which belongs on a Cable news outlet rather than PBS.

I'm just amazed at how little play this story actually got. If Clinton would have had a Gay Prosititute Press Corp Plant, we would have had hearing after hearing, and been told that it was the fall of civilization, soon to be followed by people being turned into pillars of salt and rains of frogs.

It shows that while the Democrats may have better ideas, no one does outrage like the right wing...they have actually been able to use this story to say that liberals "hate gay people", since that's the "only" reason they went after Guckert...or, as Rush Limbaugh actually said, "They can't stand the fact that there are gay conservatives! That's how prejudiced they are!"

18:56 / 12.04.05

I'm a couple weeks late on this one, but when they weren't busy meddling in emotional family affairs, Republicans in Congress were making sure no one investigates Gannon.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Conyers told his colleagues on the committee that he was seeking the documents through the resolution because the Bush administration had ignored his previous requests. "It simply defies credibility," Conyers said, "that a phony reporter, operating under an alias, who couldn't get privileges in the House or Senate press gallery, could receive scores of consecutive White House day passes without the intervention of someone very high up at the White House." Rep. James Sensenbrenner, the Republican committee chairman, said there was no need for a further investigation because the Secret Service -- the agency involved in giving Gannon/Guckert access in the first place -- had already determined that nothing inappropriate had happened.

I know I'm just spitting in the wind, but I can't help myself.

15:56 / 01.06.05

Here's where it gets weird(er):

Jeff Gannon aka James Guckert may in fact be Johnny Gosch, kidnapped as a twelve-year old paperboy in 1982 off the streets of Des Moines, to be sold to (if a "source inside the CIA" is to be believed) a massive, government-underwritten pedophilia ring straight out of the Greenland Posse's worst nightmares.

Shouldn't have eaten all that white bread, Mrs. Gosch: it left you weak and unable to defend your offspring.

20:42 / 01.06.05

I can't help but view that with a certain amount of scepticism, I must say.

23:32 / 01.06.05

That's because the lizzzzardsss have gotten to you.

21:42 / 04.06.05

As horrible as it sounds, I honestly don't believe that child prostitutes sold to government officials would be allowed to live to adulthood...

Our Lady Has Left the Building

11:26 / 06.06.05

Yeah, once they get taller than one of the Republican sex midgets they get shot through the head... < /rot >