Another Gannon article makes the Hartford (CT) Courant [View All]

not a great article, but Liz Halloran usually writes from the GOP perspective. (this past fall, she wrote that the media was showing bias towards Kerry by citing a study done by the CMPA while neglecting to mention that the CMPA is funded by RW extremists like Scaife) Her email for comment is: lhalloran@courant.com

Uneasily Redefining `Journalist'

White House Incident Raises Issue Of Access
February 23, 2005
By LIZ HALLORAN, Courant Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- There are undeniably titillating aspects to the current soap opera involving a Republican partisan who used the pseudonym "Jeff Gannon" and for nearly two years was cleared daily by the White House to join the press corps, allowing him access to West Wing briefings and presidential news conferences.

Was Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert, a Bush administration press-corps plant? Is it relevant that Guckert, who recently departed the pressroom, allegedly operated several X-rated Internet websites offering himself as a high-paid gay prostitute? And why did it take Internet bloggers, and not the mainstream media, to first write about Guckert's identity and his role as a reporter for an arm of Texas-based GOPUSA, owned by a Republican activist and whose stated mission is to "spread the conservative message throughout America?"

Interesting questions all, and the answers are as complex as they are elusive. But perhaps the most lasting effect of the Gannon/Guckert saga will be the outcome of renewed debate over not only how to define a bona fide reporter but who does the defining.

"That's really the key, and it's a fascinating thing - who's a journalist?" said USA Today's Jim Drinkard, who just finished his term as chairman of the Standing Committee of Correspondents, which oversees the issuing of credentials for reporters covering Congress.

http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/hc-guckert.artfeb23,0,7301349.story