Star Tribune: Phony journalist/Pimping for the White House

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5247250.html

Editorial: Phony journalist/Pimping for the White House
February 18, 2005

Heard about the Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert muck-up in Washington? If you are an aficionado of the blogs, you've heard plenty. They're having a field day with it. But underneath all the fun lies a serious problem that hasn't got its due from the mainstream press: This White House employs a lot more kinds of fakery than the budgetary smoke and mirrors described in the editorial above.

Here's a summary: For more than two years, a reporter named Jeff Gannon turned up at White House briefings and press conferences, where he asked softball questions with a decidedly pro-Bush bent. For example, at President Bush's Jan. 26 press conference, Gannon asked how Bush could work with lawmakers like Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Hillary Clinton, "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality."

Well, it turns out that "Jeff Gannon" is really Jim Guckert, and he was a reporter for an online outfit called "Talon News," which was associated with the online group GOPUSA. com, owned by Texas Republicans. It also turns out that Guckert, in addition to reporting for a phony Web site, has no real journalism training and is a $200-an-hour gay prostitute. He ran numerous Web sites like militaryescortsm4m. com. The photos of Gannon that were displayed on those Web sites left nothing to the imagination about his physical attributes.

So the question becomes, just how did this character get White House press credentials, despite supposed post-Sept. 11 security requirements? Bruce Bartlett, a conservative columnist who worked in the Reagan and first Bush administrations, says that "if Gannon was using an alias, the White House staff had to be involved in maintaining his cover." In other words, the White House wanted him at those briefings and wanted him to ask his softball questions, most likely to divert attention when legitimate reporters were getting too pushy.

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http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5247250.html

Drip, drip, drip.

I want a flood---a biblical flood
to wash Bush Inc. away!

"Some day a real strong rain will
come and wash the scum off the streets."
--- Travis Bickle, "Taxi Driver," cira 1874.

Not the most sensitive choice, however.

"Taxi Driver" was released in 1976 -- a bicentennial "gift" from Martin Scorcese.

......This is part of a pattern by Bush's minions to construct a phony reality in news coverage. Consider:

• To promote Bush's Medicare prescription bill, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) paid for phony "newscasts" that were distributed to television stations nationwide.

• Columnist Armstrong Williams was paid $240,000 by the Department of Education to promote Bush's No Child Left Behind Act......



• The Bush Pentagon launched an Office of Strategic Influence to provide "news" to foreign media. When it became known, it was shut down in embarrassment.......

prosecuted? Isn't that what illegal means?

and write letters to the editor with it attribute were appropriate.
at the very least use this commentary in your own arguments. bye the way michael more is going to make millions with Fahrenheit 911 2.

it should be on the front page.

They do have Maureen Dowd's article from yesterday thouhg

or as my more conservative pals call it...The Star and Sickle.
:eyes:

The St. Paul Pioneer Press on the other hand, takes its marching orders from Knight-Ridder and always follows the party line.