Jeff Gannon the "Journalist" involved in Scandal, Resigns.

This, may I say, is a joy to post.

Gannongate has begun! For those unaware I'll give you some background information...

Jeff Gannon is (was) a reporter for Talon News, a pseudo-journalistic news outlet peddling right wing propaganda and swift-boat type lies. Now, this is all very ordinary until you realise that talon news is an accredited outlet in the White House Press Core!

Yes thats right folks, Jeff Gannon goes to the briefing room and asks Scott McLellan and his deputies softball questions that need asking.

DailyKOS and Atrios began to dig up stuff on Jeff after people began to realise just whom the white house was choosing to ask questions and thats when it got reallt interesting.

It's a long and sordid tale, but let me give it to you in a nutshell. Mr. Gannon's home page is JeffGannon.com. Well, JeffGannon.com is owned by a person and company that owns the following Web addresses as well:

Hotmilitarystud.com
Militaryescorts.com
Militaryescortsm4m.com

And for those of you who are really straight or really clueless, "m4m" is a gay online term for men who are looking to have sex with other men, and "escort" means prostitute. And being a military escort is also against the Uniform Code of Military Justice in at least two different ways, if not more.

AmericaBlog

Gannon is tied to these sites, which may seem a bit of a coincidence... it was until photos of Gannon surfaced on Wonkette in err... Marine Dress... Well... Underwear is part of the dress too isn't it?

Gannons AOL Homepage

So, in effect, the white house has accredited a two faced smear merchant hell bent on anti gay rhetoric (see here, here and here) who asks softball questions.

Now Gannon has resigned, various questions are beginning to arise such as possible links to the Plame investigation and other scandals.

I'll keep you informed.

politics.abovetopsecret.com...

Just FYI. It's US politics and a political conspiracy I'd say.

This mess needs exposure before the whole thing gets covered up with the rest of the White House wash.

[edit on 9-2-2005 by RANT]

......the Jim Guckert award! Given to the most syncophantic of syncophants....those true souls who cram ATS with all the pro-Bush drivel they can, and consistently warn us of the Communist overrun we're in danger of, should Democrats & the Liberal Media get anywhere near power!!

Can I nominate someone(s) ?

Originally posted by Bout Time
......the Jim Guckert award! Given to the most syncophantic of syncophants....those true souls who cram ATS with all the pro-Bush drivel they can, and consistently warn us of the Communist overrun we're in danger of, should Democrats & the Liberal Media get anywhere near power!!

Can I nominate someone(s) ?

Oh come on, why does it have to be limited to only pro-Bush suncophants? What about the doom and gloom coming fascist regime inspired by Satan himself who calls himself George W. Bush?

To be fair, further inquiries in the blogosphere appear to cast aspersions on the gay bit, as all of those domains are registered to 123cheapdomains.com, which seems to indicate that jeffgannon.com and the assortment of gay domains were simply bought from the same company. That is, assuming the people commenting on blogs.salon.com... are reliable.

I do not intend to defend Mr. Gannon(Guckert?) but so far I do not find the evidence to be that damning, and having seen what happened with Dan Rather, I am more than a little suspicious of jumping on defamation bandwagons.

Right now the most suspicious thing is that he seems to have run away, but the possibility that he's trying to hide something is only one possibility. It's entirely possible that he couldn't handle the pressure any more after receiving escalating harrassment.


Before ripping me apart, consider the meaning of the word 'objective (adj)'.

Most of the links in that article are down but Raw Story has an article about the scandal tat has working links:

rawstory.com...

Thank God. I sat through two press briefings, one with Bush answering, or avoiding answering, the questions and one with pig-face Scott stepping all over his tongue, and I thought I was dreaming when this guy was recognized to give his statements, err, questions. And I caught a glimsp of a few of the other journalists, if I must call them that, look at each other with incredulous question on their faces, like " what the f--k].

Thats pretty much the deal Kazi.

"Mr President, Mr President"

"Yes Jeff"

"Sir, you look so great in that suit, have you ever considered how masculine and powerful *begins drooling* you look in that macho suit. Errr... Sorry, does the white house wish to comment on recent accusations that all liberals kill children"

"Uhhh... Thanks Jeff"

Brings a whole new meaning to "hard news"

Great thread Nerdling. Thanks. Keep it coming.

RANT

politics.abovetopsecret.com...

Just FYI. It's US politics and a political conspiracy I'd say.

This mess needs exposure before the whole thing gets covered up with the rest of the White House wash.

Right. So let's do it.


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uniformed comment deleted

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[edit on 9-2-2005 by soficrow]

I always thought diversity was a good thing; I'm surprised to see how homophobic the left gets over gay/conservatives.
Maybe the next Bush press conference can be dedicated to "Journalists" asking W to apologise for his role in all this, or, better yet, to answer Eason Jordan's charge that he and his unbiased, impartial, objective bretheren are being targeted for death by Bush's storm troopers.

Originally posted by Realist05
I always thought diversity was a good thing; I'm surprised to see how homophobic the left gets over gay/conservatives.

Uh no. If you follow the actual hand wringing activities of the bloggers in the cited threads that did the uncovering over time, you'll notice the "gay" angle is repeatedly pushed out of the realm of valid criticism.

This started because the guy sucks at being an impartial reporter, not anything else.

First they found out he doesn't exist. Fake name. Then that his "credentials" were fake. The "news site" was also patently bogus. And he had a fake educational background listed on Talon (now deleted) on top of it. Then rather than ignore the bloggers he started "firing back" in articles and communicating directly with "nanny nanny boo boo" statements to the effect of you can't get me.

Any working gaydar knew this man was gay a loooong time ago. Not the issue (for the left anyway). But something coming out finally made him resign, or get pushed to quit.

It's just a shame a reporter this awful, has to be found pushing gay porn (presumably) for GOPUSA to decide to get embarrassed.



[edit on 9-2-2005 by RANT]

Gannon (whatever) is claiming he resigned over death threats but what's being floated by Washington Post intelligence is that he's being targeted as a potential for the Valerie Plume CIA leak.

Man, if this posuer walked in off the street and got his hands on CIA classified intelligence from the White House as part of their revenge conspiracy with Novak... :shk:

Something's up though. The whole gay porn thing sounds more and more like a diversion (or CIA plant depending on how paranoid you'd like to be).

Am I missing something, or is the entire issue that he's in the closet and enjoys comfortable underwear?

Originally posted by Esoterica
Am I missing something, or is the entire issue that he's in the closet and enjoys comfortable underwear?

Well, I think the "gay thing" (specifically the gay porn thing) is what finally blew it up, but the bigger issue is if the DNC were to set up a shiny new service called NotFakeNews then hire me under the name Fakey Fakerson (Fake Journalism Degree, Class of 69) to apply to the White House for press credentials, how far would I get as opposed to this poseur that's been at the center of every press conference in recent memory setting the dialogue and tone?

On the heels of the larger looming White House press scandal paying journalists for sympathetic coverage...there's a valid issue here.

There's just a swirling element of fakeness to everything now. From Sinclair running White House produced public relations infomercials as news to Homeland Security employees making anti-Kerry movies to the more recent revelations.

This one though...it really just takes the cake.

I realize some will think Dan Rather's mistake gave a free pass for this kind of behavior for the rest of time, but this is systematic intentional manipulation of the press and public opinion by the White House.

Which is worse?

EDIT: Looks like Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter, Ranking Member House Committee On Rules has summarized the concerns better than me in her Open Letter to George Bush on Media Ethics.

[edit on 9-2-2005 by RANT]

It continues to be quite possible that Gannon is a total phony, but this is where I get hung up:

I consider myself a libertarian Republican. I believe in individual liberty, individual responsibility, and small government. I dislike taxes in general and while being far from rich myself, have no problem in letting the rich have most of their own money, as I have an odd belief that it would be more productive, and thus better for the economy, to spend the money on creating new businesses and providing jobs than simply taking it by taxation and distributing it to the poor in the form of various services. Putting the details aside, let it suffice to say that in a room full of random people, I would be branded a right wing nut. I do not spend much time reading any partisan press releases, my political beliefs are very much mine, they are the result of informed contemplation.

Putting myself in the position of a guy in the press room, I think my questions would tend to be quite similar to those of Mr. Gannon. Long prior to learning of his existence , I had come to believe the Democrats were drifting away from reality. I watched Sen. Kerry in the pre-election debates talk about his plan, the plan he claimed to have but never seemed to say what it was, his talk of bulding international relations and wanton disregard for the rich. I watched the liberal protestors make mad comparisons between Bush and Hitler, and was clear to me that the left wing was breaking away from reality. In short, if I were in Gannon's place, I would have asked fundamentally the same question, as it is an issue of concern to me. I would like to know how the White House intends to manage when the opposition seems have descended to the point of opposing everything for opposition's sake, and I would consider it a real question. While I and my hypothetical journalistic organization would not copy things straight from GOP fact sheets, for some reason I do not think that would be enough to keep me clear of accusations of being on the GOP's payroll and being a softball-throwing sycophant.

In summary, the reason I am not entirely sure all of the accusations are valid is that if I were a journalist in a similar position I would probably ask the same kind of questions, and I know that if similar accusations were leveled against me they would be false. It could easily be different with Jeff Gannon, but I don't think the evidence is sufficient to say anything solid yet.

Originally posted by BeefotronX
In summary, the reason I am not entirely sure all of the accusations are valid is that if I were a journalist in a similar position I would probably ask the same kind of questions, and I know that if similar accusations were leveled against me they would be false. It could easily be different with Jeff Gannon, but I don't think the evidence is sufficient to say anything solid yet.

Well the Congresswoman's inquiry to the President about it is much more pointed than matters of a little bias. The breaking CNN article puts her reaction this way...

"It doesn't matter whether he's a conservative reporter. The question is, is he a reporter?" she said.

She told CNN that she believed the White House gave Guckert credentials to get a friendly questioner into the room during White House briefings.

The problems as currently illuminated include the rather scary notion there's no discernable difference between the so called news agency and the RNC delegate owned GOPUSA consulting firm employeed by the RNC that set it up, and no real credentials for the "reporter" (under his fake name or real one).

As in your example, you might very well ask the same questions... but you're not about to walk in off the street and do so without some major string pulling from the WH to get you ahead of people that actually made journalism their career and worked years for those positions walking that fine line of public and government trust.

He's a plant. A contrived fake one at that.

And not in the cool way. It'd be great for the average Joe to get to ask the WH questions. But this is more like the WH asking itself questions. Nothing more than a pretense.

Surely you see the tie in to the paid journalists scandal the President himself denounced. Breach of public trust. Plain and simple.

Originally posted by RANT


He's a plant. A contrived fake one at that.

And not in the cool way. It'd be great for the average Joe to get to ask the WH questions. But this is more like the WH asking itself questions. Nothing more than a pretense.

Surely you see the tie in to the paid journalists scandal the President himself denounced. Breach of public trust. Plain and simple.

See, that's what makes no sense. Why go through all the trouble to set up a plant when there are real conservative journalists who could get the same desired effect without anything shady happening?

Originally posted by BeefotronX
See, that's what makes no sense. Why go through all the trouble to set up a plant when there are real conservative journalists who could get the same desired effect without anything shady happening?

Now that's true they may tend to have the same effect, but there may be some benefits to having a spoon fed operative in place we just haven't seen yet. Some things real journalists hopefully won't do no matter what their politics. So far, I've seen suspicions of Gannon involved in the CIA leak and being cited as a leading source against CBS producers over Rathergate. Not to break out the tin foil just yet, but we may never know why exactly this guy got a WH pass and so much face time with McClellen and Bush. It's one thing to get in the Corps, another to actually get called on and get your career made for you. If it wasn't the hand in fist complicit relationship some contend, could it not be blackmail of a sexual nature against someone making a career for this guy out of thin air? He's coming off as a former escort too, FYI. Or even a larger conspiracy to make sympathetic reporters (and not just this one) or remake the WH press corp dynamic enitrely?

I mean I agree on the face of it, it makes no sense. But given the jubilous reviews of anything Bush by conservative pundits like Armstrong anyway, did it make sense for the Bush administration to pay him $250,000 to promote Bush policy? Sorry, but I'm having shades of Nixon here. It's shoot yourself in the foot syndrome. He had won the election too, had the world at his feet... but did he stop taping himself?

Buck nuts crazy stuff never makes sense. This guy being a WH reporter is buck nuts crazy stuff IMHO.

Gannon was also the one who assisted in the maiming of Rather along with Hannity.