Posted on 02/10/2005 1:36:52 PM PST by areafiftyone
WASHINGTON, DC -- In light of yet another scandal involving the Bush administration's manipulation of the media, United States Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) today requested from White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan all the documents relating to the press credentials of James. D. Guckert, a.k.a. "Jeff Gannon"; the "journalist" now famous for being the White House correspondent for his softball questioning of President Bush and various Administration spokespeople.
"I am writing to request that you immediately release documents to my office relating to the White House press credentials of James D. Guckert, a.k.a. "Jeff Gannon." Specifically, I am seeking documentation related to the question of which name Mr. Guckert/Gannon used when applying for credentials, and which name was on the official White House press credentials he received," wrote Lautenberg.
"As you may know, Mr. Guckert/Gannon was denied a Congressional press pass because he could not show that he wrote for a valid news organization. Given the fact that he was denied Congressional credentials, I seek your explanation of how Mr. Guckert/Gannon passed muster for White House press credentials," Lautenberg wrote.
Senator Lautenberg has been the Senate leader in exposing the Bush administration's propaganda efforts.
February 10, 2005
Scott McClellan Press Secretary The White House Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. McClellan,
I am writing to request that you immediately release documents to my office relating to the White House press credentials of James D. Guckert, a.k.a. "Jeff Gannon." Specifically, I am seeking documentation related to the question of which name Mr. Guckert/Gannon used when applying for credentials, and which name was on the official White House press credentials he received. Additionally, I am seeking documents indicating whether Mr. Guckert/Gannon received a "hard pass" or daily passes from your office. Despite your assertions to the contrary, at least one White House reporter has revealed that Mr. Guckert/Gannon appeared to have "hard pass" credentials.
As you may know, Mr. Guckert/Gannon was denied a Congressional press pass because he could not show that he wrote for a valid news organization. Given the fact that he was denied Congressional credentials, I seek your explanation of how Mr. Guckert/Gannon passed muster for White House press credentials.
I have led the effort in the Senate to investigate a number of instances of troubling propaganda efforts by the Administration. The Government Accountability Office has agreed to my requests to investigate various attempts at media manipulation: fake television news stories touting both the new Medicare law and the "No Child Left Behind" education program; a study rating individual journalists on their "favorability" to Republican education policies; and the payment to journalist Armstrong Williams.
Since the Armstrong Williams controversy became public, Administration payments to two other journalists, Maggie Gallagher and Michael McManus, have come to light. Given the backdrop of these scandals, coupled with Mr. Guckert/Gannon's role in recent White House press briefings and press conferences, it is understandable that the circumstances of Mr. Guckert/Gannon's credentialing have raised suspicion.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely, Frank R. Lautenberg
Probably by sleeping with Palestinian women...
If we'd stop invading countries I'd think the Stupid Party was getting back to normal.
Thanks. I was afraid he'd attach a virus. I don't open links from freepers I don't know.
ymmmmmmmm No she isn't
Guess who has a WARROOM?
I seem to remember a Wayne's World bit during Gulf War I, when Wayne opined that the name 'Wolf Blitzer' was made up for the war.
So, Jennings has no real JOURNALISTIC CREDENTIALS!!!??? I hope his birth name is Peter Jennings, otherwise, he needs to resign, ASAP.
At least I admit I'm Olive.
Well he needs to get up on the info .. cause it doesn't sound like he is
Hugh has been travelling. Is he back doing his show today? He might have just gotten back which would explain the out of the loop part.
Either you are very stupid liar or somebody named seriousstan from DUmmyland is out to get you personally (highly unlikely)
Well well, this attack on Gannon might well be retribution by Reid then right??
A 15-member message team will include press aides who will publicize Democratic activities to Internet news organizations and bloggers, Reid said. Tessa Hafen, Reid's press secretary, will focus on Nevada media and regional news outlets.
Oh, I know, she never asked questions, she lectures him. Yet, no outcry from the libs on that. This is war! And you know what, good triumphs evil. The democrats will cringe at the fact that Al Gore ever invented the internet. These people are lower than pond scum, apologies to pond scum.
Of course.
Refresh our memory.
HEAD UP!
Brit to discuss Jeff Gannon after commercial break.
Brit Hume is gonna talk about Gannon next after the commerical
Looks like Serious "gidget7" Stan may be a cross dresser.
I don't care to feed into the games played at DU, and I am sorry you see fit to. Freepers are suppose to be smart enough to spot a con when they see it. That does set us apart from the consiracy theory spinners.
So why are you feeding into their games???
Wonder if he's planning on using David Brocks activist team mentioned over at Media Matters? David seems to be leading *this* charge.. Maybe Brock is interviewing for a big job with Reid?? :) Kinda smelly like the 527 MoveOn communications guy Zack Exley that also worked for the Kerry campaign. (Kerry of course refused to fire him, and denied coordination with MoveOn, ACT, etc... )
I love it. I was looking through this thread for someone to use the great handle Bob Grant gave this jerk. He's a Louse, Lousenberg. And he is.
LOL .. Bookmarked that one
Sheesh, iconoclast, taking up where joe h. left off I see. Some will never learn and keep up with the Einstein definition of insanity.
IMO .. Brock is a front guy
Hey DU'ers no one cares but please, please spend time and resources on this. Demand an independent counsel. Demand impeachment proceedings. March on Washington. Go for it.
No, according to the Daily KOS, Gannon was the original source of the Valerie Plame story. Gannon asked one of his friends at state why Wilson was sent to investigate the yellowcake and his source said that Wilson's wife recommended him, and Gannon wrote about it in Talon News. The angry left has been on dogging Gannon's tail for a long time. KOS has been using DUmmies to investigate and spread the smear campaign.
I have a few sleepers on monitor status myself -one goes back a couple years -LOL
--can you discern a supected troll on this thread?
freepmail sent
Brit: Jeff was the correspondent covering the WH for Talon News service and he's the subject of a Washington controversy. A NY congresswoman thinks an investigation is needed.
Bill Sammon: Re changed name. Works for Bob Eberle who is a Republican activist and $$ man. Jeff asked openly conservative and leading questions which rankles the reporters in the WH press corp who are mostly liberal and ask their questions from that perspective. It turned out Harry Reid never talked about soup lines. Liberal bloggers went after him. Found out he used a different name and that he registered some porn sites. He was a web developer who did those for a client and they were never launched.
Brit: He wasn't a pornographer.
Bill: Apparently not.
Jeff: This has been a difficult question in Washington - when you get official credentials or not. The WH follows what the standing committee does and it's very specific. You have to have articles that appear in daily newspapers but they've begun to expand their definition, although they are always behind the technology. The same thing is happening with bloggers.
Brit: This guy just had a daily pass.
Charles: Do you ahve reporters who do opinions in the WH briefings or do you have opinion shapers. It seems the answers are simple. You obviously are going to include opinion journalists because the idea that MSM reporters are objective is silly. If the WH briefing room turns up with bloggers who have ten readers, okay, you hav to triage. He also said something about Slate but I missed it.
Thanks for the transcript. Peach. I was watching.
LOL .. EXCELLANT discussion from the panel
Rest of transcript from Brit...
Thu Feb 10 17:53:05 2005
...large enough that one democratic congress woman from new york, louise slaughter, decided that some sort of criminal investigation might be in order here. Bill salmon, you frequent those precinct down there. What in the world is this? Who is jeff gannon, and what is this all about?
>> Well, his real name, first of all, is james guckerT. But he started working -- brit: It's an honorable tradition, you know. Good he started working for a thing called talon news, which is an online, openly conservative news service owned by a texas republican nmed bobby ebberly. Brit: Is he a politician or just --
>> I think he's a republican activist and a money maN. And he asked -- jeff asked openly conservative leaning questions at the daily briefings. This rankled -- what this is about is it rank led most of the reporters in the white house press corps, most of whom are liberal and ask their questions from a liberal perspective. Jeff got away with it until two weeks ago when he asked that question. Brit: Harry reed had never talked about soup lines.
>> It was an awkwardly and column silly worded questioN. He could have said how are you going to get your agenda through. But he was over the top and that's when the liberal bloggers and the liberal politics and the press and the democrats went after him. They found two things on him that forced him to resigN. One is that that was not his real name. And then the second thing was that they found out that he had registered some names of websites that seemed to be sexually explicit. Brit: About did the websites exist?
>> He worked for a software company before he came to washington and registered these names for the websites. The websites were never launched. For those two reasons -- brit: So he wasn't a pornographer.
>> Apparently not. But the ferocity of the attacks on him from the democrats.Com -- brit: What about this idea of jeff, of his credentials?
>> Well, this has long been a difficult gray area in washington. Years ago I was the president of the standing committee of correpondents on capitol hill -- brit: And those are the people who decide whether you get official press credentials or not, correct?
>> That's right, for the "daily press" gallery in the capitoL. But that was the leading validator of reporters. The white house usually followed what the standing committee did. And it was very explicit. You had to have articles that appeared in daily newspapers in order to qualify, essentially. Brit: Have they expanded that there to online publications?
>> This is a slowly moving, changing definition. It's always behind the technology. For example, when I was doing it, bloomberg news was not credentialed because it did not publish in daily newspapers. Once it started to do that, it became the standard for business news that it is now. I think the same thing is happening with bloggers. This is the first cutting edge of the change to take into account this new kind of technology. Brit: But this guy didn't get a full pass. He just had a daily pass. So what about this?
>> There are two issues here. Do you have in the white house a briefing room, journalists who are opinionated, or who do opinions for a living, or do you only have reporters? That's null one. And the second is do you only have the mainstream media, or do you have people who write online? Look, it seems to me the answers are simplE. You obviously are going to include opinion journalists. First of all, because of the assumption that the mainstream journalists are entirely objective is sillY. And secondly, why would you want to exclude -- brit: Helen thomas, for example, who just does a column.
>> Or the editor of the new republic or the nation or any other opinion magazine? On the other issue of online stuff, clearly this jeff gannon has been attacked by people who themselves write only online, which is itself ironic. But why would you want to exclude, for example, "slate" magazine, which is extremely respectable and interesting. If the white house briefing room fills up with bloggers who write for 10 readers, ok, you'll have a triage of questions, otherwise, allow the guy. Brit: That's it for the panel. Stay tuned to find out why it's not necessarily a good idea to agree with the president. That's next. . S a leap in unmanned systems...
Thanks for the notes of the discussion!!
If it weren't for the intimidation and that we've lost a conservative reporter, this would be about absolutely nothing. That the leftists think they need an investigation just reek of desperation.
WOW .. that was good
How'd you do that?
Sure thing. I have to go pay some attention to Mr. Peach :-)
Man - you are fast!
Fox panel on it.
Brit cites the Mark Twain example of nom de plume.
Bill Sammon is part of the panel today and is giving background.
He says what this is about is the rest of the press corps is rankled by the conservative tilt from Gannon while they are mostly liberal. He says the clumsily worded question pushed enabled them to pounce with aid of liberal bloggers.
Sammon explains the setting up of sites (by Gannon for a previous employer) that were never launched. Brit says "so he was not a pornographer" and Sammon says "apparently not", this was for a client.
Jeff Birnbaum now picks up and explains how credentials are awarded.
Now Charles Krauthammer...two issues: Should opinion journalists allowed in? Answer: Yes, they should. Brit cites "like Helen Thomas".
Second issue, what journalist entities...online? Yes, like Slate should be allowed. Online outlets should be represented.
Pinging Quilla because I know you're a big Krauthammer fan plus you had your concerns about this Gannon story (read this thread for notes on his CNN appearance that you may have missed).
I saw Gannon on Blitzer's show, and I thought he presented himself very well.
I still don't get the underwear picture - has that been explained anywhere?
None of those appear to be active websites... were they live websites before all this broke or is it really as he says, that he registered them for some past client and they never were live? (I really don't care, except it sounds like the old "Honest mom, I was just holding the weed for a friend, it's not mine" excuse)
Interesting stuff.. those girls hold grudges forever.
Some freepers on another thread viewed the picture and said it wasn't him. That's all I know about it. bbl
Same here .. Mr. Mo1 just walked in the door
How do we know where that picture came from
These loons have been digging up any picture they could find
Here's hoping McClellan has the good sense to totally ignore this outrageous request.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0502/10/wbr.01.html
CNN WOLF BLITZER REPORTS
Pope Back in Vatican; North Korea Declares Itself Nuclear Power
Aired February 10, 2005 - 17:00 ET
(snip)
BLITZER: He was a little known White House correspondent for a little known organization. Now he's at the center of a growing controversy buzzing around Washington and the Internet. I'll have an exclusive interview with the man who calls himself Jeff Gannon in just a moment.
First, some background from Howard Kurtz of "The Washington Post" and the host of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOWARD KURTZ, "RELIABLE SOURCES": Jeff Gannon -- that's what he calls himself at least -- was an obscure member of the White House press corps before he got to ask President Bush a question two weeks ago. And that proved to be his professional downfall.
Gannon, a self-described conservative journalist, writes for the Web sites Talon News and GOPUSA, both of which are owned by Texas Republican activist Bobby Eberle. And when the president called on him, Gannon asked a rather loaded question that seemed to disparage Senator Hillary Clinton and Minority Leader Harry Reid.
JEFF GANNON, REPORTER: Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. Harry Reid was talking about soup lines, and Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet, in the same breath, they say that Social Security is rock-solid and there's no crisis there. How are you going to work -- you said you're going to reach out to these people -- how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?
KURTZ: One problem, Reid has never talked about soup lines. And Gannon later admitted he had picked up the characterization of the senator's views from Rush Limbaugh.
Suddenly, bloggers on liberal Web sites like Daily Kos started digging into his background. His real name, they discovered, was James Guckert. Gannon resigned from Talon News, saying that, out of concerns for his family, his voice of the new media has gone silent. He says he's been stalked and threatened by -- quote -- "nuts on the left."
Democratic Congresswoman Louise Slaughter has asked Bush in a letter whether the White House cleared Gannon in the briefing room to serve as -- quote -- "a tool of propaganda for your administration." White House spokesman Scott McClellan dismissed the charge, saying Gannon was allowed in on a day-to-day basis, just like any journalist, and it's not his job to screen reporters based on their political views. The president says McClellan didn't know who Gannon was when he called on him.
(on camera): Jeff Gannon called himself the conservative guy and delighted in being outspoken, even confrontational. His critics call him a fake reporter. But others say that liberal bloggers went too far in digging into his background because they didn't like his politics. Howard Kurtz, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And Jeff Gannon is joining us now for an exclusive television interview, his first TV interview since leaving his job.
Jeff, thanks very much for joining us.
Should I call you Jeff or James?
GANNON: Please call me Jeff Gannon.
BLITZER: So what -- explain the discrepancy. Your real name is James D. Guckert.
GANNON: Yes. Well, it's pronounced Guckert.
BLITZER: Guckert.
GANNON: It's a professional name. I used it because Jeff Gannon is easier to pronounce and easier to remember.
BLITZER: But you haven't legally changed it?
GANNON: No.
BLITZER: So your driver's license still has Guckert?
GANNON: Absolutely.
BLITZER: So, when you went into the White House and you showed your driver's license, it was under the name Guckert.
GANNON: Absolutely.
BLITZER: And so you just did this because it was easier to pronounce, presumably.
If you didn't do anything wrong, why did you resign?
GANNON: Well, since I asked my question, people that disagree with me have harassed and threatened not only myself, but my family. And I believe that leaving my post would bring that to an end.
BLITZER: When you say they harassed your family, what was going on?
GANNON: Well, the -- on -- I've been receiving threats. People have been stalking me in my neighborhood, have followed me to church, followed me down the street. And then there are phone calls and hate mail that I've gotten over the Internet.
And it's been very troubling. And when it went toward my family, then I said that I needed to put an end to it.
BLITZER: And when you say your family, could you be a little bit more...
GANNON: Well, I mean -- I mean my -- when my mother and my brother and his wife received telephone calls that -- you know, that contained threats and all kinds of terrible things being said about me, it's very disturbing. And that's way over the line. And I needed to put that to an end.
BLITZER: Because one of the things, as you know, that were said is that you had some sexually explicit Web sites that you were working on. I don't understand what that is, but maybe you could explain that.
GANNON: Well, several years ago, before I came to Washington, I had registered various domain names for a private client. I was doing Web site development. Those sites were never hosted. There's -- nothing ever went up on them. And the client went on to do something else.
There's been so much about me on the Internet that people have, you know, made assumptions about. And I just can't -- I don't even know them all and I can't address them all here.
BLITZER: I was going to say, were you there in the White House briefing room on a daily basis to try to change the subject, if you will, send softball questions to Scott McClellan, the press secretary? Or were you there as a real journalist trying to get the story?
GANNON: Well, Talon News is a legitimate conservative online news service. And my questions are things that my readers, 700,000 daily subscribed readers, want the answer to. And those are my questions.
I created the questions. Nobody fed questions to me. Scott McClellan certainly never knew what was coming. He knows -- he certainly knows...
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Because you wore your politics on your sleeve. Everyone knew you were very conservative.
GANNON: Absolutely.
BLITZER: Why did you not get credentials, real credentials, from Capitol Hill from the U.S. Congress?
GANNON: Well, I made an attempt to do that originally when I was going to be covering Washington for Talon News. Our business -- Talon News' business model didn't fit the criteria of the Senate Press Gallery. And while we've been trying to comply, I couldn't stop doing the news. So I went on the basis of a daily pass. And that's -- it's all under the procedures that the White House has established for that.
BLITZER: What's the connection between GOPUSA, the political Web site, and the Talon News Service? It's owned by the same wealthy Texas Republican.
GANNON: I wouldn't say wealthy. I don't know that to be true or not. But...
BLITZER: Bobby Eberle.
GANNON: Bobby Eberle.
But it's common ownership. That's all. Talon News is a separate, independent news division. I work for Talon News. I write articles for Talon News. And that's it.
BLITZER: So what are you going to do now?
GANNON: Well, there's -- you know, God closes doors and opens windows. And I believe this is going to be a good opportunity for me, even though it's been painful. And I'm going -- I believe that there's a silver lining out there.
BLITZER: Do you have something already in the works?
GANNON: I've had some people call and make inquiries to see if I had any interest in certain positions.
BLITZER: Jeff Gannon, thanks very much.
GANNON: Thank you, Wolf.
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