Posted on 02/09/2005 6:44:39 PM PST by dirtboy
On February 7th, US Representative Louise Slaughter, D-NY, issued a press release on Jeff Gannon, a reporter from the web news site Talon News who somehow, despite the best efforts of the Mainstream Media, managed to gain access to the inner sanctum of White House press conferences. Gannon has since resigned from Talon News.
In her press release, Representative Slaughter made the following statements:
Mr. President, I am sure we both agree the White House Press Corps is an honored institution in America that should be beyond the scope of partisan meddling, and that a free and independent media is the cornerstone of our success as a democracy. Likewise, I am sure we can both agree the American people have the right to expect that journalists who question their President everyday are experienced, independent, and perhaps most importantly, unbiased in their approach...
Mr. President, your Administration has driven the so-called "values" debate in this country. But the most important value for those of us in public service should always be honesty and integrity, particularly when considering the manner in which we conduct our affairs of state.
The impassioned words roll off the press release ... unbiased ... honesty ... integrity...
And then, in order to support her charges against Gannon, Representative Slaughter cited an open letter from the Niagara Falls Reporter, which levelelled, among other things, allegations published in the Philadelphia Daily News:
He is affiliated with an organization called Talon News, and is frequently called on by White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan and President Bush. This individual has no background in journalism whatsoever, and his "syndicated column" appears solely on his personal Web site, www.jeffgannon.com. According to the Philadelphia Daily News, "Jeff Gannon" isn't even his real name.
In his biography at the Talon News site, where he holds the title of "Washington Bureau Chief," he claims to be a graduate of the "Pennsylvania State University System" and the Leadership Institute Broadcast School of Journalism.
While the 23 schools in the Penn State system award diplomas, the system itself does not, and the Daily News investigation has thus far failed to turn up a "Jeff Gannon" who holds a degree in education from Penn State, as this person claims he does...
Sounds pretty damning.
However, this is the age of Google and web searches, the greatest equalizer since the Colt revolver. A search of Philly.com, the website for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer, along with archive searches performed by a source at the Daily News, turned up no such story. Additional Google research finally revealed that a blog affiliated with the Daily News by political reporter William Bunch had this story about Gannon, and is apparently the source referenced by this article:
"Jeff Gannon" and Karl Rove -- one degree of separation
Who is the conservative pseudo-journalist who calls himself "Jeff Gannon" and has a hard-to-get White House press pass, so he can toss softball questions at President Bush and rewrite press releases for a right-wing outlet called Talon News?
We wish we knew. We're on the trail, though. Here's a few more interesting things about Gannon, whose unlikely West Wing access is shedding new light on the unseemly White House propaganda machine.
One thing is that there's an excellent chance he's a native Pennsylvanian (wouldn't you just know it?). His "bio" on the Talon News site states "Jeff is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University System and holds a Bachelor of Science in Education." The vast majority of students who attend Penn State, either at State College or its many satellite campuses, tend to be in-state residents...
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Additional reading of Bunch's website shows that he maintains a countdown for Bush's impeachment. Where is Representative's Slaughter's concern about Bunch's failure to be unbiased?
But I digress. Now, let's compare the open letter from the Niagara Falls Reporter, which somehow failed to mention that the piece in question was from a reporter's blog and wasn't actually in the paper itself, to the actual content of Bunch's blog entry:
Niagara Falls Reporter: According to the Philadelphia Daily News, "Jeff Gannon" isn't even his real name.
William Bunch: Bunch makes no such claim.
Niagara Falls Reporter: the Daily News investigation has thus far failed to turn up a "Jeff Gannon" who holds a degree in education from Penn State, as this person claims he does.
William Bunch: One thing is that there's an excellent chance he's a native Pennsylvanian (wouldn't you just know it?). His "bio" on the Talon News site states "Jeff is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University System and holds a Bachelor of Science in Education." The vast majority of students who attend Penn State, either at State College or its many satellite campuses, tend to be in-state residents.
Notice there is no mention that any investigation was made by the Daily News (or Bunch) to see if Gannon had a degree from any of the Penn State campuses.
So we have two clear lies in an open letter cited by a United States Congresswoman as the rationale for a press release to attack the Bush Admininstration for dishonesty. Representative Slaughter also chastised Jeff Gannon's bias but failed to call either the writers of the open letter or William Bunch for their bias. Honesty and integrity apparently are nothing more to Representative Slaughter than words, devoid of their underlying values.
The fact checking involved isn't rocket science - a few minutes on Google were all that sufficed to run this information down. It is both highly ironic and deeply disturbing that Representative Slaughter would issue a press release about journalistic integrity and honesty that relies upon an open letter from a liberal newspaper that grossly misrepresents its key source. But she apparently is too busy booking face time on CNN to make sure her staff checked the facts behind her allegations.
And encourage all of them to fact-check my fact-checking. I had to do some extra digging to find the William Bunch blog - even my source at the Daily News didn't know about that.
nice catch...
Thanks. I happen to have a strong connection to the Daily News, which is why this piqued my interest...
Doubtless because your letters improve the quality of the writing and average IQ of the paper's content. At no cost to themselves.
That said, good job Fisking Ms. Slaughter and her "sources". Everybody in the White House Press Corps sat there and nodded their heads on every one of her points. The MSM can't be bothered to research their stories anymore. Might counter their bias...
I don't know. We have our own channels on the right, but those tend to be more informal. I have found that the left tends to accuse the GOP of doing what it itself does, and that probably applies here.
There's more to it than that. The DN is a pretty scrappy, feisty outfit. And they always tend to keep a token attitudinal conservative on their editorial board. Sadly, one was killed in a robbery attempt a few years ago - a man named Russ Beyers, who defended his wife and took a knife for it.
The MSM was as much a candidate in the last election as Kerry, the Democrat Party nominee. The MSM lost and lost big. They unleashed every attack based on any information, real or imagined, on this President. The New Media was there, as informal as it is, to counter the MSM. Now the MSM wants its revenge. They can't win in the market place. Thus, they are determined to win by attacking the individuals and organizations that make up the New Media.
Memo to the MSM, bring it bitches. If they want to go down this road, then a ton of doors into the past and personal lives of Mr. Olberman, Mr. Matthews, David Gregory and everyone of these leftist journalists can and will be opened.
Bummer, I misread this. I thought it said "Representative Louise slaughters Dan Rather". Oh well.
They are trying to "out" this reporter. They want people to find his real name and therefore his "real" life. It is funny that the Democrats spend so much times trying to "out" conservatives. They would be screaming bloody murder is conservatives tried to do this to a gay liberal reporter.
Yes, he was ... his name was his screen name.
Ouch! You know, I start feeling sorry for the Rats. I don't know... things are just falling apart.
"According to the Philadelphia Daily News, "Jeff Gannon" isn't even his real name. (snip) "....the Daily News investigation has thus far failed to turn up a "Jeff Gannon" who holds a degree in education from Penn State, as this person claims he does...
Slaughter's stupidity is head-shaking.
I don't think that will work. As I showed here, they don't mean a word they say about honesty, integrity, and being unbiased. Those are just words to them, devoid of the underlying values.
At first blush, that places us at a disadvantage. But at the end of the day (or at the end of the election cycle), that is why they are losing - because enough voters realize that, to the libs, words are just that - nothing more than words and spin. So we should just keep pummelling them on their hypocrisy, and be glad that they will not acknowledge it. Because their failure to acknowledge it is WHY THEY KEEP LOSING GROUND.
That makes absolutely no sense - if Jeff Gannon is a false name, OF COURSE you won't find a degree.
But things are changing a bit. The MSM is now personally attacking the New Media, i.e. going after the persons who make up the New Media. To be sure, calling them on their hypocrisy is what we have been doing, but they are ramping the battle to a new level. The New Media can't bring a knife to a gun fight. I think the MSM is making a serious error by ramping this up. I am willing to bet that there are some skeletons in some closets that would call their credibility into question.
I have to wonder, will your expose of Representative Slaughter's Dan Rather moment make it into the MSM? Will it rescue a New Media organization like Talon News and allow it to have a representative in the White House?
He named himself after the villain who kidnapped Zelda, and he runs gay pr0n websites, and he hangs out at the White House doing the bidding of Master Rove? Odd fellow. Must have an interesting life.
I doubt it, other than the Philly Daily News taking an interest in the story because they are part of it. Orwell said it best - omission is the most powerful form of lie. And the MSM will pretend that none of what I posted here exists.
And they will convince 99.7 percent of their believers of such. But a few more folks will see this and start to doubt the MSM.
This battle is fought one person at a time. We cannot lose sight of that fact - for every home run like Rathergate, there is a lot of work that can be accomplished by continually running smaller stories that impact a few people at a time.
Awesome graphic.
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