[gopwinsin04]

[Puddleglum]

Well, we'll just have to set up a FreeRepublic News Service and pay one of the DC area members a coffee and no-doze stipend to cover various press conferences. And he or she won't need a journalism degree. Such a degree seems to improve a person's ability to think, speak, write, and reason not one iota.

[trisham]

Gannon first gained attention several weeks ago when he asked a question at a presidential press conference that some in the press corps considered so friendly it might have been planted.

****************

He obviously didn't know the rules for covering the WH.

[cyncooper]

I have much to say, but first this:

Dan Milbank, the former White House correspondent for The Washington Post

I checked the source to be sure this is how they have it. The name is Dana Milbank.

[dead]

He admitted to NPR that Gannon was not his real name, and left it at that. This "begs further investigation," James Pinkerton, a media critic for Fox News

Maybe Fox News can put Jerry Rivers, I mean Geraldo Rivera, on the case!

[cyncooper]

Another intriguing issue is his involvement, along with better known Robert Novak, Judith Miller and others, in the Valerie Plame/CIA episode. His name turned up on a list of reporters targeted for questioning by the federal prosecutor in the case. Froomkin of the The Washington Post wrote last spring that "the reason Gannon is on the list is most likely an attempt to find out who gave him a secret memo that he mentioned in an interview he had with Plame's husband, former ambassador and administration critic Joseph Wilson."

Gannon and a whole host of other reporters have been subpoenaed to that grand jury.

The article by Gannon asking Wilson about this memo was published on October 28, 2003.

Before that, The WSJ published this article on October 17, 2003 describing the memo.

Two months later on December 26, 2003 a WaPo article written by Mike Allen and Dana Milbank writes about the memo business but does not cite the WSJ article, just Talon News (though they refer to "conservative news outlets").

[cyncooper]

Washington reporter Helen Kennedy wrote: "A conservative ringer who was given a press pass to the White House and lobbed softball questions at President Bush

I believe the record will show that Gannon asked precisely one question of President Bush.

He has attended many WH press briefings by Scott McClellan and has asked a few questions, but only one question of President Bush.

[Stentor]

What's this all have to do with Eason Jordan and Linda Fasulo? (;>)

[King Prout]

well, now!

it seems that the MSM has decided that the private lives of reporters are newsworthy and fair game for investigation.

hrmn...

this could wind up being Ra^ther amusing.

[HenryLeeII]

"If [Gannon] was walking around the White House with a pass that had a different name on it than his real name, that's pretty remarkable."

Yes, that would be, especially considering that reporters don't just walk around the W.H., but rather are shepherded into and out of the briefing room by government employees with Secret Service agents nearby. The name of the news organization is probably checked out more than the individual reporter's name. Does the W.H. really care which reporter the S.F. Chronicle or NPR sends on a particular day?

And why does this require more MSM attention than Rathergate, the false missing explosives story the week before the election, or the N.Y. Times covering for the Soviets during the '30s while millions were being starved to death?

[Petronski]

"Despite the ruse..."




Has anyone verified that Gannon lied to the White House?

What is Helen Thomas' legal name?

Wolf Blitzer's?

[DCPatriot]

Well isn't Rather's real name "Kenneth"
..., as in "What's the frequency, "___________"? ;^)

[churchillbuff]

the reporter's real name is indeed James D. Guckert. """

And you blame him for using a fake name?

[FourtySeven]

Well, as another poster said, if one's going to be in the kitchen, you better be ready to take the heat. This is an unfortunate setback for all who despise the MSM (both the right AND the left. Which, if I may digress, makes it difficult to believe this all broke from a blog, in essence, shooting themselves in the foot by besmirching perhaps the only real NON-MSM person there. Any rational group of people would simply say, "Great! We have one of our own (non-MSM, blogger, etc) there! Even though he's a right winger, let's try to get our OWN there, since now the precedent is set." Just goes to show that political motivations and loyalties really do run deep, deeper than any rational thought, at least for the left it seems). BUT I DIGRESS.

Jeff Gannon really should've planned better for this contingency. He should've realized that this would all come out. Actually, even though the bulk of this article seems to come from NPR, it really does make sense. I'll bet "Mr. Gannon" was indeed involved in these porn sites, at least at one time in his life, and I'd also be willing to bet that he HAS repented for those sins, as he's come to know Jesus as his Savior.

However, all of that is irrelevant, when talking about the world of the mass media, and the INTENSE competition that occurs in that world. The fact that he kept it secret, (probably out of shame or embarrassment as sinkspur suggested, which, who could blame him EXCEPT his competitors), the fact that he kept it secret AS he wrote articles CONDEMNING homosexuality and gay marriage, really is the killer punch here. I feel sorry for him, actually, not some pathetic PITY, but genuine concern and embarrassment for his situation.

Really though, it all comes back to his faith, and I think, if I may be so bold, he may be receiving a lesson from God right now. When one confesses one's sins to God, they aren't remembered by Him, so that MEANS you should NEVER BE ashamed to talk about them, openly and frankly, because the judgment of men isn't what's important. It never would've been important to anyone that he was an ex-gay, (or a purveyor of porn, or whatever it was that he did back then), if he'd just come out and said so from the beginning, when he was writing all those articles about gay marriage. In fact, the left would've dismissed his "ex-gayness" as a ruse, and probably never would've believed him. So, when THIS happened, all the "revelations" about the gay porn sites wouldn't have mattered one whit to anyone. I think he may be learning that lesson now, that TOTAL honesty is always the best policy, especially when dealing with a group of people (the left) that will take even the smallest mistake, and blow it up in your face, even as they claim "tolerance for all".

[Political Junkie Too]

I wish the MSM would put this same effort into finding out who supplied CBS with forged documents smearing the President two months before an election, or into finding out why former NSA Sandy Berger was stealing top secret documents from the National Archives.

-PJ

[montag813]

Loose "Gannon": White House Reporter Admits He Used Fake Name

And how exactly is this Bush's fault?

I'm sure MSM reporters would be thrilled if the White House press office snooped into their private lives to turn up things like pseudonyms and what websites they surf, right?

[lowbridge]

Don't tell the dumb@$$es at dailyKOS, but using multiple names is just as simple, legal -- and common -- as filling out the colored field of this form:

(This example happens to be from DD1879 -- the form for background investigations up to Top Secret.)

Don't tell the idiots at dailyKOS, though -- let them go crazy chasing their own tails!! LOL!!

149 posted on 02/10/2005 8:25:54 AM PST by TXnMA

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1339944/posts?page=149#149

[BurbankKarl]

Dan Rather has been posing as a journalist for how long? The Loser Stream Media is shaking in their boots at their lost influence. There should be bloggers at the White House Briefings.....

[YaYa123]

Catherine Crier and David Brock just finished obsessing about this on her Court TV show. She said, "I don't care whether it's a democrat or a republican...this is wrong!"


It's really fun when our side makes a blunder, (assuming this is), to watch their side try to manufacture a scandal of Clinton proportions. But the real laugh factor pay-off comes when the public don't buy what they're selling.

Wonder what Catherine and David think about CNN's Easton Jordan? Nary a word about real collusion between politicians and their media pals.
!

[Rex Anderson]

Dan Milbank, the former White House correspondent for The Washington Post

It's Dana Milbank. This whole article is now discredited.