Posted on 02/15/2005 11:19:19 PM PST by woofie
The Jeff Gannon story is still bouncing around the Internet, and now there are pictures.
The kind you shouldn't open up in the office.
The X-rated twist has made for a lot of clandestine clicking in a town where Deep Throat conjures images not of a porn star but of a man in a parking garage. But it has also deepened the debate over blogging and the tactics used to drive a conservative reporter from his job as White House correspondent for two Web sites owned by a Republican activist.
In most Beltway melodramas, the resignation ends the story. The problem for Gannon, whose real name is James Dale Guckert, is that he told The Washington Post and CNN's Wolf Blitzer last week that he never launched the Web sites whose provocative names he had registered, such as hotmilitarystud.com. But a Web designer in California said yesterday that he had designed a gay escort site for Gannon and had posted naked pictures of Gannon at the client's request.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Ping to a disgraceful Washington Post article about Gannon.
Brit Hume highlighted this on his "Political Grapevine" last week and I happily posted it on a couple threads. So much for the left acting like Talon News was given "unprecedented access" to briefings. Instead this WH seems mighty open to many different types of media outlets, just like they said. Imagine!
Friday February 11, 2005
Equal Time?
Critics have accused the White House of granting unusual access to Jeff Gannon (search), the reporter who recently resigned as White House correspondent for a conservative Web site.
But the White House clears in other reporters with partisan views, as long as they represent a news organization that publishes regularly. That includes Russell Mokhiber, who works for Ralph Nader's Corporate Crimes Reporter. Mokhiber recently asked Press Secretary Scott McClellan if the president believes the Sixth Commandment — thou shalt not kill — applies to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
The White House says they welcome a wide range of views in the briefing room.
~snip~
I was going to stay quiet about this, as this is really blown out of proportion. He's resigned, it's obvious the only reason this is still in the news is because *finally* the left has someone from the right to harass, and do so at will apparently.
However, what you said is simply not the case, *if* these allegations about male prostitution/gay website activity, etc are true (and I'd still like to believe they're not, but the evidence is mounting against him). And it seems it's not just you, but everyone on this thread is missing the bigger point here, imo.
The point is that a large portion of his work at Talon news, and therefore *for* the conservative movement, was writing articles condemning homosexuality and "gay marriage", right up to and through the last election. Don't you see the hypocrisy there? If all of this really is true about him, then this will be something the left will trumpet in our faces, every time we bring up gay marriage and homosexuality, for years to come. The man's becoming a stereotypical "homophobe": Someone condemning homosexuality because he/she is hiding/suppressing homosexual tendencies. Of course I don't AGREE with that line of reasoning, but you have to admit he's filling the stereotype, and that's, I'm sure, the left's eventual goal here. Bottom line: He's hurt the effort to keep the deviants out of our schools and out of the sacred institution of marriage.
When this story first broke, and it was also announced that Talon news had deleted the majority of the articles he'd written for them, I was wondering why they did that, and now it makes sense. Could you imagine a more hypocritical person than what he's turning out to be, at least in appearance?
To me the issue is closed. I feel sorry for him. I'm sure he's a nice guy. The fact that he's remained silent here (on FR), in perhaps the *friendliest* forum he could ever come to, speaks volumes to me though. It seems we've all been had, at least to me. I wish him the best, but would hope that he gets himself straightened out (no pun intended) before he tries to do anything for "our side" again.
You can all call me a troll if you want, but I think my conclusions are based in reality here. To ignore the obvious implications of this is foolish, imo. I wish I had an answer to such a criticism (his apparent hypocrisy) too, but I don't. I think it's better, though, to be informed about a problem, even if one doesn't have a solution for it right away, then to not be aware of it at all.
Please read all of trumandogz's posts. I have posted a few replies taking on the leaps and bounds conclusions he makes.
This is not about Gannon, per se, but about attacking the WH and leaving a trail of disinformation.
It appears to me that MOST here have the exact same stance expressed in Meg's post.
Yes I can see the difference. Sorry, I should have explained when I posted the link. I should have read the post, you were refering to, more carefully.
Um, why should McClellan be fired due to Gannon?
As I said, the irony for me is that I would have been blissfully unaware of this whole mess if not for the endless threads here.
Well, to be fair, we aren't lifting these articles from a place on the level of Talon News. Howie Kurtz is taking time out of his busy schedule of forgetting Eason Jordan's name to write about this.
Our office lib and the other examples of intolerance from the left that we've seen, bring to mind one of my favorite quotes about liberals.
Lenny Bruce said that "a liberal is someone who's so understanding that he doesn't understand anyone not as understanding as he is."
I am starting to consider your second possibility.
Is it coincidence or not that Gannon signed up here in June 2003 right as the Wilson yellowcake ball was starting to roll (Wilson has admitted he was the anonymous source for stories in June about the story before the July 6 publication of his piece in the NY Times where he revealed himself as calling the President a liar). And I have to wonder why Wilson agreed to a lengthy interview with him.
On the one hand, the timing could be coincidence. As to the interview, perhaps the fact that Gannon asked for it was enough for egomaniacal Wilson to grant the request.
I'll keep an open mind.
Scott McLellan: Next question
Is this the most important thing going on in the world? Gotta love our 'knowledge gate-keepers'...
"Our office lib" should have been "Your office lib."
Valerie, lighten up. Granted the left achieved a "gotcha" on this one regarding Guckert. If this thing were to be allowed to die that would be the end of it. However, there are two things that are a lurking danger. That is, if Guckert was also being paid by the WH and, more importantly, what did Guckert have to do with the outing of Plame. I don't want to even think about what will happen if both of these are established. And it looks like there are people digging.
Bureaucrats in Washington do stupid things because they can and because they can't see much from their mile high perch.
Call me paranoid, but half the time I walk around waiting for the other shoe to drop on a lot of things. I hope to God my fears are baseless.
Let me get this right. The pro-gay left is using allegations of Gannon's gayness as a reason to deny him access to a pass to WH briefings that is accorded to almost anyone who claims a reportorial privilege???
Is that about it?
What evidence do you have for either?
The first is merely asserted by lefty sites because of the "friendly" (actually anti-dem) question.
The second has zero to buttress it.
Perhaps you could expound on what you base your rationalization for repeating dem talking points (and note I've addressed the Plame issue exhaustively and pretty much know that story like the back of my hand).
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