Posted on 02/17/2005 9:53:22 AM PST by Dont Mention the War
Published: February 17, 2005 11:05 AM ET
NEW YORK Washington Post staff writer Dana Milbank, a former White House correspondent, tells a leading blog there remains reason to believe that, contrary to statements from the White House, ex-reporter James “Jeff Gannon” Guckert, may had a "hard" (long-term) press pass rather than a daily pass.
Milbank said on Keith Olbermann’s MSNBC show last week that he thought he had seen Guckert/Gannon with a hard pass. Both the disgraced ex-reporter for Talon News and White House press Secretary Scott McClellan have denied this.
But Milbank affirmed, in an interview posted today at the popular blog Daily Kos, “A hard pass has your photo and news org and name on it. A daily pass is just a brown and white striped pass that says, ‘Press,’ on it and comes on a dog-tag style chain. Note that the one Gannon wears in the footage on TV is a blue lanyard - not the sort of thing a day pass comes on.”
Meanwhile, in her New York Times column today, Maureen Dowd reveals, “I was rejected for a White House press pass at the start of the Bush administration, but someone with an alias, a tax evasion problem and Internet pictures where he posed like the ‘Barberini Faun’ is credentialed....”
And more today: Eric Boehlert in the online magazine Salon picks up another revelation from the blogosphere. It seems that Gannon/Guckert, as revealed in a television clip, had access to the White House briefing room as early as February 28, 2003. This may be significant, Boehlert argues, because the organization Gannon/Guckert worked for, Talon News, did not exist until March and did not begin publishing news stories until then. The White House, explaining how Gannon/Guckert managed to get press credentials, has repeatedly claimed that only reporters with "regularly publishing" news organizatons can get passes. So how, Boehlert asks, did Gannon/Guckert qualify in February 2003?
Milbank’s interview with “Susan G” of DailyKos, which was one of the main sites that broke the Gannon/Guckert story, touched on several interesting areas on the relationship of the mainstream press and blogs.
Responding to charges “that the mainstream press is lazy and slow,” Milbank declared: “I'd argue to you that it's really a product of our resources (far fewer than you seem to suppose) and our resulting prioritizing (correctly, for the most part). It's not that Gannon, and the CNN guy's remarks in Switzerland, etc. aren't stories, it's that they're not the most important stories.”
Asked if the media was now under pressure from blogs, Milbank responded: “I don't think we feel pressured. But it does drive the agenda in a sense that stories pop up in the blog ether and, because people start talking about them, they need to be addressed or debunked. The Kerry mistress story comes to mind.
“The web is both the salvation and the demise of print journalism. Proliferating blogs make it more unlikely that an important story will be missed or slip through the cracks. Even a large news organization like the Post has only 40 or 50 national reporters; there are zillions of bloggers.
“The downside is the web is contributing to the decentralization of information so that people can choose their own news, and facts, based on their ideology. I can see us reaching a point where conservatives get their news exclusively from Free Republic and liberals get it from World-o-Crap, and we're living in parallel universes.”
Asked if this meant mainstream outlet now faced continuing falloff in viewers/readers, Milbank said: “I think it's an inevitable result of the proliferation of news outlets, not just blogs but cable news, talk radio, etc. Newspapers (and newsmags, and the nets) can slow the decline but it's probably out of our power to reverse it.”
What about the mainstream and blogs somehow joining forces? “I think there will have to be convergence. I'd like to know how you, and your readers, think this could best be done. Some of us have thought about the idea of doing a daily blog report, summarizing what the top blogs are saying and assessing the accuracy/significance, but that's just a small item.”
Greg Mitchell (gmitchell@editorandpublisher.com) is the editor of E&P.
Dunno about the White House, but Michael Douglas decided to "pass" on her and she's taken it somewhat "hard."
What is she, 57 now? She looks older than that... as my grandmother would have said, it's the meanness in her coming out.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
'... Maureen Dowd reveals, “I was rejected for a White House pass, but someone... (who) posed like the ‘Barberini Faun’ is credentialed....”
She should be so lucky!
My thoughts exactly. Media whiners........I don't get how they are so clueless about the fact that we are sick of their biased crap. They can't report the news but watch, they'll make bloggers out to be morons who are "inventing" the news.
Is anybody compiling an active list. Does Alamo Girl do this gig?
Woof. That shot hurts.
Yeah, I was afraid I'd killed the thread.
Amazing the 'we are god's' crowd act like their holy place has been violated.
He posted here in 2003 and 2004.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/user-posts?name=Jeff+Gannon
Hasn't Clymer retired to run some kind of group?
'Creepy Liiiiar..' (my favorite Laura Ingraham soundbite of all time)
"Top Ten Weasels
1. Dana Milbank
2. EJ Dionne
3. Joe Conason
4. Andrew Clymer
5. Eric Alterman"
6. Thomas Oliphant
7. Paul Krugman
8. Ted Rall
9. that fag from San Francisco - Mark Morford
10. Maureen Dowd
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