Posted on 02/17/2005 3:59:09 PM PST by cyncooper
Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer was so concerned about Talon News reporter James Guckert's potential ties to the Republican Party that he stopped calling on him at press briefings for about a week in 2003, Fleischer told E&P today.
"I found out that he worked for a GOP site, and I didn't think it was my place to call on him because he worked for something that was related to the party," Fleischer said in a phone interview. "He had the editor call me and made the case that they were not related to the Republican Party. He said they used the GOP name for marketing purposes only."
He said he resumed calling on Guckert, who used the alias Jeff Gannon, after Bobby Eberle, owner of both GOPUSA and Talon News, "assured me that they were not part of the Republican Party." Eberle is a Texas Republican activist and served as a delegate to the 2000 Republican National Convention.
Fleischer has not previously commented on the Gannon/Guckert affair.
"I don't think that party organizations should have people in that room acting as reporters," Fleischer said, explaining his initial concerns. "They are advocates, not reporters, and a line should be drawn." But, after speaking with Eberle and looking at Talon News, he was convinced that GOPUSA.com and Talon News were not official party sites.
"It looked like a conservative news organization," Fleischer said. "If I thought that they were part of the party, I would not have [resumed] calling on them."
Fleischer served as Bush press secretary from January 2001 to July 2003. Guckert, who has become a center of controversy after it was learned he had used an alias at the White House and had ties to several male escort sites, resigned his Talon News post last week.
Fleischer said he did not know much about Guckert and could not recall exactly when he started covering press briefings. He said he played no part in approving Guckert's requests for daily press credentials (which were handled by his office) and could offer no further comment on that.
But he said he did not know at the time that Guckert had been using a false name and did not know if Scott McClellan, now press secretary but then Fleischer's aide, had known then either. "It came as a surprise to me, because I always knew him as Jeff Gannon," he said. Fleischer said he did not know of any other White House reporters using aliases.
He said he did not know the method the White House Press Office used to keep records of those, like Guckert, who received daily press passes. White House Press Office officials did not respond to several requests today for such information.
Fleischer said he knew that he would get a conservative question from Guckert whenever he called on him. "He was one of the few identifiable conservatives in the room," Fleischer said. "[With] some reporters, you know you will get a question from right field, and [with] some you know you will get a question from left field. I made a deliberate practice to call on everyone in the room. It was a way to make sure large organizations got their questions in, but also to be fair to organizations who do not get their questions in right away."
Fleischer stressed that he did not go to Guckert more often than others or in the hopes of getting a "softball" or partisan question. "Sometimes, you can get tripped up from right field," he said with a laugh.
When asked about the credentialing process for reporters, Fleischer said he purposely did not get involved in deciding who should get passes and believes no one in his former job should. He recalled that there was a rule about credentialed reporters being part of news organizations that "published regularly" but was uncertain how it applied to Web sites. "I don't know that we even had a policy vis-a-vis bloggers and blogs," he told E&P. "I never kept up on any of that.
"Until this issue came up, it was such a low-level thing that it would be below the radar of the press secretary," Fleischer noted. He also believes that the issue will eventually blow over. "I have a feeling that this is going to be one of those issues where people wring their hands, say 'woe is me,' and decide that it is best the way it is," he predicted. "I would advise the White House not to get into [efforts to change the system]."
Fleischer also stressed that, beyond security concerns, reporters from any regular news organization should be allowed to a have White House access unless they can be shown to be a threat. "It is a slippery slope for any press secretary in any administration to pick and choose who gets a credential based on ideology," he said, adding, "so long as they are a legitimate reporter."
Even Guckert's ties to several sex Web sites and allegations that he worked as a male prostitute should not necessarily keep him or any other reporter out, Fleischer said. "The last thing our nation needs is for anyone in the White House to concern themselves with the private lives of reporters," he said. "What right does the White House have to decide who gets to be a reporter based on private lives?"
If allegations that Guckert ran Web ads offering his services as a male escort prove true, however, this would represent more than a “private life” issue. Asked what he thought about the recent revelations about Guckert's past, Fleischer said only, "It is all a bit odd."
When asked if knowing that Gannon was a fake name would have changed his treatment of Guckert, Fleischer said, "I don’t know how I would react to that." Should changes in the credentialing process be made? He said, "the White House Correspondents Association should either seek a change or leave it alone and recognize that there is room for a little weirdness on both sides."
He also said Guckert was "just as legitimate as some of the fringe organizations in the room."
CNN we'd be stunned and it would gather a lot of attention of course, but not surprised if some fly by night lefty operation person attended briefings and had this kind of background turn up.
Yes, it's news, but it did not warrant the over-the-top hysteria. And it most certainly did not warrant the baseless allegations like "plant" "ringer" "WH gave him secret memos" (and even more outlandish) parts of the story.
Sorry, but the endless efforts to say "if this were a dem" simply are not right.
Well, we don't know, do we, since we've never looked into the private lives of reporters. However, since they have removed those barriers, we may just find out all kinds of things about who is in the press room.
If this were the case, the press room would be nearly empty.
We differ in what we consider "private." Posting pornographic photos of yourself on the Internet is not private by any means. In fact it's pretty much the most public forum there is.
I think it's 100% true that if some fly-by-night lefty website had gotten a reporter in the Clinton WH and that reporter was found to have a very unsavory past there would be literally hundreds of messages on FR crowing about it and digging into every nook and cranny of that person's life.
I agree that the plant stories are very far-fetched. I think a more important question is whether or not he was fully checked out by the SS. He doesn't appear to have had a hard pass, but he did attend press briefings on a regular basis and had close access to the President.
LOL -it appears to be him. I still wonder -so what? I guess this is all the dummies can do now since elections don't seem to favor them! ROTFLMAO
Wow.
I just saw the pics. They are extremely incriminating. If Gannon has been living this double life, I feel for his family big time. It would seem Gannon has some huge issues to resolve. That said, a reporter's private life is his own.
Helen Thomas
...The Houston Comical add insult to injury by putting her demented and ghastly mug next to her propaganda.... I just thank my lucky stars the pix in NOT in color....
Crowing and digging into every corner of their life because they attended press briefings?
No, it would not have garnered that much interest.
We actually have a close analogy. Bob Beckel. And others have mentioned the business that was run out of Frank's home years ago.
That didn't garner that many threads or that many responses. Yes, of course there was crowing and comments continue to this day. But "digging into his life"? Nope.
Sorry.
And they are much more prominent and closer to (dem) Presidents and dem officials than a reporter at a briefing.
BTW, attending four Presidential news conferences over two years is not "close access to the President", and I'm not sure what threat you are trying to say he posed--that he would strip?
LOL
I don't know why you frame it "stick up for the guy", as in Gannon.
What this thread is about is access to the WH press briefings and Presidential news conferences.
I hope you see the difference between people being reluctant to sign on whole hog to an unsavory story, debunking the leaps and bounds accusations the left lobbed and defending someone.
There is a huge difference.
OK
Maybe your infatuation with a republican non-issue contributes to the belief that people see you as infatuated with a non-issue that only dummies seem to be delusionally slobbering over? e.g. your posting to me and your defense of no defense where defense does not exist on the part of any here? Thou dost protest a bit too much and seem to tow the dummie memes? A troll -probably...
LOL -don't sweat the load! Welcome to FR. I will give you the benefit of the doubt. The political climate like warfare sometimes suffers casualties due to friendly fire. New participants in the fray are more susceptible until they get combat experience -LOL. It is not the best of times as unfortunately we are in a culture war and politics is the battlefield....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.