Posted on 02/18/2005 4:13:55 PM PST by KidGlock
Rove- Gannon Connection?
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2005
Karl Rove's hope to become a respected policymaker will be hampered if the dirty tricks from his political past are more apparent than his desire to spread liberty around the globe.
Karl Rove took a victory lap at an SRO lunch at the Conservative Political Action Committee meeting at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington on Thursday. After a glowing introduction by Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association, Rove proclaimed "conservatism as the dominant political creed in America," but warned Republicans not to get complacent or grow "tired and timid." He recalled the dark days when the Democrats were dominant and cautioned that that could happen again if they let down their guard. The new White House deputy chief of staff also called on conservatives to "seize the mantle of idealism."
Tired and timid are two adjectives never applied to Rove. The architect of the Bush victories in 2000 and 2004 came through the ranks of college Republicans with the late Lee Atwater, and their admitted and alleged dirty tricks are the legends many young political operatives dream of pulling off. So when Jeff Gannon, White House "reporter" for Talon "News," was unmasked last week, the leap to a possible Rove connection was unavoidable. Gannon says that he met Rove only once, at a White House Christmas party, and Gannon is kind of small potatoes for Rove at this point in his career.
But Rove's dominance of White House and Republican politics, Gannon's aggressively partisan work and the ease with which he got day passes for the White House press room the past two years make it hard to believe that he wasn't at least implicitly sanctioned by the "boy genius." Rove, who rarely gave on-the-record interviews to the MSM (mainstream media), had time to talk to GOPUSA, which owns Talon.
GOPUSA and Talon are both owned by Bobby Eberle, a Texas Republican and business associate of conservative direct-mail guru Bruce Eberle who says that Bobby is from the "Texas branch of the Eberle clan." Bobby Eberle told The New York Times that he created Talon to build a news service with a conservative slant and "if someone were to see 'GOPUSA,' there's an instant built-in bias there." No kidding.
Some of the real reporters in the White House pressroom were apparently annoyed at Gannon's presence and his softball, partisan questions, but considered him only a minor irritant. One told me he thought of Gannon as a balance for the opinionated liberal questions of Hearst's Helen Thomas. But what Gannon was up to was not just writing opinion columns or using a different technique to get information. He was a player in Republican campaigns and his work in the South Dakota Senate race illustrates the role he played. It is also a classic example of how political operatives are using the brave new world of the Internet and the blogosphere. Gannon and Talon News appear to be mini-Drudge reports; a "news" source which partisans use to put out negative information, get the attention of the bloggers, talk radio and then the MSM in a way that mere press releases are unable to achieve.
One of Gannon's first projects was an attempt to discredit the South Dakota Argus Leader, South Dakota's major paper, and its longtime political writer, David Kranz. According to the National Journal, which reported on this last November, Gannon wrote a series of articles in the summer of 2003 alleging that Kranz, who went to college with Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle, was not only sympathetic to him but was an actual part of the Daschle campaign. These articles then got a huge amount of play on the blogs of John Lauck and Jason Van Beek, and were picked up by other conservative sites and talk radio. The paper was bombarded with messages about its bias and acknowledges that these had an impact on its coverage.
Daschle opponent John Thune's campaign manager was Dick Wadham, an old political crony of Karl Rove's; the kind of pal Rove could ask to hire his first cousin, John Wood, a few years back. Wadham put the bloggers on the campaign payroll and the symbiotic relationship between the campaign, the bloggers and "reporter" Gannon” continued. On September 29, Gannon broke the story that Daschle had claimed a special tax exemption for a house in Washington and the bloggers jumped all over it. According to a November 17 posting on South Dakota Politics – a site that Van Beek, who has become a staffer for now-Sen. Thune, has bequeathed to Lauck – "Jeff Gannon, whose reportage had a dramatic impact on the Daschle v. Thune race (his story about Sen. Daschle signing a legal document claiming to be a D.C. resident was published nearly the same day Thune began to run an ad showing Daschle saying, "I'm a D.C. resident) has written an analysis of the debacle."
Daschle aides told Roll Call, "This guy (Gannon) became the dumping ground for opposition research." The connections are so strong that there is an FEC challenge which could be a test case on the limits of the use of the Internet in federal campaigns.
Gannon also had Thune on his radio show "Jeff Gannon's Washington," and the White House correspondent for Talon became touted as the "resident D.C. expert on South Dakota politics" by the bloggers. Thune and Wadham (who has been hired by aspiring White House Republican Sen. George Allen) have become go-to guys on the use of blogs in campaigns. Thune was cited in The New York Times as introducing "Senators to the meaning of 'blogging,' explaining the basics of self-published online political commentary and arguing that it can affect public opinion."
This week Democrats, who have serious case of Rove envy, went a little nuts and started sending around information and graphic pictures of Gannon and his porn Web sites. But it is the more routine part of Gannon's life that deserves serious scrutiny. Planting or even just sanctioning a political operative in the WH press room is a dangerous precedent and Karl Rove's hope to become a respected policymaker will be hampered if the dirty tricks from his political past are more apparent than his desire to spread liberty around the globe.
Choose from one of the following:
1. Leap to conclusion.
2. Bear false witness.
3. Draw inference from unrelated details.
4. Vain imagining.
5. Wild accusations.
6. Omit.
7. Half-truth.
8. Extrapolate into koo-kooland.
"Planting or even just sanctioning a political operative in the WH press room is a dangerous precedent and Karl Rove's hope to become a respected policymaker will be hampered if the dirty tricks from his political past are more apparent than his desire to spread liberty around the globe."
Oh that's rich. CBS lecturing on dirty tricks.
CNN has Gannon on right now.
Seems that they are going down with the liberal ship and trying to find a story where there is not one.
NONE OF THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE COMPLAINED ABOUT THAT GANNON FELLA HAVE SHOWN THAT HIS WORK IS WRONG.
They are simply going after him because he did not bash the White House.
Using your link to CBS there big as day was DOTTY LYNCH as the author. Then did a google search and guess what....She's a Ted Kennedy Republican hating Dum feminazi propagandist. WHY DID YOU POST AN ARTICLE FROM THIS DUM TROLL WITHOUT NOTIFYING US OF HER BACKGROUND?
Rather attended a Democrat fundraiser in Austin. But that's different.
I'm still having trouble with this...How is this a story?
I guess the MSM has to ignore Iraq now that it is turning out okay. They seem more concerned with the press creditials of some unknown.
P.S. - Anybody ever heard of Helen Thomas?
Boy, you know the Republicans are instantly guilty of something when you have that sordid cast of characters together in one sentence!
Why are you surprised....look who CBS has as head of it's POLITICAL (PROPAGANDA) BUREAU.
I am liking Jeff Gannon more every day---he is driving the lefties nuts---and of course CBS would be one of the ones to keep the story going---
I think Keith Olbermann should work for CBS, he loves the suspicious stuff---
BTW, just heard on Harball the Meet the Press is having on Hillary and John McCain this Sunday---I guess Timmy is up front about his leftiness, I think his headline guest has been an uber lefty every week, hastn't he?
What does that sentence mean?
I very much look forward to your next article describing the more noteworthy statements from Eason Jordan over the years and outlining his ties to the Democratic party.
On the other hand, to spend time on such a story, you would have to judge that CNN has at least as much influence as Talon news.
thank you for your time.
What would be the difference even if Rove and Eberle were friends? Clinton and his Whitehouse staff didn't have friends among the media? They never favored those friends with interviews. Hillary doesn't pick and choose who she talks to? This is just another cBS story.
I just saw Anderson Cooper on CNN do an interview with Gannon.
The only journalistic complaint Cooper could list is that people complain that Gannon would quote transcripts of Press Releases from the White House...
WHICH IS WHAT EVERY JOURNALIST ON THE PLANET, INCLUDING THOSE AT CNN AND THE NY TIMES, DO!!!!!!!!!!
Gannon stated that his job was to produce an unvarnised report of what the White House stance was.
SO CNN and others feel that unless the journalists makes stuff up and edits what is actually going on in a WH presser....they are not real???????
It seems that the rest of the media, then, and not the Gannon fellow, should be explaining why they don't report strictly what is said in the White House press conferences.
The fact that Cooper and others would complain about somebody strictly reporting what is said by the White House...when reporting on what the White House is saying...
JUST SHOWS THAT COOPER AND THE REST OF THE MSM SHOULD EXPLAIN WHY THEY HAVE NOT BEEN HONEST WITH US IN THEIR REPORTS ABOUT THE WHITE HOUSE!
I know you didn't ask me, and I can't say for sure what the sentance means, but I truly think the lefties think that Karl Rove is the Nazi magician, able to create any kind of havoc in the world----
Good, let's let them keep thinking that---the loonies!
Howlin--do you know if there will be a live thread for the CPAC stuff on C-span tonight?
It seems to be an attempt to set up the "story" for this issue: If Rove planted Gannon in the press room (and I doubt it, considering the guy rarely asked questions), then that means he will be known as "The guy who planted Gannon," and a scoundrel, and thus will not be able to be an effective asst. chief of staff (or whatever).
Every issue has a "story"--what is this REALLY? (For example, the memos CBS faked: the story was that there were memos proving that the president did X,Y or Z, but the "story" was that this was evidence the president lied and should not be re-elected.
IMHO, that line is an attempt to set up the "story" behind this story.
I almost stopped reading there.......LOL.
It means that ole Dottie can't handle that the dems lost again.
See post #55.
I think its folks like CBS and CNN that should be explaining things.
Now Olbermann leads off with this story!!!!
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