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Flap over White House press corps is far from over -- (If the Main-Stream-Media can help it)
Kansas City Star ^ | Mon, Feb. 28, 2005 | DICK POLMAN

Posted on 02/28/2005 6:15:32 AM PST by rface

"It's a psychological thing. Gannon was there, either as a plant or on his own, to deliver the larger message, to convince people that the liberal side is the losing side, that the country doesn't need the mainstream media, and that the administration message is the wave of the future......"

(KRT) - The White House correspondent formerly known as Gannon has quit his job and acknowledged his real name, which is Guckert.

And his employer, a conservative Web site operated by Texas Republican activists, having already erased all traces of "Gannon," announced Thursday that it was unplugging its Web site to "reevaluate operations."

But the Jeff Gannon/James Guckert saga is far from over. It remains unclear how a graduate of a conservative training program, someone with no previous journalism experience, someone whose writings were often lifted directly from White House press releases, still managed to gain access to the White House press room, where he spent two years lobbing gentle questions at the press secretary and the President.

And some political analysts who monitor President Bush's relations with the media insist that Gannon (who, referring to Democrats, recently asked Bush, "How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?") should not be viewed as an isolated case. Rather, they contend that Gannon is symptomatic of a broader White House strategy to undermine the traditional media by disseminating the Bush message in creative new ways.

Every president has sought to manipulate the media. But historians say that Bush, unhappy with what he calls "the filter," is courting controversy in his quest for innovative formats. Several conservative commentators have been paid to trumpet Bush policies in their work; one recipient, Armstrong Williams, is being investigated by the Federal Communications Commission. And two agencies have disseminated pro-Bush videos that look like TV newscasts, without disclosing the Bush sponsorship - a breach of federal law, according to the Government Accountability Office.

The White House has stated that these media decisions were made independently by the agencies. Nevertheless, former Republican strategist Jim Pinkerton, who later worked in the senior George Bush's administration, says: "It's quite clear this White House is exploring radical alternative ways to getting its message out - through the aggressive hiring of flacks like Williams, and the presence, or even planting, of friendly so-called journalists like Gannon.

"The Bush people are challenging all the old assumptions about how to work the press. They are ambitious - visionary, if you will - in ways that Washington has yet to fathom."

Larry Gross, who runs the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California, says: "Richard Nixon hated the press, Bill Clinton hated the press - but they accepted the basic rules of the game. Bush has a strategy of discrediting, end-running, and even faking the news. Those prepackaged videos sent to local TV stations `looked' like news, much the way Gannon `looked' like a reporter. We're seeing something new: Potemkin-village journalism."

By contrast, the Bush administration and its defenders say that the mainstream press is generally hostile to Bush, and therefore, as the President said in 2003, "somehow you just got to go over the heads of the filter." Press secretary Scott McClellan denies that the administration planted Gannon, and says that Gannon sought access on his own: "In this day and age, when you have a changing media, it's not an easy issue to decide or try to pick and choose who is a journalist."

Gannon himself contends that he is a victim of a liberal conspiracy; anti-Bush bloggers, curious about his softball questions, dug into his past last month and quickly learned that he was working for partisan Republicans - and that he had previously worked as a gay escort for hire. Gannon, still using his alias, posted a statement Friday on his personal Web site: "The Left is engaging in 21st Century McCarthyism in an effort to blacklist conservative journalists, in order (to) protect their domination of the media."

Not surprisingly, given the current polarized climate, Gannon critics insist that his presence in the White House was part of a Bush master plan to undercut the mainstream media. But Rich Galen, a Republican strategist and Bush ally, scoffs, saying: "The notion of the White House somehow being involved in a conspiracy to control the news by planting someone like Gannon is just laughable. They (critics) are trying to connect the dots, but they're coloring outside the lines."

Nevertheless, Galen offers a significant admonition: "Partisan organizations properly belong at the Republican National Committee, and at the Democratic National Committee. I don't think the White House should have allowed him in. They knew perfectly well what was going on and who he was writing for."

Indeed, when Gannon first showed up in February 2003, seeking access, he was working for GOPUSA.com, a site run by Texas Republican Bobby Eberle, and dedicated "to spreading the conservative message throughout America." Gannon had never worked for a media outlet. He had attended the Leadership Institute, which is run by conservative leader Morton Blackwell (who helped mentor Bush strategist Karl Rove). The institute's stated mission is "to identify, recruit, train, and place conservatives in politics, government, and media."

Gannon was given a "day pass" - renewed virtually every day for two years - and therefore was exempted from Secret Service scrutiny. He used his real name while applying for his day pass; his tag carried his Gannon alias. As McClellan recently recalled, an aide checked the Internet and confirmed that GOPUSA.com "existed." That was the criterion for admittance. Two months later, Eberle created Talon News, which became Gannon's home. (Last year, already admitted to the White House, Gannon tried and failed to get a congressional pass.)

Gannon, on the job, repeatedly got McClellan out of jams. Last spring, for example, when McClellan was being hit with questions about the torture of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison, Gannon changed the subject: "Will you have any adjectives left to adequately describe the pictures from Saddam's rape room and torture chambers?"

McClellan replied, "I'm glad you brought that up, Jeff."

A year ago, while McClellan was fielding questions about Bush's National Guard service, Gannon told McClellan that at least Bush didn't make any speeches "alongside Jane Fonda." Last summer, Gannon filed stories on Bush policies for Talon News that copied, almost word for word, White House and Republican Party talking points.

But it was a question to Bush last month that put Gannon in the limelight: "Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. Harry Reid was talking about soup lines. . . . How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?" It turned out that Senate Minority Leader Reid had never invoked soup lines. Gannon had borrowed the reference from Rush Limbaugh, who had fabricated it. Limbaugh later admitted on the air that "Harry Reid never said soup lines," but said he was "honored and proud" that Gannon had used it.

Martha Kumar, a political scientist at Towson University in Maryland, who monitors the White House press, says: "Jeff was the kind of person who saw the briefings as an opportunity to air his point of view. Looking back (at the Clinton era), I can't think of any analogous person on the Democratic side. There were no Democratic-trained partisans like Jeff. If there had been anyone like that, you would have heard an uproar on Capitol Hill," from the Republican majority.

Gannon's defenders see him as a martyr. Tim Graham, an analyst at the conservative Media Research Center, says that "conservative journalists ... have every bit as much right to sit in those chairs and ask their own questions as the everyday liberal partisans do." But Gannon's critics are not disputing the credentials of those conservatives with reportorial experience who work for outlets with conservative audiences - such as the National Review, the Washington Times, and Fox News.

Todd Gitlin, a liberal media analyst at Columbia University, sees the Gannon case in dark terms: "It's a psychological thing. Gannon was there, either as a plant or on his own, to deliver the larger message, to convince people that the liberal side is the losing side, that the country doesn't need the mainstream media, and that the administration message is the wave of the future."

Kumar isn't as bleak - she thinks that White House staffers admitted Gannon to err on the side of openness - but she explains why Gannon's story resonates: "The administration's attempts to control information is a hot issue - the sealing of government records, the secrecy of Dick Cheney's energy task force. For many people, the Gannon case fits right in."

Or perhaps Gannon's lack of subtlety is proof that he is an aberration. As he plaintively suggested on NBC the other day, "If the White House was going to use a plant, wouldn't they have picked someone better than me?"


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: gannon; guckert; jeffgannon
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1 posted on 02/28/2005 6:15:37 AM PST by rface
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To: rface

Bad Bad George!!!!!!!


2 posted on 02/28/2005 6:18:17 AM PST by Coldwater Creek ('We voted like we prayed")
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To: rface

Who the heck cares about Gannon? ALL journalists and reporters are lying scum.


3 posted on 02/28/2005 6:18:58 AM PST by Brilliant
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To: rface

None of them mind a bit that Helen or David Gregory or all the rest of them have a very obviously slanted and often vicious agenda and are plants from the DNC, or sure appear to be.


4 posted on 02/28/2005 6:19:30 AM PST by BonnieJ
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To: rface

This is typical for the stuff the Red Star puts out.


5 posted on 02/28/2005 6:21:14 AM PST by Piquaboy (22 year veteran of the Army, Air Force and Navy, Pray for all our military .)
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To: rface

If all of the leftwingers were banned from the press conference, Gannon would be the only one there.


6 posted on 02/28/2005 6:22:53 AM PST by hgro
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To: rface

Give me a break. Ann Coulter's column put it best regarding the "Gannon Gate" story. A succinct response all on one page. The mainstream press can, in their heroine Tereza Heinz-Kerry's words, "Shove it".


7 posted on 02/28/2005 6:23:33 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
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To: rface
Yawn...

OK what else have you clowns got?

8 posted on 02/28/2005 6:23:42 AM PST by An Old Marine (Freedom isn't Free)
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To: rface

Yep, the Bush administration was trying to "manipulate the media" by taking a few questions at White House press briefings from a journalist that nobody had ever heard of, writing for a website that few people read.

Jeff Gannon of Talon News was more powerful than Rather at CBS, Brokaw at NBC and Jennings at ABC.

Who knew?


9 posted on 02/28/2005 6:25:43 AM PST by MisterRepublican ("It’s my belief that (insert conspiracy), originated with Karl Rove and the White House.")
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To: rface

Gannon was employed by a GOP biggie from Texas, Eberle. When he approached the WH for credentialing, they probably figured that Eberle wouldn't hire someone not on the up and up, so they let him have his day passes. Little did they know that Eberle didn't do any type of background check on Gannon.

That being said, I see nothing wrong with him covering the WH. I think people need to be careful wanting to limit who gets to cover our government for us. Personally, if they aren't a threat to the President or WH, let them in to the press conferences to cover it. Isn't that what the 1st amendment is about? I mean, by the standards they are trying to impose, no one who won't criticize the government shouldn't be allowed in the press corps?

More access to the government, regardless of your political leanings.

But Gannon got in for so long without his past being brought up, or even found out I'm sure, because the Bush WH trusted Eberle, I'm sure. Sort of like they trusted Wead also.


10 posted on 02/28/2005 6:25:56 AM PST by eyespysomething (Vous pouvez vous rendre au garde de securite!)
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To: rface
BTW, is "Dick Polman" this columnist's real name? If so, no wonder he's overly-interested in this supposed "news scandal".
11 posted on 02/28/2005 6:25:59 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
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To: rface
perhaps Gannon's lack of subtlety is proof that he is an aberration.

Sounds right to me.

(Karl Rove would have been smarter!)

;-)

12 posted on 02/28/2005 6:26:24 AM PST by beyond the sea (Barbara Boxer is Barbra Streisand on peyote .....)
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To: rface
Todd Gitlin, a liberal media analyst at Columbia University, sees the Gannon case in dark terms: "It's a psychological thing. Gannon was there, either as a plant or on his own, to deliver the larger message, to convince people that the liberal side is the losing side, that the country doesn't need the mainstream media, and that the administration message is the wave of the future."

Liberals are just incensed over this Gannon thingy. Its small and trite. Furthermore, there are a bunch of lefty bloggers that get into the WH press meetings as well.

I would also bet that Todd Gitlin, hate America leftist, has nothing to say about Eason Jordan.

13 posted on 02/28/2005 6:26:31 AM PST by KC_Conspirator (This space outsourced to India)
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To: rface
And some political analysts who monitor President Bush's relations with the media insist that Gannon (who, referring to Democrats, recently asked Bush, "How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?") should not be viewed as an isolated case. Rather, they contend that Gannon is symptomatic of a broader White House strategy to undermine the traditional media by disseminating the Bush message in creative new ways.

IMHO, his question makes perfect sense. The RATS have indeed "divorced themselves from reality."

And I don't think President Bush and his administration is trying to "undermine" the traditional media. Rather, they are competing with it.

And clearly, the LSM is pissed! Gotta love it!!

14 posted on 02/28/2005 6:27:17 AM PST by upchuck ("If our nation be destroyed, it would be from the judiciary." ~ Thomas Jefferson)
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To: rface
And some political analysts...[say there is a] White House strategy to undermine the traditional media by disseminating the Bush message in creative new ways.

YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! This is a great idea, and I HOPE that is the case!

"Undermine the traditional media"="Tell the truth".

15 posted on 02/28/2005 6:28:27 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
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To: rface
"Jeff was the kind of person who saw the briefings as an opportunity to air his point of view. Looking back (at the Clinton era), I can't think of any analogous person on the Democratic side.

HAHAHAHAHA! I had to stop there.

16 posted on 02/28/2005 6:31:29 AM PST by johnb838 (Need some wood?)
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To: rface
I've learned a lot from this incident, and think that we can reach out to the liberal establishment in the spirit of good will and find common ground.
 
Surely, we can all admit that partisanship and homosexuality are the two unforgivable sins in journalism.
 
Wretched gargoyle, Helen Thomas seems a very obvious next target.  The open partisanship is beyond question, but I strongly suspect she's a lesbian as well.  Oh, I know what you're all thinking "Owl, she has a face that would turn a wombat to stone." or "She was married to that fella with the advanced Alzheimer's and dementia, doesn't that count for something?" but the marriage was clearly a beard.
 
We should work with the liberals to pick up on some tips for gay baiting, and then viciously turn on her like a rabid pack of hell-hounds!  Expose her for the pervert she is, air all her dirty laundry and don't be shy about making things up!
 
We can build a bridge from left to right on the bones of the faggots.

Owl_Eagle

"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in.  I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"

-Hillary Clinton
(Yes, she really said that
Peggy Noonan
The Case Against Hillary Clinton, pg 55)

17 posted on 02/28/2005 6:32:51 AM PST by End Times Sentinel (Please: NO profanity, NO personal attacks, NO racism or violence in posts. "Aww. not even a little?")
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To: Piquaboy

it looks like no less than 12 other paper are running this Knight-Ridder article......the MSM wants this story to live on.


18 posted on 02/28/2005 6:45:39 AM PST by rface ("...the most schizoid freeper I've ever seen")
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To: rface

There is simply not enough time in a day to list the blatently hypocritical musings of Polman in this propaganda piece, so I won't. ;)


19 posted on 02/28/2005 6:46:35 AM PST by G.Mason ("If you are broken It is because you are brittle" ... K.Hepburn, The Lion In Winter)
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To: rface

Did the MSM ever get this upset over Rathergate? I think not.


20 posted on 02/28/2005 6:49:53 AM PST by sydbas
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