Posted on 03/08/2005 8:11:15 AM PST by Peach
Democrats ask White House for documents on conservative blogger
BY ELANA SCHOR
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the House's top Democrat for homeland security, has found an unlikely place in need of his protection: the White House press room.
Thompson and four colleagues, all senior congressional Democrats, have petitioned Bush administration officials to release classified documents about James D. Guckert, a conservative activist who was a daily fixture at White House press briefings.
Calling himself Jeff Gannon, Guckert asked President Bush questions at televised news conferences as a representative of Talon News Service, which was a Web site affiliated with Texas Republican Bobby Eberle.
"Any time there's a situation like this, where there are plants or presumed plants in the White House press corps, whatever story comes out of the White House is tainted," said Lanier Avant, Thompson's chief of staff.
"We want to remove that stain."
Soon after his true identity was revealed, Guckert shut down his personal Web site that he had been using to repackage Republican press releases as news stories. Talon News Service also shut down last month.
Avant said the congressman did not believe Gannon's presence to be an isolated incident of misconduct in the White House media operation, but that Thompson was not opposed to the certification of bloggers, writers for Web journals, on an individual basis.
Monday marked the first White House press briefing that a blogger, for www.mediabistro.com, was officially permitted to attend.
"The test will be, is that reporter producing some objective, newsworthy matter that's not slanted to one political ideology or another?" Avant said.
Pff! If only there were such a test!
So has anybody heard of mediabistro? I thought I was pretty blog-savvy, but it's a new one on me.
I guess this is what they do in lieu of having any actual influence.
Why? What about Sandy Berger?
LOL.
Old Media has nothing left except complaints. Nothing.
So, why don't Republicans ask for files on liberal reporters?
That's what I'd do.
Are they still going on about this? My goodness, you'd think they'd have just a little bit of outrage at Eason Jordan.
White House response should be: "yeah, we'll release those documents the moment you guys get that Form 180 signed by your Presidential nominee....how many weeks ago on Meet the dePressed did he say he'd sign that??"
They are going on about it because they are nutjobs.
""The test will be, is that reporter producing some objective, newsworthy matter that's not slanted to one political ideology or another?" Avant said."
That sounds a bit intrusive there.
This is the best "scandal" the Democrat whiners can come up with now? This is pathetic.
Barney Frank is still allowed in the White House!
"The story itself deserves to be told, and it say a lot about the direction of the government under the Clinton Administration. Loeb, however, was careful not to tell the truth about Barney Frank, who was reprimanded by the House of Representatives after his relationship with a gay prostitute became known. The prostitute, Stephen Gobie, ran a prostitution ring out of Frank's house, although Frank claimed he didn't know anything about it. Frank also tried to fix some parking tickets for Gobie, who had been selected as Frank's lover after running an ad in the Washington Blade promoting himself as a "hot bottom." Loeb said nothing about Frank's sleazy past. "
That would be a Witch Hunt.
Q. Why doesn't Barney Frank use bookmarks?
A. He prefers to use bent over pages.
That standard should disqualify everyone in the room.
They'll be excluding Helen Thomas, right?
And CBS?
And PBS?
And Bill Russert?
If you've got a slant, you become persona non grata, right?
LOL. Why yes. I do believe you're right.
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