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.
He is a disgusting weasel who should be fired. He is on my Top Ten list of people I want driven out of journalism.
Pfui!
That pretty much sums it up for me.
I thought you guys would like to see what Dana Milbank is currently up to.
This is such a non-story that has the left with their panties in a wad. Don't they have anything better to spend their time on? If the DUmmies and the Daily KOS are representative of the Democrat party, they should just give up right now. They are boring everyone to death.
David Gregory
Terry Moran
Christiana Amanpour
And then Milbank and Dowd will be out of a job because they cannot compete in real-time with those who can.
""liberals get it from World-o-Crap""
I think it was suppose to read WORD-o-crap, typo on the l.
Noooooooooooooooooo, musn't have that. Must keep the news centalized so people with "journalism" degrees can dole it out to us undeserving peons as they see fit.
The Left is pretty desperate these days to make a scandal. I didn't know who Jeff Ganon was before this story and I've yet to see a reason why anyone should care.
Sean Hannity...
Just thought I'd add to his angst...
Notice that whether or not a "friendly" reporter had a White House pass is what is supposed to pass for news these days? The leftists in the press corps and otherwise are so damn worked up about those of us on the right that they'll seize on anything to make us out to be bad guys...
How in the world could you forget the "dame" of them all - - Helen Thomas???
Freeper law 345a section 5 paragraph 3a;
"One must post CZJ pictures when one posts an article by or about Maureen Dowd because Maureen is a self absorbed elitist who does searches on her name to see what people are saying about her, whereas threads by Freerepublic will show up in that search, and when she visits she must be reminded that no matter how liberal she tries to be to get back Michael Douglas, she never will because Michael is married to CZJ who is much hotter than Maureen."
"The white house is too secretive!"
"The white house gives access too easily!"
Make up your minds!
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