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.
ROFL
Let's see - what is the month after February? Hmmmm, is it March? What is the last day of February? Hmmm, is it the 28th? What is wrong with these people? Do they think we are that stupid?
I have wondered for quite a while what qualifies one to be a "journalist." There is no licensure I am aware of, no national test, not even a requirement that one have a degree in journalism. So what separates a guy like Gannon from say, Stephanopolos (does he have a journalism degree)? I am growing weary of anyone in the media looking down their noses at anyone else and suggesting that others are not "real" journalists. Not far behind is my fatigue at some congressmen who are suggesting some sort of inquiry into how Gannon got a WH press pass. They have enough to do on their own..... /rant off
Add Keith Olbermann and Ron Reagan
I suppose Paul Krugman could qualify for the list since in his own mind he is an expert on everything, and ergo is an expert journalist.
Free Republic is a blog??? It's not one in my opinion. It's a collection of news stories, both liberal and conservative in slant (with the appropriate barf alert for the liberal ones), and opportunities for readers to comment.
Douglas set the precedent...
"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 Form 180 story comes to mind.'"
World-O-WaPoCrap.
Ironic, isn't it, that most of the stories here come straight out of the MSM and wires. It's just that they're the stories the MSM wants to claim they covered but really buried.
Lawrence "Liarrrreeaarrrgh!" O'Donnell is at the top.
Gene Lies(Lyons)
Number one clinton brownnoser.
I thought he meant CBS...
Dowd...Did her brother run around with a pooka?
Well, jeez, Mo, doncha think that might tell ya something about the desirability of your nasty self?
Even if you'd of been given a pass, you would of been put in the back of the room with that other old hag, Helen Thomas, if for no other reason than to keep the flies out from the front of the room.
Dana Milbank is living evidence of the propensity of the White House press corps to be dominated by drooling liberal morons pretending to mask their vicious temperaments with a thin veneer of snobbery.
...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....”
Better Jeff Gannon (by a long shot) than a left-wing whore with manure for brains and a vicious tendency to attack her betters..... everyone assailed by Maureen Dowd should wear it as a badge of honor, because she is a reliable guide to the more depraved precincts of the liberal miasma.....
Well, now I understand why CJZ pics are on Dowd threads.
Thanks for actually explaining.
Bump to that.
the real barberini faun
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Arts/Hellenistic4.htm
Dana Priest, WaPo ("Jessica Lynch, Amazon" fabrication)
Dexter Filkins, NYT (Numerous Tendentious, and at least One Fabricated, reports from Iraq)
Think the list will probably have to be a Top (bottom?) Forty.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
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