the smoking gun in the white house...james guckert or gannon?

http://www.independent-media.tv/item...der%20Reported

this whole james gannon thing is very bizarre.

Independent Media TV
Under Reported
February 15, 2005

The Smoking Gun in the White House
By: Melissa Carr
Independent Media TV

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I rarely like to dwell in liberal vs. conservative arguments, as I donâ??t think simplifying our nation as two distinct groups serves a valid purpose. But the latest media scandal to rock those who pride themselves as conservatives is too tantalizing to simply ignore. First, we had Armstrong Williams quietly taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in government money to push the No Child Left Behind initiative on his televised broadcasts. Next came Maggie Gallagherâ??s admission that she was paid to promote Bushâ??s marriage initiative, though she insisted that contract didnâ??t influence her op/ed column. Sure it didnâ??t, Maggie. This time around the exposed conservative sycophant in question is Jeff Gannon. Or should I say James Guckert? For all intense purposes, Iâ??ll refer to him as Gannon.
Gannon resigned this week from his position in the elite White House press corps. An Associated Press article suggested that his resignation was fueled by a recent â??pointedâ?� conservative question for President Bush. It also hinted at his link to several gay pornography websites. The real news story is not what the Associated Press said, but rather what they left out.

First and foremost, online bloggers are to thank for exposing this entire scandal. The White House failed to realize Gannon was using a phony name as it gave him top access, and corporate media journalists seemed to turn the other cheek while this shady character was sitting in their midst. Yet a few observant bloggers on the website DailyKos persevered in their online Mystery Machine and ultimately exposed Gannon as a fraud.

A number of troubling questions emerge with this latest exposé. The most troubling involves the criteria for obtaining a White House press pass. Journalists are eligible for â??hard passesâ?? or â??daily passesâ??, and the decision is ultimately based on whether the news outlet they serve is deemed a valid one. In Gannonâ??s case, he worked for a website called Talonnews.com. A Texas Republican allegedly operates the site, and there is no evidence it is valid news source. Most of its articles are copy/pasted from other sites, and even then it doesnâ??t bother attributing credit where credit is due.

Gannon insists that he applied for daily press passes with his driverâ??s license and he never had to reveal his real name. Hmmmâ?¦. I was not aware that it was legal to obtain a driverâ??s license under a bogus name. Hopefully Gannon can clear this up at a future date. I would hope the Office of Homeland Security would want clarification on this matter, too!! I also hope Gannon will also address concerns by another White House correspondent, Dana Milbank, who insisted on Keith Olbermannâ??s MSNBC program that Gannonâ??s press pass appeared to be the permanent â??hard passâ?? variety complete with photo identification. That suggests the White House knew he was a fraud but allowed him to participate anyway.

Another most fascinating question that has arisen from the Gannon scandal involves the question of who is or isnâ??t a journalist. Gannonâ??s website no longer portrays his â??bragging rightâ?? as being a graduate of the Leadership Institute Broadcast School of Journalism, but others have archived his â??meticulous academic recordâ??. Whatâ??s wrong with Gannonâ??s story? Listen closely.

The Leadership Institute is a conservative tax-exempt organization operated by Morton Blackwell since 1979. The â??journalismâ?? school Gannon graduated from is a two-day, $50 conservative workshop that promises its students the following:

·Learn how to find good internships and make the most of them ·Gain networking skills to help you land your job and increase your effectiveness ·Develop a top-notch resume and learn how to make yourself stand out in an interview ·Learn a proven, step-by-step job hunting strategy and much more

Interestingly, the Leadership Institute asks its potential customers if they know what Larry King, Barbara Walters, Peter Jennings, and Bill Clinton all have in common. Besides the fact that all 4 have been on television, there is no common similarity. Walters has an English degree and is known to make people cry during interviews. Jennings has been in broadcast since he was 9 years old and is an anchorman. Clinton has NO journalistic experience. And Larry King has years of broadcast experience but is still no more credible than Oprah or Dr. Phil when it comes to hard news. Does the Leadership Institute think that appearing on television is a worthy commonality to peddle its broadcast journalism program???

The media placement and recruitment coordinator for the institute is Denise Chaykun. Chaykun is a recent graduate of Bucknell University, and her majors were history and psychology. How does a recent history and psychology graduate now qualify as a media expert who can recruit and place people in the field of journalism?

Does a two-day workshop really make someone a viable contender for a journalism job these days? There is hard news and there is soft news. There are feature stories, op/ed articles, sports spreads, and hard news. That anyone, especially through an admitted program that does little to hide its biased slant, could think that he/she could learn the ropes of journalism in two days seems to show how some conservatives prefer sharing their opinions instead of disseminating factual information per the media.

The same organization claims it can teach people how to write like Congressional champions in a single day. It promises to â??take you to the top and teach you the writing skills every Chief-of-Staff demands.â?� As an English instructor, Iâ??m not sure whether I should be alarmed by this organizationâ??s claim or by the possibility that Congressional writing is so substandard it can be learned in a day.

I must admit, Iâ??m a bit curious about the Leadership Instituteâ??s Internet activism workshop that claims it can teach its students the ropes of â??guerilla Internet activism.â?� Iâ??ll overlook the typo of the word â??guerrillaâ?� because Iâ??m more interested in knowing the definition of guerrilla Internet activism. The term â??guerrillaâ?� conjures up notions of warfare, yet Iâ??m not quite sure why a tax-exempt, non-profit organization would be doing that.

The last question to be raised is the bombshell that Gannon was questioned for his role in the Valerie Plame/CIA media leak investigation. How did a $50 â??journalistâ?? manage to get his hands on such sensitive information? And when he testified during a federal grand jury, which of his names did he use?

It is only after these questions are thoroughly answered that I might be able to fathom how certain conservative circles are touting their moral values as righteous compared to the ones I know.





Original Link: http://www.independent-media.tv

Where would you have been standing way back when the constitution was being thought up and drafted PH? Would you have been for it, or against it??? Don't run off and hide from this, it's just a simple question.

Toker

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

Feb 10, 1:30 PM EST

Reporter quits amid credential questions

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A conservative writer who attracted attention by asking President Bush a loaded question at a news conference last month has resigned amid questions about his identity and background.

James D. Guckert, who wrote under the name Jeff Gannon, said on his Web site that he was leaving "because of the attention being paid to me." He had been Washington bureau chief for Talon News, a conservative online news outlet associated with another Web site, GOPUSA.

Guckert frequently attended White House press briefings over the last two years and asked pointedly conservative questions. Called on by Bush at a Jan. 26 news conference, Guckert said Senate Democratic leaders were painting a bleak picture of the economy and he asked Bush how the president would work "with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality."

The question prompted scrutiny, particularly from liberal bloggers. Guckert was linked with online domain addresses suggestive of gay pornography. Guckert, a former resident of Wilmington, Del., told The (Wilmington) News Journal newspaper that he had registered the domain names for a client while he was working to set up a Web-hosting business.

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White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Guckert did not have a regular White House press pass but was cleared on a day-by-day basis to attend briefings and used his real name.

"He, like anyone else, showed that he was representing a news organization that published regularly and so he was cleared two years ago to receive daily passes just like many others are," McClellan said. "In this day and age, when you have a changing media, it's not an easy issue to decide, to try to pick and choose who is a journalist. It gets into the issue of advocacy journalism. Where do you draw the line? There are a number of people who cross that line in the briefing room."

He said he had been was unaware of Guckert's affiliation with any sexually suggestive domain addresses.

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