Helen Thomas | Who You Calling A Journalist?

I picked a link to this story off of the Gannon/Guckert site. It had been a while since I had actively followed the Gannongate story and I wanted to get into it again.

Helen Thomas re-iterated the "g-rated" part of the story, but gives it more punch because she puts it into perspective. 'Gannon' wasn't just in the White House press briefings -- he was hand-chosen by Bush for questions during a rare Bush appearance.

"Gannon made news recently after some liberal bloggers began investigating him when he asked President George W. Bush a question that had as its premise the assertion that congressional Democrats were 'divorced from reality.'

Bush comes to his rare news conferences armed with a list of reporters his staff has designated for him to call on. In giving Gannon the nod, he passed over some of the regular White House journalists -- including yours truly -- all with our hands up.

Gannon had attended White House briefings over a two-year period by getting a regular flow of one-day press passes that allowed him to enter the White House grounds. He did not qualify for a permanent White House press pass or a congressional press pass because he failed to meet the accreditation rules, which include the requirement that the applicant work for a news publication or broadcast outlet.

Gannon was known in the press room for asking softball, right-leaning questions. The digging bloggers revealed him to be a Republican operative, employed by the Talon News Web site, run by volunteer GOP activists and linked to GOSPUSA, a Republican consulting group, owned by Bobby Eberle of Houston.

Once that was established, questions arose as to why he was allowed to attend the daily press sessions. Gannon complained that he had been targeted by liberal bloggers who did not like his 'pro-administration' questions and argued that the harsh treatment he was getting in the mainstream media would have a 'chilling' effect on other conservatives in the media."

Gannon definitely does claim to be the target of "liberal bloggers": Gannon's header says:

Jeff Gannon
A Voice of the New Media
So feared by the Left it had to take me down

The headline switch from third person to first is but an example of the journalistic quality of Gannon's blog. Sure, bloggers make mistakes, I certainly do, but then again I have yet to be called upon by the President of the United States during a press conference, so you may understand that my expectations are higher in Gannon's case.

Helen Thomas does not go into the other points that are interesting about Gannon, sticking with the simple "special access, not a journalist", part of GOPUSA, aspects. That's enough to bring this into question already.

What's a lot more interesting about Gannon is what has been discovered about his being a male prostitute. (Yes, a gay male prostitute, but prostitute is the operative part, not gay, lest one falsely accuse me of homophobia.) See my earlier article with links to several on-line resources on the subject.

The inimitable Frank Rich wrote a compelling article about HST and Gannon (that I blogged at the time, since I had also written about HST and Gannon just days before.)

The administration has footdragged on efforts by House members to obtain information about the delivery of day passes to Gannon and, quite seriously, about his purported involvement in the outing of Valery Plame.

[...] Mr. Guckert’s questions clearly reiterated the White House’s policy, and simply asked for concurrence. Finally, Mr. Guckert ’s “articles,” published by a news front for GOPUSA, track White House talking points word for word.

Clearly, Mr. Guckert returned the White House’s favor by advancing the President’s policies with gusto. With such a close relationship between Mr. Guckert and the White House, the conflict of an administration-led investigation is all too apparent.

This is an odd state of affairs, a major hot item, much bigger than Watergate, yet with almost no mainstream media following it, unless you count Frank Rich and Eric Boehlert as mainstream.

The blogosphere, including yours truly, is still bouncing this one around. Recently, there have been some incredibly bizarre stories coming out, very scary and difficult to believe. I get the impression that these stories have been "hoked" up with the sole intention of discrediting the serious claims, which are, themselves, already quite bizarre (prostitution, outing of CIA undercover operatives).

The new stories would have you believe that a) Gannon as a child was kidnapped by a right-wing child prostitution ring furnishing the White House; b) Hunter S Thompson was part of the ring; c) Gannon was trying to out this group as part of his revenge process. The HST part is perhaps the weirdest and the least believable.