| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Fredric L. Rice" |
| Date: |
22 Feb 2005 10:53:48 PM |
| Object: |
Gannongate digs in deeper -- most places |
From The Niagara Falls Reporter, 2/22/05:
http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/column203.html
GANNONGATE SCANDAL ELUDES LOCAL DAILIES
By Mike Hudson
On Feb. 9, when Rep. Louise Slaughter wrote an open letter to
President George Bush demanding an investigation into how a person
using an alias, with a background in gay pornography and no
journalistic credentials whatsoever, managed to obtain White House
press passes nearly every day for two years, it made headlines around
the country.
The New York Times, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor,
"Salon" online magazine, CNN, the Associated Press, MSNBC and a raft
of other major media outlets have all reported on the burgeoning
scandal.
It seems that a man calling himself "Jeff Gannon" -- and acting as an
agent for a wholly owned subsidiary of a Texas-based Republican group
known as GOPUSA -- had received White House clearance to pretty much
come and go as he pleased and, by his own admission, had access to
highly classified national defense documents.
The White House press corps is the most rarefied of American
journalistic beats.
Maureen Dowd, who writes for The New York Times and won a Pulitzer
Prize for her scathing indictments of Bill Clinton, had her press pass
revoked when George W. Bush took office.
Days after writing her letter to the president, Rep. Slaughter, along
with Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, called on the Secret Service to
launch its own investigation, and referred the matter to Patrick
Fitzgerald, the special Justice Department prosecutor investigating
the leaking of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity to
the media.
House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland also encouraged the
special counsel to look into the matter.
And Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey called upon White House Press
Secretary Scott McClellan to release all documents related to Gannon.
Still, despite the fact that our congresswoman blew the lid off of
what promises to be the first major scandal of Bush's second term, the
local dailies have remained silent.
Why is it that Slaughter's brave challenge is big news everywhere but
in her own district?
I've got a sinking suspicion I know the answer.
You see, in the first sentence of the first paragraph of her letter to
the president, Slaughter states, "I feel compelled to ask you to
address a matter brought to my attention by the Niagara Falls
Reporter, a local newspaper in my district."
How did we find out about it?
There are any number of excellent sites on the Internet that had been
way out front with the story.
Daily Kos, Media Matters for America, BuzzFlash, AMERICAblog and
Eschaton, to name but a few.
In much the same way that Matt Drudge's Web site drove the Monica
Lewinsky feeding frenzy, today's bloggers have been on the current
scandal like white on rice.
These intrepid cyber-sleuths not only revealed that Jeff Gannon's real
name was James Dale Guckert, they exposed his ties to pornography and
uncovered the stranger-than-fiction fact that he had been offering his
services as an "escort" with a going rate of $200 an hour.
In a recent interview with "Editor and Publisher," Guckert didn't deny
any of the allegations.
Further online reporting showed that Talon News, the organization he
claimed to work for, consisted of a single obscure Web site, and
unveiled the GOPUSA connection.
Just for good measure, they discovered that many of the articles
Guckert had "written" were nothing more than White House press
releases with the Jeff Gannon byline attached and that, in at least
one case, he may have plagiarized a piece that had appeared earlier on
CNN.
We followed the story online, did a little checking of our own, and
wrote the congresswoman voicing our concerns.
Subsequently, we received a lot of help and support from Rep.
Slaughter's staff, particularly Suzanne Macri and Jane Schroeder at
the Pine Avenue office and Karl Frisch in Washington.
Although we didn't know it when we wrote the letter, Slaughter had
already been looking into the Bush administration's possibly illegal
and certainly unethical payments to syndicated columnists and
television talking heads like Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher and
Mike McManus.
It is a sad disgrace that, unless you're tuned into the national media
or what is now known as the blogosphere, or unless you read the
Reporter, you can't find anything out about what our local
representative in Congress has been up to over the past week.
The Buffalo News was busy lamenting the fact that the steroid-sucking,
store-bought governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is
ineligible to run for president because of a quaint provision in the
Constitution of the United States that says you have to be born in
this country to serve in that office.
Coincidentally, Warren Buffet, one of the Terminator's chief campaign
advisers, also owns the News.
Over at the Gazette, they waxed poetic about what a wonderful occasion
Valentine's Day is.
How sweet.
How sickeningly sweet.
They wasted space on a frivolous column a young airhead writes called
"I'll Try Anything Once" and exhausted valuable front-page space on a
column by Vince Anello which, I think, is called "I Am a Liar and a
Thief."
No, I was just kidding.
It's actually called "Ask the Mayor."
The Gazette is owned by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., a
corporation based deep in the heart of the blood-Red State of Alabama.
Last week, the company made industry news when it fired a columnist
for his liberal views at another paper it owns -- the Pella (Iowa)
Chronicle -- a move that caused the paper's longtime managing editor
to resign in protest.
It's a strange business, this journalism racket.
On one hand, you've got a fake news organization employing a fake
reporter who turns out to be a gay prostitute gaining access to the
highest level of American government and being made privy to
classified documents.
On the other hand, you've got a bunch of dedicated amateurs who know
how to use computers and the Internet exposing him, something the
Secret Service and the FBI apparently were unable to do.
So much for "Homeland Security."
Then you've got a small weekly newspaper and Congresswoman Louise
Slaughter, both having the temerity to ask, "What the hell's going on
here?"
And finally, you've got a couple of gutless and bloated dailies that
are too lazy, too stupid or too partisan themselves to report on a
sensational national news story that broke right in their own
backyard.
Despite the fact that both papers fill their pages with reams of
canned Associated Press copy every day to cut down on editorial costs,
the AP stories dealing with Slaughter's valiant efforts have
apparently fallen through the cracks.
So here's some news for these alleged news hounds -- this story isn't
going to go away any time in the foreseeable future.
Sooner or later, they're going to have to report on it.
Last Friday, Slaughter was able to confirm reports that the phony
newsman had been attending White House press briefings as early as
Feb. 28, 2003, a full month before Talon News even existed.
Since Guckert said in a recent interview that he hadn't had any
experience in journalism prior to joining Talon, Slaughter called on
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to find out how such a thing
could have happened.
She and Conyers have also filed a Freedom of Information Act request
with the Homeland Security Department demanding all records relating
to Guckert and the process by which he obtained his top-level
clearance.
As a member of Congress, Slaughter said, even she could not simply
walk up to the White House and gain admittance.
And she's losing patience with administration officials who continue
to maintain the treatment Guckert received was nothing out of the
ordinary.
"It's been a week since I wrote President Bush seeking answers in this
matter. I have not yet received a reply," she said last week.
"With each new revelation it becomes more and more clear that the
relationship between the White House and Jeff Gannon was anything but
typical. It is time for this administration to stop stonewalling and
come clean with the American people."
---
http://www.ElmerFudd.US/ http://www.notserver.com/
Scientology crooks: http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/otiii-gif.html
Scientology murder: http://PerkinsTragedy.org
.
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: Gannongate digs in deeper -- most places |
24 Feb 2005 07:53:14 PM |
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On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 04:53:48 GMT, (Fredric L.
Rice) wrote:
From The Niagara Falls Reporter, 2/22/05:
http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/column203.html
GANNONGATE SCANDAL ELUDES LOCAL DAILIES
By Mike Hudson
[]
Since Guckert said in a recent interview that he hadn't had any
experience in journalism prior to joining Talon, Slaughter called on
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to find out how such a thing
could have happened.
She and Conyers have also filed a Freedom of Information Act request
with the Homeland Security Department demanding all records relating
to Guckert and the process by which he obtained his top-level
clearance.
As a member of Congress, Slaughter said, even she could not simply
walk up to the White House and gain admittance.
And she's losing patience with administration officials who continue
to maintain the treatment Guckert received was nothing out of the
ordinary.
"It's been a week since I wrote President Bush seeking answers in this
matter. I have not yet received a reply," she said last week.
"With each new revelation it becomes more and more clear that the
relationship between the White House and Jeff Gannon was anything but
typical. It is time for this administration to stop stonewalling and
come clean with the American people."
That will never happen. It's against every tenet of Christianity.
--
Contempt of Congress meter reading-offscale.
Hello, theocracy with a fundamentalist US Supreme
Court who will ensure church and state are joined
at the hip like clergy and altar boys.
America 1776-Jan 2001 RIP
.
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