http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/02/23/more_gannon/index.html
Gannongate: It's worse than you think
Bush's press office gave Jim Guckert access, even knowing his only
credentials were from the blatantly partisan group GOPUSA.
By Eric Boehlert
Feb. 23, 2005 | When the press first raised questions about why Jim
Guckert had been awarded access to the White House press room for two
years running while he worked for Talon News, critics charged that
Talon, with its amateurish standards and close working ties to
Republican activists, did not qualify as a legitimate news
organization. It turns out the truth is even stranger: Guckert was
waved into the White House while working for an even more blatantly
partisan organization, GOPUSA.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan originally told reporters
that Guckert was properly allowed into press briefings because he
worked for an outlet that "published regularly." But that's when the
questions were about Talon. More recently McClellan offered up a new
rationale. Asked by Editor and Publisher magazine how the decision was
made to allow a GOPUSA correspondent in, McClellan said, "The staff
assistant went to verify that the news organization existed."
That, apparently, was the lone criterion the press office used when
Guckert (aka Jeff Gannon) approached it in February 2003 seeking a
pass for White House briefings. Not yet working for
Republican-friendly Talon News, which came into existence in April
2003, Guckert, using an alias and with no journalism experience
whatsoever, was writing on a voluntary basis for a Web site dedicated
to promoting Republican issues. To determine whether Guckert would
gain entrance to the press room, normally reserved for professional
journalists working for legitimate, recognized and independent news
organizations, the press office simply logged on to the Internet and
confirmed that GOPUSA "existed," and then quickly approved Guckert's
access. In a White House obsessed, at least publicly, with security
and where journalists cannot even move between the White House and the
nearby Old Executive Building without a personal escort, Guckert's
lenient treatment was likely unprecedented.
Yet, if there's one other person who did manage to receive the same
type of kid-glove treatment from the White House press office, it was
Guckert's boss at GOPUSA and later at Talon News, Bobby Eberle. A
Texas-based Republican activist and a delegate to the Republican
National Convention in 2000, Eberle founded Talon News after he became
concerned that the name GOPUSA might appear to have a "built-in bias."
With no journalism background, he too was able to secure a White House
press pass, in early 2003, on the strength of representing GOPUSA,
dedicated to "spreading the conservative message throughout America."
This is not how the White House press office has traditionally worked.
"When I was there we didn't let political operatives in. It was
completely contrary to what the press room should be used for," says
Joe Lockhart, who served as White House press secretary to President
Clinton during his second term. Asked what would have happened if a
reporter from a clearly partisan operation, say "Democrats Today," had
requested a White House press pass, Lockhart said that if the chief of
the Democratic National Committee were attending an event at the White
House, then perhaps the Democrats Today reporter might be allowed in
for that one day. "But to be admitted as a reporter and sit in a chair
and act like a reporter" for months on end the way Guckert did? "No,"
said Lockhart, "that's not within the realm of what [is] proper."
Guckert and Eberle remain at the center of the scandal. When liberal
bloggers revealed that Guckert, who posed reliably friendly questions
to administration officials, had recently offered his services online
as a gay male escort, the questions for the White House only became
more uncomfortable.
Guckert first came to national attention when he asked President Bush
a question at his Jan. 26 press conference. Guckert's query, in which
he ridiculed Democratic leaders for having "divorced themselves from
reality," was what initially raised the ire of liberals. It was not
how an openly Republican partisan got inside the White House press
room, because partisans have been there for years. Lockhart recalls
having been confronted with a similar question of White House access
regarding veteran Baltimore, Md., radio host Lester Kinsolving, who
for decades has pitched eccentric, long-winded and usually
conservative-leaning questions inside the briefing room. (Kinsolving
is currently recuperating from triple-bypass surgery.) Lockhart
thought it was inequitable that Kinsolving was virtually the only
local radio show host with daily access. "The issue got kicked up to
my level. I thought it was fundamentally unfair, and it was clear that
he was an annoyance to everyone in the room. And frankly we should
have shut him down. But I knew if we kicked him out it would be a big
story with the right-wing press, and I didn't need that."
Unlike Guckert, though, Kinsolving has an authentic background in
journalism, having worked for the San Francisco Chronicle and the
Indianapolis Star. Talon's defenders suggest that it too is a
legitimate news outlet. But providing some insight into how it
operates, Eberle told the New York Times last week that he rarely
monitored Guckert's White House work. "Jeff did his thing. I did my
thing," Eberle said. In other words, it appears that Guckert, who
often cut and pasted White House press releases and posted them on
Talon as "news," did not even have an editor. As Media Matters for
America noted, Talon "apparently consists of little more than Eberle,
Gannon, and a few volunteers."
Just how blatantly the White House press office looked the other way
in regard to Guckert and his dubious status as a legitimate reporter
comes into stark relief when examining his attempt to secure a similar
press pass to cover Capitol Hill. Guckert submitted his application in
December 2003 to the Standing Committee of Correspondents, a press
group in charge of handing out credentials. In April 2004, the
committee denied Guckert's request. Writing to Guckert, committee
chairman Jim Drinkard outlined three clear deficiencies in Guckert's
application:
1) "Committee guidelines require that on-line publications 'must
charge a market rate fee for subscription or access, or carry paid
advertising at current market rates.' You have not demonstrated to the
committee's satisfaction that Talon News has any paid subscribers,
that paid client newspapers publish Talon News stories, or that it is
supported by advertising."
2) "The application for accreditation to the press galleries states
that 'members of the press shall not engage in lobbying or paid
advertising, publicity, promotion, work for any individual, political
party, corporation, organization, or agency of the Federal
Government.' Talon News has not demonstrated to the satisfaction of
the committee that there is a separation from GOPUSA."
3) "Gallery rules and the application state that the principal income
of correspondents must be obtained from news correspondence intended
for publication in newspapers or news services. The committee feels
that paying a single reporter a 'stipend' does not meet the intent of
the rule."
The White House, in contrast, said that as long as Talon News or
GOPUSA "existed," Guckert was free to attend its press briefings. Yet,
in the past, a reporter seeking a permanent White House press pass has
had to first secure credentials to cover Capitol Hill. Without those,
the White House would not submit the application for a background
check. But even though Guckert failed to secure Capitol Hill
credentials, the White House waved him into press briefings for nearly
two years using what's called a day pass. Those passes are designed
for temporary use by out-of-town reporters who need access to the
White House, not for indefinite use by reporters who flunk the Capitol
Hill test.
To obtain a day pass during the Clinton administration, a reporter
"had to make the case as to why that day was unique and why [he] had
to cover the White House from inside the gates instead of outside,"
Lockhart says.
So the mystery remains: How did Guckert, with absolutely no journalism
background and working for a phony news organization, manage to adopt
the day-pass system as his own while sidestepping a thorough
background check that might have detected his sordid past? That's the
central question the White House refuses to address. And like its
initial explanation that Guckert received his press pass the same way
other journalists do, the notion first put out by White House
officials that they knew little or nothing about GOPUSA/Talon News,
its correspondent Guckert or its founder Eberle has also melted away.
Instead, we now know, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer
personally spoke with Eberle about GOPUSA, so concerned was Fleischer
that it was not an independent organization. (Eberle convinced
Fleischer that it was.) Additionally, Guckert attended the
invitation-only White House press Christmas parties in 2003 and 2004,
and last holiday season, in a personal posting on GOPUSA, Eberle
thanked Karl Rove for his "assistance, guidance, and friendship."
-----
Yang
a.a. #28
AthD (h.c.) conferred by the regents of the LCL
a.a. pastor #-273.15, the most frigid church of Celcius nee Kelvin
EAC Econometric Forecast and Sorcery Division
Proudly plonked by Lani Girl and Crazyalec (aka aka Yang's little poltregeist *****)
The Bush 'balanced' budget: 1.6 trillion and worsening
The Bush 'economic' policy: 12 million FEWER jobs than Clinton and counting
The Bush Iraq lie: -1483 GIs, one friend's co-worker's son and mounting
Having Bush ***** up my country: Worthless
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