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Sunday, February 20, 2005

Pseudonymous Escort In White House Journalist Scandal? You couldn't make it up, but I had considered the possibility.

James Guckert/Jeff Gannon: "I use a pseudonym because my real name is very difficult to pronounce, to remember and to spell."
CNN's Anderson Cooper: "How is James so much harder than Jeff."
(Video)

What was Iain Duncan Smith saying yesterday about the power of blogging to "ignite many new forces of conservatism"? Today's papers are awash with reports of the gay prostitution scandal hitting the Bush White House. Just how do you get a White House press pass with an alias?

- White House's loyal reporter once worked as gay hooker, By Andrew Buncombe in Washington, 20 February 2005 The Independent.
"Such an unlikely possibility emerged this week after a right-wing reporter who used an alias to obtain a White House press pass was revealed to possess something of a saucy past. Bloggers revealed that Jeff Gannon, real name James Guckert, had previously worked as a $200-an-hour gay prostitute who advertised himself on a series of websites with names such as hotmilitary stud.com. Mr Guckert has resigned from his job as a reporter for the conservative online news site Talon News, owned by a Texas Republican."
"On one now notorious occasion, Mr Guckert, 32, asked Mr Bush how he was going to be able to work with the Democrats leadership which "appear to have divorced them- selves from reality."
"...some are speculating that Mr Guckert's previous incarnation may have been what secured him preferential treatment from one or more officials within the White House. "

- The mole, the US media and a White House coup - The reporter who wasn't is part of a wider press scandal, writes Paul Harris in New York Sunday February 20, 2005 The Observer
"But the Gannon affair, which has shocked much of America's political establishment, is just the latest scandal in the media establishment. Newspapers including the New York Times and USA Today have been hit by plagiarism and forgery scandals."
"On the internet, the mainstream media is derided and scorned. One question is dominating US newsrooms and television studios: ignored, scandalised and now corrupted, just what is America's mainstream media for anymore? "
"If, during the Clinton administration, a fake reporter from a Democrat front organisation, using a false name, had been exposed as attending White House press conferences it would have been a national scandal. If he had then been shown to be a gay prostitute, the scandal could have threatened a Democrat presidency. With 'Gannon' and Bush there has been no such outcry. The mainstream media has approached the story warily, while right-wing organisations such as Fox News have largely ignored it.
That has created a vacuum in the US media. It is a space being filled by 'bloggers' from both left and right who write personal journals, or weblogs, on the internet."
"Unlike Britain, where political blogs are barely part of the debate, internet sites in America are seen as a vital political tool."
"Conservative bloggers have taken two big scalps recently (Rather/Eason) ....The left has also had victories. It was not the mainstream media that exposed Gannon, but left-wing website Media Matters for America which enlisted other liberal bloggers to help. All the significant breaks in the story emerged online, forcing Gannon to resign, reveal his real name and go into hiding. "
"Some commentators see the emergence of blogging as a media force as a liberating phenomenon. Unlike the mainstream media, blogging is cheap, easy and open to anyone regardless of qualification or background or money."
"Others see it as part of the trend towards partisan journalism. Spearheaded by the nakedly right-wing Fox News, journalism in America has come to resemble a political shouting match rather than any form of debate of the issues."
"The media is in the midst of a transformation which the Bush administration is keen to foster. They have discovered that a partisan and atomised media can be controlled, manipulated and used to an unprecedented degree. "
"The old-fashioned mainstream media is disappearing. 'Once that pattern is put in place, it is going to be hard to break,' said Jack Lule, a journalism professor at Lehigh University. "

All very bizarre. Particularly since, when the presidential inauguration recently overshadowed the coinciding Belle de Jour book launch party, amidst fresh Deepthroat speculation, I wondered whether:
"...What the world needs is a fresh sexual imbroglio at the WhiteHouse to offset the imminent armageddon. Maybe the Guardian newsblog should recruit Belle to go undercover as an intern or somesuch and bring George down. Now that would make a good blog/book. It might even out-do the last anonymous person to precipitate an impeachment scandal and maybe even shift a few papers. I wonder if Belle's anonymity could remain in tact for as long as Deep Throat's."
Extract from an email (Fri, 21 Jan 2005 14:11:38)

Daily Kos is obviously covering developments:
"Why isn't every major network in the country investigating a security breach, forget anything else. How could the FBI, for 17 years I was chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the ranking member. I've read more FBI reports than I ever wanted to know. How could that happen and no one had any idea who this guy was?... The Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate should be investigating it. The House Judiciary should be investigating it. And if it were the other party in charge, it would be investigated." Senator Joe Biden (D-DE)
- What Is GannonGuckert's Next Move?
- Sex, Lies & The White House Press Office - Part I (BlogCritics)
- Sex, Lies & the White House Press Office - Part II (BlogCritics)
- Gannon Speaks (BlogCritics)
"Why would they be looking into a person's sexual history? Is that what we're going to do to reporters now? Is there some kind of litmus test for reporters? Is it right to hold someone's sexuality against them?"

Hear Joe Biden on Bill Maher's HBO show discussing Jeff Gannon and the Bush Mandate with Robin Williams and Leslie Stahl (Video)
- Real Time with Bill Maher
- CNN Jeff Gannon - A questioner questioned (Video) (via corked bats)

- Jeff Gannon (aka James Dale Guckert) Wikipedia
- Bloggers get their claws into Talon Sunday February 13, 2005 The Observer

Posted by Nick @ 08:30 GMT

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