Forget the gay issue which the other side is trying to play up as the only reason this gentleman was exposed. There's a lot more to it. Read on
MEDIA
Don't Give Gannon A Pass
By now, almost everyone's heard of Jeff Gannon/James Guckert. He's the fake
reporter with a false name given all-too-real press credentials by the White
House. He's known for asking biased, leading questions during press briefings
before finally being exposed a month ago as a right-wing operative with no
journalism experience, a fake name, and a shady past. There are some serious
ethical, professional and national security issues at stake. Now, "Sen. Richard
Durbin (D-Ill.) is circulating a letter among his colleagues that asks
President Bush to launch an investigation
(http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000816326)
" into how Gannon gained access to White House press briefings without any
journalistic qualifications. Durbin and other concerned lawmakers are adding
their voices to a previous investigation request by Sen. Frank Lautenberg
(D-NJ), as well as a subpoena request by two leaders of the U.S. House Judiciary
Committee, Reps. John Conyers (D-MI) and Louise Slaughter (D-NY), who want
federal prosecutors to gain access to a record Gannon kept of his time over the
past two years. Here are some basic questions that must be answered by the White
House:
HOW LONG CAN JOURNALISTS GAIN ACCESS TO THE WHITE HOUSE WITHOUT AN FBI
BACKGROUND CHECK? Most White House journalists have what is called a "hard
pass," a permanent pass obtained after undergoing a rigorous FBI background
check (http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/02/15/guckert/print.html) . Gannon
skipped over that step. Instead, as Salon's Eric Boehlert explains, "the White
House waved him into press briefings for nearly two years using what's called a
day pass." Now, day passes are special exceptions that are "designed for
temporary use by out-of-town reporters who need access to the White House, not
for indefinite use
(http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/02/23/more_gannon/print.html) by
reporters." If the background check is necessary for reporters with extended
access to the White House, why were the rules circumvented for Gannon? Is there
a limit to how long a reporter can slide on "day" passes, as Gannon did for
years?
HOW DID GANNON GET A WHITE HOUSE PRESS PASS TWO MONTHS BEFORE HIS SUPPOSED
PUBLICATION EVEN EXISTED? Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan admitted the
White House gave Gannon his first day press pass in February 2003
(http://199.249.170.220/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000808705)
. The problem: His "publication," Talon News, didn't exist until April 2003.
BY WHAT CRITERIA DID THE WHITE HOUSE EVALUATE TALON NEWS? Talon News is the
brainchild (http://mediamatters.org/items/200501280006) of a Republican
activist from Texas, Bobby Eberle. Eberle, who runs the aptly named "GOPUSA,"
told the New York Times he created Talon News because he wanted to quietly
construct a news service with a conservative slant: "if someone were to see
'GOPUSA,' there's an instant built-in bias
(http://199.249.170.220/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000808705)
there." In denying Gannon a pass, the congressional press office pointed out
Gannon was unable to show that "Talon News has any paid subscribers
(http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/02/23/more_gannon/print.html) ." They
also found that while actual working reporters can show their principal income
comes from reporting stories for publication in actual news services, Talon's
"paying a single reporter a 'stipend' does not meet the intent of the rule." As
the Washington Post's Dana Milbank put it, Gannon was "representing a phony
media company (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/arts/20rich.html) that doesn't
really have any such thing as circulation or readership."
HOW DID GANNON GET A WHITE HOUSE PRESS PASS UNDER A FAKE NAME? Jeff Gannon's
real name is James Guckert. (He told Wolf Blitzer that he changed his name
because "Jeff Gannon" was easier to pronounce.) Although all applications for
White House press passes are supposed to be thoroughly vetted, White House Press
Secretary Scott McClellan said he was unaware
(http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/arts/20rich.html) that Gannon was using an
alias. His predecessor, Ari Fleischer, also pleads ignorance
(http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000807754)
. Gannon signed in to the White House each day as "Jeff Guckert,"
(http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0502/10/wbr.01.html) a name which did
not match his pass -- yet no one seemed to thing that was strange. In fact, no
one at the White House seems overly concerned with what amounts to a stunning
national security breach.
WHAT IS GANNON'S CONNECTION TO THE VALERIE PLAME CASE? Jeff Gannon has been
interviewed by FBI agents who are investigating another security breach in the
White House, namely, the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's name to the press.
So far, Gannon has been coy, giving " conflicting signals
(http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000816326)
, over many months, concerning whether he saw a secret document or merely knew
about it from other sources." Today he says he never really saw the memo, he'd
only read about it in the Wall Street Journal. Reps. Conyers and Slaughter are
asking Patrick Fitzgerald, the lead prosecutor in the Plame investigation, to
subpoena the journal Gannon kept over the past two years to find out what Gannon
actually knew, and when. |
