Bush Administration and Texas Republican Party Appear to Have Lied About Ties to Jeff Gannon's Boss, Bobby Eberle; In Other News, Old Media Is Dead
In Reconstituted Blog, Disgraced "Reporter" Gannon Refers to Himself As "A Reporter [Who] Helped Bring the Beloved Tom Daschle Down," Implies New York Times Reporter Maureen Dowd Is an Alcoholic
By ADVOCATE STAFF
[EDITOR'S NOTE: The really juicy bits are deep in the article, but we'd like to think the whole thing is worth it].
The less you know about Gannongate, the easier it is to write about it.
Makes sense, doesn't it? If you haven't done the necessary research, Gannongate can appear to be nothing more than a case of sloppy journalism with an attendant, but ultimately irrelevant dabbling into the personal affairs of a White House reporter--which, while occasionally interesting, was in the end (this particularly odious theory goes) not entirely newsworthy.
Of course, if you have done the necessary research, then writing an article like this one by David Corn would be, ironically, a true exemplar of sloppy journalism.
So, how it is that The Nation's Corn can openly wonder if Gannongate is "smaller than it seems," while Salon declares it's "worse than you think?"
Two reasons.
The first, of course, is the laziness of the print media. But we've already said enough on that topic.
The second, and more vital reason, is the laziness of the print media.
[We exclude Minnesota's Nick Coleman, of whom we are a newly-minted fan, and a few other notable journalists from this broad brushstroke. But what would rhetoric be without a little hyperbole?].
As Old Media types in their tweed coats wait for New Media types in their bathrobes to tee them up for a Pulitzer, the Gannongate story has grown so exponentially in the last ten days that only a jackass--or a Washington beat reporter for a major newspaper--could fail to observe it.
First, Talon News has mysteriously shut down.
What's the big deal, you say? News operations with a daily presence in the White House fold all the time! Remember that time the New York Times building disappeared inexplicably into thin air, along with all its reporters, articles, and website content?
[Pause].
So, it happens.
Second, Jeff Gannon, who ten days ago said he'd no longer talk to the press, is suddenly blogging again!
Now, "why is that news?" say the men in tweed.
No reason.
After all, it's practically every day a White House news correspondent brags publicly about participating in the political downfall of the most powerful Democrat in Washington, and describes his White House duties as "battl[ing] the Left."
[Said Gannon of his takedown of Daschle in South Dakota, "(U.S. Senator Harry Reid) should be thanking me, since I helped get him his promotion"].
That's right, Jeff/James/J. Daniels/Bulldog, you did. As you all but admitted to E&P, you helped Reid get his promotion by savagely taking down his predecessor through lies and illicit coordination with his opponent's campaign.
But you know, it's all in a day's work for the sort of White House reporter the White House Correspondents' Association is so desperately anxious (see NPR audio) will feel uncomfortable or unwelcome in the White House. I mean, doesn't every White House news correspondent have a few coordinated, partisan political smear campaigns in their closet? [Memo to WHCA: Gannon says in his current blog entry that your members ask "hostile and...downright disrespectful questions" of the President of the United States. For shame, sirs!].
So, where does that leave us?
Well, The Nashua Advocate is consistently amazed to see plumbers, doctors, lawyers, electricians, and stay-at-home mothers and fathers spending more time investigating important news stories than the folks who are paid damn good money to do so.
So is Gannongate, as so many mainstream reporters are positing, little more than a morality tale disclosing to us, as it carries on over time, little sound-bite wisdoms about the First Amendment, privacy rights, and the dangers of the New Media? If so, it's the perfect storm for a fat, lazy, do-nothing Old Media which wants for nothing more than occasional free tickets to a Wizards game, whatever fettered access to real power the White House will allow it, and a quarter-inch byline one page closer to the front page next year than it was this year.
The Advocate planned on running a "straight" news story today about the ties between GOPUSA.com and the Bush Administration, and Bobby Eberle and the Republican Party of Texas, which exposition would seem to give the lie to the notion that the White House first learned about GOPUSA when White House staffers "checked it out" in 2003--a clear assertion by the White House that the organization was unknown to it prior to that time. But why bother, if the foundational issue--is Gannongate a story?--remains forever on hold, rather than soundly and irretrievably either established or refuted?
Better, then, to tell our story about Texas, but to first publish for our readership a letter our Managing Editor sent to an Old Media news contact in the hopes of having him, or his organization, reveal Gannongate for the darkening shadow over the U.S. political landscape it is rapidly becoming [irrelevant material has been excised; some additional material in brackets]:
Dear Old Media,
As you've probably heard by now, Democrats in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House will be requesting a Special Prosecutor for the Gannon affair. Here at The Advocate, we've not trained our attention on the fact that Gannon was an incompetent reporter, or even the fact that he was (or is) a gay prostitute. The first angle is old news, and irrelevant besides--Gannon/Guckert has resigned, [even if he still thinks he's going to the 2005 White House Correspondents' Dinner, and his boss Bobby Eberle has plans to get Talon News back into the White House press room]--and the second angle will not be important unless and until someone uncovers evidence the White House knew Gannon was a prostitute, and/or it is determined that the fact that he was a prostitute has something to do with how he got a radio show in Washington without any radio experience, and a journalism job in the White House without any journalism experience, and access to Bush Administration press credentialing after being denied same by both Houses of Congress.
Other news outlets, including some mainstream outlets, are covering those angles more fully than we are and clearly will continue to do so.
Our research has focused on whether a White House news correspondent shared opposition research with staff of U.S. Senator John Thune (R-SD) in a purposeful attempt to discredit a sitting Democratic Senate Minority Leader (Daschle); whether a White House news correspondent lied about his identity to the Daschle campaign in order to get information which would or could be used to discredit them; and whether a White House news correspondent synchronized his news stories in order to have them coincide with the partisan activities of the Thune campaign. Thus far, all three of these theories/propositions have proven true: the first, Gannon has admitted to the news outlet Editor & Publisher within just the last 72 hours; the second, The Nashua Advocate confirmed with the spokesman for the Daschle campaign; the third, former Thune staffer and current Professor at South Dakota State University, Jon Lauck, has admitted on his publicly-accessible blog. The Advocate has also provided additional evidence of this synchronicity on its website.
You may also be aware that all of the parties involved in this scandal have thus far denied the allegations against them or else refused to speak to reporters, with the exception of Gannon (as I've noted above) who frankly seems to admit more and more every time he speaks to the press. Now he's saying he kept a diary, a piece of evidence at least two Members of Congress have asked the Special Prosecutor for the Valerie Plame investigation to subpoena.
But as to the denials: I'm sure you've found in your own career (and I certainly have in mine) that when people deny facts which are easily proven, something is amiss.
The Republican Party of Texas (RPT), through its spokeswoman Sherry Sylvester, told The Houston Chronicle that no one at the RPT knows Bobby Eberle, the owner of GOPUSA. With all due respect to the RPT, that that statement is a lie has now been confirmed several times over. Not only was Eberle one of a few dozen Texas Delegates (from the RPT) to the 2000 Republican National Convention, he was awarded the distinction of being one of the RPT's "Volunteers of the Year" in 2000. He was also on the 2000 RPT Convention Host Committee. Plus he was an RPT Convention Delegate in 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002. Plus his GOPUSA co-founder is the Chairman of the Williamson County [TX] G.O.P.
Simply put, Eberle is a major player in the RPT and yet they have denied knowing who he is.
As you may know, Talon News announced yesterday that it is ceasing operations. It had already inexplicably wiped all of Gannon's articles from its website; GOPUSA has done the same on its website. Jeff Gannon has also, again inexplicably, done the same on his own website--even though, in published interviews, he adamantly stands by his articles. So why scrub them? Moreover, Bobby Eberle has now told The New York Times, "Jeff did his thing, I did mine."
Which is a distancing between editor and reporter that I also think is worthy of note by the media.
The President (through Scott McClellan) has denied knowing Gannon or Eberle. McClellan and former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer have strongly implied they do not know Eberle [or GOPUSA.com]. The problem here, of course, is that Eberle worked for the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign in Washington state, was a Presidential Elector and Delegate (as mentioned above) from Bush's home state during the 2000 RNC Convention, and, as we've recently discovered, convened a "GOPUSA Conservative Conference" in Washington, D.C. in both 2003 and 2004, which conventions, run by Eberle, drew the attendance and indeed participation of such Administration and G.O.P. officials as: Senator John Cornyn (R-TX); Chuck DeFeo, eCampaign Manager, Bush-Cheney 2004; Tim Goeglein, Director, White House Office of Public Liaison; Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO); Raul Damas, Hispanic Outreach Coordinator, Republican National Committee; Patrick Davis, Political Director, National Republican Senatorial Committee; Phillip Stutts, National Director, 72-Hour Task Force, Republican National Committee; and, of course, "Jeff Gannon," "reporter" for "Talon News."
Candidly, sir, only in the present media and political climate could a White House news correspondent be a featured speaker at a G.O.P. convention, and his boss be inviting to said convention members of an Administration which would later deny knowing him, and a state G.O.P. which had given him awards also deny knowing him, without anyone writing about it or thinking it a major news story. Especially when the RPT has been caught in a lie, Gannon has admitted coordination with the Thune campaign, and nobody can for the life of them figure out why all this man's news articles--hundreds of them--have been erased from the internet.
[Sigh].
We're not certain we can expect a response to that one.
McClellan and Fleischer have made clear that their phone call to GOPUSA.com in 2003 was to confirm the "existence" of Bobby Eberle's website--yes, you read correctly, the "existence" of the website was the only sign of legitimacy required by the White House Press Office in order to usher Jeff Gannon into the White House--yet the fact that Eberle successfully invited the Bush-Cheney 2004 On-Line National Campaign Manager to a conference titled the "GOPUSA Conservative Conference" seems to imply, I don't know, some connection with the Administration?
Maybe we're mistaken.
Maybe members of the U.S. Senate, Republican National Committee, and National Republican Senatorial Committee went to Eberle's 2003 and 2004 GOPUSA convention because they thought it was being hosted by, say, the tobacco lobby?
So, the RPT lied. They said they didn't know Eberle, and he's an award-winning, committee-hosting, honor-of-being-delegate-to-national-convention-receiving prized member of the Party.
[The Advocate successfully contacted Ms. Sylvester on Wednesday, and asked her how she could deny knowing who Eberle is, given that the man is currently featured in not one but two Republican Party of Texas press releases. Sylvester told an Advocate reporter, "You know, I really want to talk to you, but I'm trying to get into this parking garage. Can I call you back on the number that came up on my cell phone?" We never heard back from her].
So, the Leadership Institute, which gave Gannon a "degree" for $50, lied. They claim on their website to be non-partisan, but the most high-profile document on the website--a frightening propaganda film entitled "Roots of the Ultra Left: What They Really Think"--contains voice-over lines like, "around the world, there's been ample evidence: free enterprise means prosperity. And free enterprise is driven by the possibility of profit. Just don’t try to explain that to the young and dumb at a leftist rally."
Can anyone expain how this fire-breathing propaganda dragon is tax-exempt?
And Fox News thinks the NAACP should be taxed?
[To save you the agony of reading Bill O'Reilly: he says to outgoing NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, "But you've got to admit that (Julian) Bond (of the NAACP leadership) really was an anti-Bush guy and to get the tax-exempt status, you're really supposed to be in the middle..."].
So, the White House lied, too. They said they didn't know GOPUSA.com from FeedTheDonkey.com or WePaintTrucks.com, when in fact the owner of the GOPUSA website, Eberle, worked for the Bush campaign in 2000, was one of the thirty-something Texas Delegates who put Bush over the top for the 2004 presidential nomination, and hosts Washington conferences which Administration officials and G.O.P. heavyweights fall over themselves to attend.
Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan "looked into" GOPUSA, but apparently had no opinion on statements by Bobby Eberle (with whom Fleischer spoke), posted on the website, which said "[GOPUSA] is about...work[ing] for [conservative] candidates." So, how does an organization which is committed to "working for conservative candidates" cover a conservative White House without "working for" the conservative occupants of that house? [And has anyone besides Daily Kos highlighted the fact that GOPUSA was founded as a consulting company for Republican candidates in 1999?].
So, Jeff Gannon lied. He said he had "no political ties." He gave a false name to the Daschle campaign. He used an alias in the White House. He fed opposition research to a Republican senatorial campaign in South Dakota while later crowing to National Public Radio about "the White House being his beat" and being an unaffiliated journalist.
So, Bobby Eberle lied. He claimed "Jeff did his thing, I did my thing," and now he refuses to talk about Gannon at all. He said he saw writing samples from Gannon before he hired him, but Gannon hadn't published any work; he convinced Ari Fleischer his website wasn't partisan but admitted to the New York Times that the name of the site carries a "built-in bias"; he was responsible for the initial press pass Gannon received but now claims to have sought no responsibility whatsoever, editorial or merely supervisory, for anything Gannon wrote. He purports to carry a low profile in the Republican Party but says in speeches that he is friends with Kerri Houston, who, as the National Field Director of the American Conservative Union and a member of President Bush's Commission to Strengthen Social Security, hosted the American Conservative Union Policy Boot Camp in Washington in 2001, which Eberle attended to "spend some time promoting GOPUSA at the Capitol."
[Apparently all that time spent promoting was fruitless; three years later nobody Republican and Washington-dwelling would be willing to admit knowing him at all. Apparently it was also a waste to have attended President Bush's 2001 inauguration].
There are even allegations that GOPUSA is hosted by the same server as the Conservative Political Action Committee, whose conferences (which Eberle has attended) typically include such G.O.P. luminaries as Vice President Dick Cheney and, yes, Karl Rove.
So, all told, the Old Media lied.
They said they'd protect us from a government just audacious enough to trample the will of its citizens beneath the jackboot of propaganda.
And they haven't protected us.
They've protected themselves. From an America which, they fear, can't tell the difference between a $200 whore with a $50 journalism certificate and a reporter for The New York Times, The Washington Post, or even a backwater outfit like Fox News.
Folks, the danger of McCarthyism wasn't that it would have persecuted Stalin.
It is still possible to draw distinctions and make judgments in America, and one distinction to be drawn is between a reporter and a Republican activist, and one judgment to be made is that Gannongate is one of the largest, most complicated, and ultimately most invidious scandals Washington has seen in years. As vile as Iran-Contra? No. Jeff Gannon isn't nearly the treasonous sycophant Oliver North was and is. But is it worse than Filegate, Travelgate, Zippergate, Buddhagate? Yes, yes, yes, and yes.
It's big, and it's slipping away, just like the last vestiges of Real Courage in the Old Media.
Those lazy, worthless, beaten-down bastards have done absolutely nothing for us at all.
posted by News Editor at 2/24/2005 05:09:00 PM
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