Senator Durbin weights in on Gannon, avoiding the gay sex part of the story:
"Durbin found more levity in a question about the discredited White House correspondent who wrote under the pseudonym ‘Jeff Gannon.’ The senator authored a letter with several other senators calling on the White House to explain Gannon’s presence and access to the president.
Asked what he thought Gannon was doing in the White House, Durbin laughed.
“I have no idea,” he told RAW STORY. “Maybe he gets a free lunch out of it. It must have been a heady feeling to be sitting there in the White House press corps and have the president calling on you and here you are dreaming up ways to fawn and throw bouquets at the president.”
Questioned about whether a liberal reporter would get different treatment, he said the issue was one of credentials. Gannon was credentialed by the White House for access but had no long-term pass even though he made nearly 200 visits to the presidential residence over two years.
“This man was using a pseudonym; he was in the press room there as a cheering section for the Administration. If he has a legitimate publication, whether it’s right-wing or left-wing, so be it: he should be there, so that the Americans get both points of view. But this man was flying under a flag of different colors.”
The senator blames the Bush Administration for polluting journalism with manufactured news.
“It goes down to recurring stories about manufactured news releases, videotapes, people who were being paid to express the Administration point of view on the air, even though they’re supposed to be objective journalists,” he quipped. “This fellow… had no press credentials in the press room, it all tells me that for them it’s a game.”
In discussing the media’s role in Iraq, Durbin was more somber. He says the media isn’t doing a good job—because they can’t.
“A fellow from the Washington Post came in and said, ‘It’s physically impossible for me to leave the Green Zone. It’s too dangerous,’” he recalled. “It used to be they could drive around Iraq, find out what’s on the minds of people.”
“Now he says reporters can’t leave the Green Zone except if they’re embedded with troops,” he added. “And that gives him one point of view, and so they are not in touch with the Iraqi people. They are not telling us what’s really going on there. I’ll tell you in that kind of a situation, I get very concerned about our commitment and the cost of our commitment there.” |
