Why isn't this a bigger news story.

mycroft

Jeff Gannon reporter for the Talon news service was exposed as a fake reporter in the white house.

It was exposed that not only did the white house press secretaries would take questions from Gannon when being cornered by tough questions.

Not only is the Talon news wholly owned by texan republicans, but it was revealed that Gannon recieved only one day passes (instead of the the standard press pass) therefore not exposing him to the more stringent FBI background checks the press pool undergo.

If the FBI checks had occured they would have checked "Gannon's" link to several gay escort service sites.

The question I have to ask, "Why isn't this a huge story?" Can you imagine the lynching any democrat or any other government in the western world would be exposed to by the media for this behaviour.

The fact that Gannon (or Gluck) is linked to gay escort sites isn't really an issue, the fact that they're in many cases gay miltary sites is frankly just funny, but again what would Newt Gingerich or Rush Limbaugh have made of this titbit if it was the Clinton administration.

Some examples of Gannon's softball questions

May 10: “In your denunciations of the Abu Ghraib photos, you've used words like 'sickening,' 'disgusting' and 'reprehensible.' Will you have any adjectives left to adequately describe the pictures from Saddam's rape rooms and torture chambers? And will Americans ever see those images?”

“Since there have been so many questions about what the President was doing over 30 years ago, what is it that he did after his honorable discharge from the National Guard? Did he make speeches alongside Jane Fonda, denouncing America's racist war in Vietnam? Did he testify before Congress that American troops committed war crimes in Vietnam? And did he throw somebody else's medals at the White House to protest a war America was still fighting?”

taken from here

background on the story

here

monument

mycroft wrote:

but it was revealed that Gannon recieved only one day passes (instead of the the standard press pass) therefore not exposing him to the more stringent FBI background checks the press pool undergo.

Apparently a few journalists claim that they seen him with a permanent pass, and not the lighter less detailed temporary pass.

sceptre

mycroft wrote:

“Since there have been so many questions about what the President was doing over 30 years ago, what is it that he did after his honorable discharge from the National Guard? Did he make speeches alongside Jane Fonda, denouncing America's racist war in Vietnam? Did he testify before Congress that American troops committed war crimes in Vietnam? And did he throw somebody else's medals at the White House to protest a war America was still fighting?”

Apparently he spent most of the next decade slugging back liquor and taking cocaine Jeff. Much more wholesome than testifying before Congress or throwing anything other than bourbon.

Gingrich would have had a field day with this if it had happened under the previous administration.

Hobbes

Bit of old news now and really based on watching press briefings the president rarely gets serious questions, or rather gets them once and that person no longer gets a chance again.

I wonder if Gannon will be invited this christmas time though?
http://mediamatters.org/items/200502190003

Redleslie2

And on it goes. Third columnist caught with hand in the Bush till.

One day after President Bush ordered his Cabinet secretaries to stop hiring commentators to help promote administration initiatives, and one day after the second high-profile conservative pundit was found to be on the federal payroll, a third embarrassing hire has emerged. Salon has confirmed that Michael McManus, a marriage advocate whose syndicated column, "Ethics & Religion," appears in 50 newspapers, was hired as a subcontractor by the Department of Health and Human Services to foster a Bush-approved marriage initiative. McManus championed the plan in his columns without disclosing to readers he was being paid to help it succeed.

They have to combat the pinko controlled media somehow I suppose. I'm sure some imbecile will be along to tell us how both "sides" are as bad as each other or some such rot.

I thought this thread was going to be about the krazy king twat vs uppity peasants thing in Nepal.

Moriarty

How did none of the news organisations cop that he was a plant?

shotamoose

Moriarty wrote:

How did none of the news organisations cop that he was a plant?

They don't waste their good journalists on White House press conferences. That's the last place you're going to find news or an interesting answer to a question. They send their most effective lickarses because they want to keep on the good side of the WH press office. Gannon's questions probably didn't even sound that out of place at the time.

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Armstong Williams, the pundit who was secretly paid $250,000 to plug the No Child Left Behind programme. Or Karen Ryan and Alberto Garcia, who starred in bogus reports ("In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting," went the script) pretending to "sort through the details" of the administration's Medicare prescription-drug plan in 2004".

Sceptre's right - if this had happened under Clinton, the Republicans would be up in arms about the moral vacuum at the heart of the Democratic party, Christopher Hitchens would get another book out of it, and so on. There's not much of an outcry because nobody's surprised anymore to hear that the Republicans are shameless crooks and propagandists. So the Republicans get away with it more because they do it more. It's a kind of double double-standard.

[Edit: Oh, just spotted that redleslie2 sorta mentioned Armstrong Williams ...]

mycroft

Hobbes wrote:

Bit of old news now and really based on watching press briefings the president rarely gets serious questions, or rather gets them once and that person no longer gets a chance again.

I wonder if Gannon will be invited this christmas time though?
http://mediamatters.org/items/200502190003

The story broke ten days ago, so it was part of the news cycle that meant it was only really picked up by sunday papers yesterday. I was surprised to see it only recieved scant attention in the sunday press, the times didn't cover it, the observer only ran a 1/3 page story on it. It's the kind of meaty story I thought would be a slow burner but it's just not picking up momentum

Between this the other press payouts it has on the face of it a major story, and it's just been greeted with a weary shrug.



Bloody funny though

Goodshape

If you ran a news organisation would you want to publicise a story like this?
I'd say not.

Pretty shocking figures though.. There really should be more done and said about this. It's the first I've heard of it, tbh.

[edit - wait, onion.com? is this politics or humour?]

mycroft

Goodshape wrote:

[edit - wait, onion.com? is this politics or humour?]

To paraphrase the Simpsons "Is that true or political satire" "Dude I just don't know anymore"



No the figures are satire. I kinda thought you would have got that from the "$500 for each "shut up" yelled" or the garfield one.

the Armstrong Williams, Karen Ryan and Alberto Garcia mentioned by Shootamoose are true though.

Goodshape

Yea, I got it but it took me a while. Was in need of sleep etc.

Still, the actual news is pretty shocking too.

Slutmonkey57b

Simple fact is that nobody is suprised by the lengths that the White House will go to nowadays. It's depressing but it's true.