Once upon a time, there was a guy named "Jeff Gannon" (not sure whether this is his real name), who started a "news" website called Talon News. Talon News was actually run by GOP activists, and did little more than post White House press releases.
Somehow, this Gannon fellow, a guy who has no journalistic credentials whatsoever, gets daily passes to White House press conferences every day for, I think, two years. Basically, this guy's purpose is to lob softball questions at Scott McClellan when the other press folk start putting the heat on him.
Well, the press gets pissed at this guy, so they, and a shitload of bloggers, all started digging for info on Mr. Gannon. Here's what they found:
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www.americablog.org
Holy crap
by John in DC - 2/8/2005 07:03:51 PM
Update: He just resigned.
Let me say again, holy crap.
The blogosphere has dug up some really really really creepy stuff about that pseudo-reporter with the pseudonym who the White House lets ask all the softball questions about their briefings. His pseudonym is Jeff Gannon, and well, the folks at DailyKos, and Eschaton, have been doing a little digging around on him.
It's a long and sordid tale, but let me give it to you in a nutshell. Mr. Gannon's home page is JeffGannon.com. Well, JeffGannon.com is owned by a person and company that owns the following Web addresses as well:
Hotmilitarystud.com
Militaryescorts.com
Militaryescortsm4m.com
And for those of you who are really straight or really clueless, "m4m" is a gay online term for men who are looking to have sex with other men, and "escort" means prostitute. And being a military escort is also against the Uniform Code of Military Justice in at least two different ways, if not more.
Now, I'm not one to judge how folks like to get their jollies (assuming no children are involved and it's consensual), but then again, I don't suck up to the family values agenda like Mr. Gannon does. I've been through Gannon's archives, and it's a horrendous accumulation of religious right suck-up pieces on gay issues. Some are concerned that perhaps it's not fair to hit him with the gay card, if he is gay. Well, take a look at some of the stories from Gannon's Talon News Service: here, here, here Talon is promoting "ex-gays," defending Bush on gay marriage, and Gannon himself writing a story defending Santorum on his man-dog-sex commments about gays. There are lots more, you get the picture.
Oh, and speaking of pictures, they found photos too.
The big issue here is whether the White House has been knowingly opening its doors to a pseudonymous male hustler (or pimp) so he'll pose softball questions to the president. If that's the case here - and in all fairness, we still need to hear from Gannon - it's not just creepy, it's outrageous and an incredible violation of the country's trust, and just as importantly, White House security. Do these people do a background check on anyone?
Just go and
read it all for yourself.
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