I'm posting this just as much because it's a good op-ed, as much as I'm doing it to irritate Vinth.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0221-23.htm
Published on Monday, February 21, 2005 by the Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin)
Bush's Journalism Jihad Exposed
by Dave Zweifel
If you're into reading political columnists, you've no doubt heard of Maureen Dowd, the prominent liberal columnist for the New York Times.
You may not have heard of a fellow named Jeff Gannon, but he, too, is somewhat of a political columnist. He has worked as a conservative correspondent for two political Web sites owned and operated by one of George W. Bush's pals in Texas.
Dowd has won the Pulitzer Prize and numerous other awards and appears on the editorial pages of hundreds of newspapers across the country. Gannon, however, hasn't won any journalism prizes.
In fact, Jeff Gannon isn't even his real name. He's actually James Guckert, who, it turns out, is also a reporter and contributor to several Web sites, among them, Hotmilitarystud.com, Militaryescorts.com and Meetlocalmen.com. According to the Washington Post, a California Web designer created a gay escort site for him and, at his request, posted naked pictures of Gannon on it. Further, the Wilmington News-Journal in Delaware has reported that he's delinquent in his state income taxes to the tune of $20,700.
Gannon, however, has had credentials to get into the White House press briefing room for the past two years.
Maureen Dowd does not. In fact, although she had credentials since 1986, the Bush people turned down her request to have her pass renewed when they took office in 2001. Dowd doesn't often write nice things about Bush. Gannon does.
In fact, all this information about his double life was exposed after some began to wonder about the questions he was asking at the briefings. The most recent one was, "Mr. President, how can you work with Democrats who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"
Several Webloggers suspected he was a plant. An investigation revealed that he has been shilling for Bush for quite some time. During the campaign last fall, he mocked John Kerry's "pro-homosexual platform" and a headline on one of his stories claimed that Kerry would become the nation's first gay president. This from a guy who it turns out was running his own gay Web sites.
Ironically, getting a White House press pass isn't easy. They are usually reserved for the bigger papers, national TV networks, wire services and national commentators. Because those who hold them often sit in the same room as the president himself, they are subjected to an intense security investigation.
The fact that a tax dodger who appears on Web sites for a lifestyle that the Bush people themselves have vilified in their four-plus years in office doesn't say much for that security. The poor guy wouldn't have been able to get in the Army, much less meet face-to-face with the president.
But, as Dowd said in a recent column, "With the Bushies, if you're their friend, anything goes. If you're their critic, nothing goes. They're waging a jihad against journalists - buying them off so they'll promote administration programs, trying to put them in jail for doing their jobs, and replacing them with ringers."
Dave Zweifel has been editor of The Capital Times since 1983.
Hybrid Mode
