How low will they go

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This is juicier than Desperate Housewives :D

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/02/breaking-news-gannon-reportedly-knew.html

BREAKING NEWS: Gannon reportedly knew about Iraq attack four hours before it happened
by John in DC - 2/18/2005 09:57:00 AM

A news producer for a major network just told me that Gannon told the producer the US was going to attack Iraq four hours before President Bush announced it to the nation.

According to the producer, Gannon specifically told them that in four hours the president was going to be making a speech to the nation announcing that the US was bombing Iraq. The producer told me they were surprised that Gannon, working with such a small news outfit, could have access to such information, but "what did you know, he was right," the producer said today. The producer went on to say that Gannon often had correct scoops on major stories, including information about Mary Mapes and the Dan Rather BUSH/AWOL scandal that this news outlet got from Gannon before any had the information publicly.

This more than a few questions and points:

1. Assuming this news producer is telling the truth, and I have no reason to believe they are not, how did Gannon get access to such highly classified information as to when the US was going to bomb Iraq?

2. Even if Gannon were part of a press gaggle that was told embargoed information about the war by the White House, this producer alleges that Gannon would have broken any such embargo, which is a security risk to the operation, and more generally shows that concerns about Gannon's White House access posing a risk to national security might now be warranted.

3. How would someone on a day pass, who hadn't gotten the requisite 3-4 month FBI background check that other full-time White House employees get, get access to such highly classified information? Certainly the White House didn't include someone with simply a day pass in the highly-classified pre-briefing about details of the war (assuming such a briefing even occurred)? If the White House did a briefing and Gannon were included, this would mean ANYONE could walk in off the street, say they're a reporter, and provided by they don't have a criminal record, the White House will simply tell them at what hour we're launching a major attack? And if there was no briefing for reporters, then how did Gannon allegedly find out?

4. Even if the White House had simply told the press pool that Bush was speaking to the nation in a few hours, and the press had figured out that this meant were were attacking Iraq, was the information about the upcoming speech embargoed? Was the information about the upcoming speech also announced to the public four hours before? Or did Gannon get access to inside information concerning the war simply because of his presence in the White House - a presence that should have required an FBI background check considering how often he was there?

5. How would Gannon get inside information on the Dan Rather scandal BEFORE the rest of the major media? Assuming the producer is correct, did it come from a White House source, and if so, what does this say about possible White House involvement in creating this scandal in the first place?

According to my source, Gannon's insider tidbits were always on the mark. "Gannon's stuff was always golden," the producer says. My source says they kept asking themself, "how does this small news outfit get this info?"

How indeed.
 
ALERT! ALERT!

Gannon/Guckert/whothefuckever is scheduled to tell it all, or at least some of it, to Anderson Cooper tonight on CNN.

expect to hear that he's sorry, he's made mistakes, he's a good Christian and God has forgiven him, and the White House had nothing to do with it.

and anderson cooper, too ... here's hoping Coop throws some hard questions and gets the penetrating interview we're all looking for ... heh-heh ... Coop ... hard ... gay prostitute ... penetrating ...

gosh, with all this publicity, do you still think Gannon is $200 an hour, or has his price gone up?
 
once the transcript is available, i'll post the interview with Anderson Cooper.

Coop was great! he grilled Gannon, who revealed himself to be something of an inarticulate ding-dong. i almost felt bad for the poor guy (and was wondering if he might have to return to his former line of work soon ... and he is in DC ... and i DID just get a promotion ... and he DOES have that Mr. Clean look ;) )

anyway, Coop brought out some good points that Gannon had really no response to. he also wasn't much of a reporter, as he pretty much cut and paste white house press releases into his articles and called that "reporting" -- and as Coop noted, he did post some rather hypocritical articles when read in light of his past professions.

but Gannon did note, "i've made some mistakes in my life."

he did not do well staying on-message, and deviated from the Rove-approved talking points several times.
 
COOPER: I spoke with Jeff Gannon earlier this evening. I started by asking him why he doesn't use his real name?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GANNON: I use a pseudonym, because my real name is very difficult to pronounce, to remember and to spell. And many people who have been talking about me on television have yet to pronounce it correctly.

COOPER: But I mean, your real name is James and you used the pseudonym Jeff.

GANNON: Yes.

COOPER: How is James so much harder than Jeff?

GANNON: No, no, I meant my last name.

COOPER: Well, your real last name is Guckert, and the pseudonym you used is Gannon.

GANNON: Yes. It's easier to pronounce, to remember and to spell.

COOPER: But when you would go into the White House to get a pass for a briefing, you would use the name James Guckert.

GANNON: Yes, because that's the name on my driver's license.

COOPER: And then -- but then you would switch to Jeff Gannon to ask questions?

GANNON: Because that is the name that I do my reporting under. It's not uncommon for journalists, authors, actors, to have pseudonyms.

COOPER: There are those who have said that the reason perhaps you are using a different name is that there is stuff from your past that you did not want people to know about or find out about.

GANNON: How I'll address that is that I have made mistakes in my past. And these are all of a very personal and private nature that have been -- that have been all brought to the surface by people who disagreed with the question I asked at the presidential press conference several weeks ago. And is -- the effect of this has been that we seem to have established a new standard for journalists in this country, where if someone disagrees with you, then your personal life, your private life, and anything you have ever done in the past is going to be brought up for public inspection.

COOPER: What your critics say, though, is that while a lot of this may be politically motivated, that liberal bloggers who didn't like the question you ask or don't like you in general are targeting you and revealing things about your personal life, that there are legitimate questions to ask. And in fact, they say that things in your personal life in fact just point to, A, a certain level of hypocrisy on your own part, but also serious questions about the White House vetting process.

GANNON: Well, I can't speak to the White House vetting process. All I can say is that they received all of the information that was asked for, that they ask every journalist for who applies for a daily pass into the White House. I suppose that they don't -- they aren't interested in reporters' sexual history either. COOPER: Let me give you a chance just to respond to what you want to respond to. You had previously stated that you had registered a number of pornographic Web sites for a private client. That's what you had said publicly. You said the sites were never activated. A man now has talked to "The Washington Post," who said that you had essentially paid him to create some Web sites for an escort service, and you are yourself offering yourself as an escort.

GANNON: Well, like I said, there's a lot of things being said about me out there. A lot of things that have nothing to do with the reporting I have done for the last two years.

COOPER: Your critics bring up your past, that whether or not you did work as an escort as going to your credibility, that you know, should somebody who perhaps was working as an escort was getting access to the White House and being passed along through the Secret Service. Was your employer aware of your past activities?

GANNON: My employer was never at any time aware of anything in my past beyond the writings I did, because, frankly, it isn't relevant to the job I was asked to do, which was to be a reporter.

COOPER: Was anyone at the White House aware of your private activities?

GANNON: I would say that -- I would say no, absolutely, categorically no.

COOPER: There are many questions that have been raised about whether or not -- people raising the specter that you are somehow a White House plant. Are you a White House plant? Were you (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

GANNON: Absolutely not. As a matter of fact, how I came to be at the White House is I asked to attend a briefing. I asked the White House press office. They gave me a daily pass to get in.

COOPER: When was that?

GANNON: I don't recall, but it was -- I think somewhere in the neighborhood of two years ago.

COOPER: Because in -- was that for Talon News?

GANNON: At the time, it was called something else, but it -- the name was changed to Talon News shortly thereafter.

COOPER: What was it called at the time?

GANNON: It was called GOPUSA.

COOPER: So -- and that's owned by a Republican activist, Bobby Eberle?

GANNON: It's owned by Bobby Eberle. COOPER: The first record we have now of you actually being at a White House press briefing was on February 28th, 2003, as you said, before Talon News even existed. So why were you given a White House pass?

GANNON: I was given a White House -- well, you will have to ask the White House that. But I asked to attend the White House briefing because I was -- you know, because I wanted to report on the activities there.

COOPER: But GOPUSA is not a news organization.

GANNON: Well, we were -- we were -- we had established a news division, and it was later renamed Talon News.

COOPER: Because this is news to just about everybody. You know, Talon News wasn't registered I think until, well, March 29th of 2003. I think the first articles didn't appear until April 1st. So I guess the questions that are being raised why were you at -- allowed to go to a White House briefing if you are working for GOPUSA, which is a clearly partisan organization?

GANNON: There are many, many organizations, many people that are allowed to attend the White House briefings. I don't know the criteria they use.

COOPER: But you weren't even publishing anything. You weren't reporting anything.

GANNON: Well, actually, I was at the time.

COOPER: When was the first article you ever published?

GANNON: Well, you're -- I don't know that, because I'm here in your studio here. And I don't know the answer to specific dates. All I can tell you is that -- and frankly, all these questions about Talon News and GOPUSA, you need to ask them about that, because I don't represent them any longer.

COOPER: Yeah, we've asked them. They refuse to talk about it.

GANNON: Well, I mean, they would be the ultimate authority on that.

COOPER: This liberal group, Media Matters, which I'm sure you know well about. They have been very critical about you, really looked into this probably closer than just about anybody. They say that essentially, you are not a real reporter. And it's not even a question of being an advocate, that you have directly lifted large segments of your reports directly from White House press releases.

GANNON: All my stories were usually titled "White House Says," "President Bush Wants," and I relied on transcripts from the briefings, I relied on press releases that were sent to the press for the purpose of accurately portraying what the White House believed or wanted. COOPER: But using the term "reporting" implies some sort of vetting, some sort of research, some sort of -- I mean, that's called faxing or Xeroxing, if you are just lifting transcripts and putting them into an article.

GANNON: If I am communicating to my readers exactly what the White House believes on any certain issue, that's reporting to them an unvarnished, unfiltered version of what they believe.

COOPER: Did you receive information from the White House that others didn't get?

GANNON: Absolutely not.

COOPER: So there was an article in which you interviewed Ambassador Joe Wilson, and you implied that you had seen a CIA classified document in which Valerie Plame...

GANNON: I didn't do that at all. I didn't do that at all. If you read the question, and I provided -- my article was actually a transcript of my conversation with Ambassador Wilson -- I made reference to a memo. And this...

COOPER: How did you know about that memo?

GANNON: Well, this memo was referred to in a "Wall Street Journal" article a week earlier.

COOPER: So that wasn't based on any information that you had been given by the White House?

GANNON: I was given no special information by the White House or by anybody else, for that matter.

COOPER: You have been very clear that you believe this is politically motivated. And I think just about everyone probably agrees with that, that you asked that question, it was a softball, and liberal bloggers went after you to find out what they could in the public domain about you. But isn't that -- and you say that's unfair. Isn't that -- aren't those the same techniques that you yourself used as a reporter that sort of -- to publish innuendo, to publish advocacy-driven, politically motivated reports?

GANNON: Well, I don't see it that way. But what was -- what's been done to me is far in excess of what has ever been done to any other journalist that I could remember. My life has been turned inside out and upside down. And, again, it makes us all wonder that if someone disagrees with you, that is now your personal life fair game? And I'm hoping that fair-minded people will stand up and say that what's been done to me is wrong, and that -- that people's personal lives have no impact on their ability to be a journalist, you know. Why should my past prevent me from having a future?

COOPER: Appreciate you being with us. Jeff Gannon, thanks very much.

GANNON: Thanks so much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)
 
Seen that picture of Scott just grinning ear to ear af Jeff errr James :wink:

Gannon attended White House Christmas parties -- but who invited him?
Former Talon News Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent Jeff Gannon (aka James D. Guckert) attended at least two invitation-only events in Washington, D.C.: the 2003 and 2004 White House press Christmas parties. Gannon has been discredited by numerous charges -- most notably that he is a Republican activist who has reproduced sections of Republican Party and White House materials verbatim in his own "news reports," and not a true news reporter. So the question arises: who invited Gannon to these exclusive events?

In a February 11 interview with Editor and Publisher, Gannon claimed that "The only connection I had with [White House press secretary] Scott McClellan was when he got married and I sent him a card." McClellan told Editor & Publisher that Gannon was not issued a permanent White House press corps pass, but obtained only daily passes. And according to a February 18 New York Times article, McClellan said that White House "credentialing is all handled at the staff assistant level."

But in past years, the White House press secretary has played a significant role in arranging the guest list for the Christmas parties. As the Washington Post reported on December 9, 1992: "Some national correspondents who cover the president [George H.W. Bush] have apparently been unceremoniously axed from the annual White House Christmas party list. ... Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater, who's said to be wielding the ax for the half-dozen gigs, didn't return a call."

Former President Bill Clinton apparently delegated the responsibility to the White House social secretary, according to the Post on December 25, 1995: "The Clintons draw far and wide to make up their holiday invitation lists, said Ann Stock, White House social secretary. ... The season takes a toll on Stock and her staff. 'It's 16- to 18-hour days for a month,' she said on Friday, adding with evident relief: 'Now everyone can turn to their personal Christmas.'"

But an April 29, 2002, New York Times article suggests that the responsibility in the current Bush White House -- at least for the previous year's party -- again rested with the press secretary: "[then-Press Secretary Ari] Fleischer offered to have Rachel Sunbarger, the 23-year-old, highly efficient manager of the White House press office, work as a clearinghouse to sort invitations [to the White House Correspondents Dinner for administration officials]. ... Ms. Sunbarger, who considers her position 'the greatest job in the world,' said that the invitation task was not as bad as the job she had in December of overseeing the invitations to the White House Christmas party for the clamoring press." McClellan replaced Fleischer as press secretary in July, 2003.

The 2004 White House news media Christmas party had "two shifts of 600 guests each," according to a December 13 New York Times report. As for the significance of the Christmas party, Chicago Tribune columnist Michael Killian observed on December 31, 2003, that receiving an invitation is a sign that "one may consider oneself a member in good standing of the fabled Washington establishment."
 
I saw it, why didn't he ask him about the Iraq invasion story? He mentioned other blog stories. I suppose he couldn't broach the McClellan rumors, CNN would have probably been banned for life from the WH :D

Anderson said he's been stalked, I swear it wasn't me :wink:
 
http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/archive/newswire/news2005/0205/021605-liberal-gannon.htm

WASHINGTON --The media watch-group Accuracy in Media charged today that a liberal activist and associate of Ralph Nader has been obtaining access to White House press briefings while claiming to be a legitimate news reporter.

Russell Mokhiber, who sells a $795 a year newsletter that bashes corporations, attends the briefings to make obscure anti-Bush political points. Recently, for example, he asked spokesman Scott McClellan whether President Bush violated one of the Ten Commandments by invading Iraq. Mokhiber, who told AIM that he has never taken a journalism class in his life and was denied a permanent White House press pass, posts his ludicrous questions and answers on a far-left web site under the title "Scottie & Me."

Other Mokhiber topics have included industrial hemp, Israel's 1967 attack on the USS Liberty, possible war crimes charges against Bush, and Halliburton.

AIM editor Cliff Kincaid said Mokhiber's attendance at the briefings makes it clear that the controversy over Jeff Gannon attending the same briefings was manufactured by left-wing bloggers and liberals in the media because they don't want conservatives in the White House press corps. Gannon resigned from Talon News, a conservative on-line service, and announced that he was leaving journalism altogether because of a left-wing investigation of his personal life that followed objections to his anti-Democrat question at a presidential press conference. One of many charges made against Gannon was that he lacked proper journalistic credentials.

"The case against Gannon boiled down to being too pro-Republican," said Kincaid, "writing stories with a conservative slant, and being linked to conduct, homosexuality, that is accepted and celebrated by those who were going after Gannon in the first place. The standard of the liberal thought police is evidently that someone's private life should be protectedexcept when the accused is a conservative"
 
LOL, I don't have a problem with it working both ways. At least he has a newsletter. One lefty among many paid righties.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/more_paid_spokespeople.php

More Paid Spokespeople?
February 28, 2005


Media Matters for America, a Web-based organization acting as a watchdog over conservative misinformation, investigated the backgrounds of guests who have appeared on cable or network news since the election to discuss Social Security. The result? The analysis "failed to find one independent expert with a graduate degree in economics who supported allowing workers to divert Social Security payroll taxes into private accounts ." Experts who supported private accounts on news programs were individuals whose salaries are paid by right-wing organizations. Experts from academia and other independent backgrounds—not benefiting from partisan funds—are overwhelmingly against privatization. While President Bush may claim that his agenda "ought to be able to stand on its own two feet," it seems that others in the party don't share the sentiment.

Media Matters found eight guests who held graduate degrees in economics; three supported privatizing Social Security, and five opposed it. While all five opponents of privatization are supported by independent universities and organizations, all three privatization proponents are funded by right-wing organizations and foundations.

Following are the three pro-privatization economists, their economic credentials, and the organizations and foundations that support them:

David John, who received his master's degree in economics from the University of Georgia in Athens, is a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation's Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies.

The Heritage Foundation has called for the creation of private accounts, according to the policy recommendations outlined in the 2004 Issues in Brief.

The Heritage Foundation has received funding from right-wing foundations, including the Sarah Scaife, John M. Olin, and Lynde and Harry Bradley foundations.

John appeared on CNN's Wolf Blitzer Reports on November 4, 2004, and CNN's In the Money on January 15, as well as NBC's Nightly News on December 9, 2004 and January 11.

On Wolf Blitzer Reports, John claimed that private accounts "would improve" retirement benefits. But as Media Matters has previously noted, privatization results in increased financial risk to individuals by shifting money out of Social Security and into the stock market. And, if the money in an individual's private account earned less than 3 percent above the rate of inflation, the worker would actually receive less than he or she would have had all their payroll taxes remained within the system.

On the January 15 edition of In the Money, John stated that one of the biggest misconceptions about Bush's plans to privatize Social Security is that we are not facing a crisis and, according to John, "the fact is that yes, we are facing a crisis." However, the Social Security board of trustees projected in its 2004 report that the trust fund will be able to pay all promised benefits for another 37 years, or until 2042. According to a projection by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the trust fund will be able to pay all promised benefits until 2052.

William W. Beach, who holds a master's degree in history and economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia, is director of The Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis and John M. Olin Senior Fellow in Economics.

Beach appeared on NBC's Nightly News on December 18, 2004, and on FOX News' The O'Reilly Factor on January 27.

On the December 18 edition of NBC's Nightly News, Beach stated that if younger workers "start saving today, they can actually have quite a bit of money built up in these savings accounts by the time they get to retirement." Beach failed to note the increased risk that individuals would shoulder in diverting a portion of their payroll taxes out of Social Security and into private accounts.

Stephen Moore, who holds an master's degree in economics from George Mason University, is the former president of Club for Growth and current president of the Free Enterprise Fund, which according to a January 5 New York Times report is a new "Republican lobby group" that "hopes to raise about $15 million for television advertising and other lobbying to bolster President Bush's domestic agenda in Congress." Moore is also a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a financial columnist at National Review Online.

Club for Growth, Free Enterprise Fund, and the Cato Institute all advocate Social Security privatization. Cato operates the pro-privatization Project on Social Security Choice, and its plan for privatization states: "Individuals would be able to privately invest their half (6.2 percentage points) of their payroll tax through individual accounts." Club for Growth recently launched a blog called Social Security Choice to promote private accounts. The Free Enterprise Fund lists "personal investment accounts for Social Security" as "as an issue of great concern" that it "will establish local and state chapters around the nation to advance."

Club for Growth has received funding from conservative donors, including National Review president Thomas Rhodes and Hudson Institute trustee emeritus Daniel C. Searle, as well as small donations from members of the Club. Cato funders include the Sarah Scaife, John M. Olin, and Lynde and Harry Bradley foundations.

Moore appeared on CNN's Crossfire on December 16, 2004; on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews on December 15, 2004; and on NBC's Nightly News on January 2.

In his December 15 Hardball and December 16 Crossfire appearances, Moore stated that Social Security "is the Titanic headed to iceberg," echoing the misleading crisis rhetoric used by Johns and others, as noted above. On Hardball, Moore also claimed that, according to Cato studies, "the average young worker is only going to get a 1 or 2 percent return on their Social Security money," but private accounts would provide a "4 or 5 percent rate of return." Many other economists have argued that Bush's proposal will increase retirees' exposure to risk without producing a better rate of return than the current system. Princeton University economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman argued on February 1 that White House projections being used to promote privatization are contradictory, as they rely on a low long-term economic growth rate occurring in conjunction with a high rate of return on equities -- a combination that Krugman calls "mathematically impossible."

Following are the five anti-privatization economists, their economic credentials, and the independent organizations that support them:

Paul Krugman, who received a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is a professor of economics at Princeton University and a columnist for The New York Times. Krugman served on the Council of Economic Advisers in the Reagan White House from 1982 to 1983.

Krugman appeared on CBS's Evening News on January 16; CNN programs Lou Dobbs Tonight on February 3, In the Money on February 5 and Newsnight with Aaron Brown on February 8; and MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews on December 27, 2004, and February 7.

In his appearances, Krugman asserted that Social Security is not in crisis, but will experience a "mild long-run shortfall" which is smaller, at 0.4 percent of GDP over 75 years, than that created by the Bush tax cuts, which will result in a 2 percent shortfall. Krugman also stated that private accounts would not reduce the Social Security shortfall, as the Bush administration has conceded. According to Krugman, Social Security is not in need of immediate reform.

Robert S. Chirinko, who holds a Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University, is a professor of economics at Emory University.

Chirinko appeared on CBS's Evening News on February 3, referring to the partial privatization of Social Security as "a shell game," in which changes are made, but "at the end of the day, you actually have less than what you started with."

Robert B. Reich, who holds a master's degree in economics from Oxford University, is currently University Professor and Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy at Brandeis University and at Brandeis' Heller School of Social Policy and Management. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Reich appeared on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer on January 23; MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews on December 15, 2004, MSNBC Reports on January 17, Scarborough Country on January 19, and MSNBC's post-State of the Union address coverage on February 3; and FOX News' The Big Story with John Gibson on November 5, 2004.

In his appearances, Reich rejected Social Security crisis rhetoric, stating "there's absolutely no crisis here." According to Reich, "over the long term, Social Security does need to be reformed." Reich advocated raising the retirement age and opposed private accounts.
Alicia H. Munnell, who holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, is currently Peter F. Drucker Professor of Management Sciences at Boston College and director of the college's Center for Retirement Research. Munnell served under Clinton as assistant secretary of the treasury for economic policy from 1993 to 1995 and as a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers from 1995 to 1997.

On ABC's World News Tonight on January 14, Munnel noted: "Even if we do nothing after 2042, we will have enough money coming in to pay about three quarters of promised benefits." As the Social Security trustees noted in their 2004 report, the date for Social Security's projected insolvency is 2042, at which point the system would continue to be able to pay out a projected 73 percent of currently promised benefits.
Robert M. Ball, who earned a master's degree in economics from Wesleyan University, is currently a self-employed writer, lecturer and consultant. Ball served as Social Security commissioner from 1962 to 1973 under former presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. From 1973 to 1980, Ball held the post of Senior Scholar at the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine.

On the CBS Evening News on February 14 and the CBS Morning News on February 15, Ball stated that there "isn't anything serious wrong" with Social Security and "there is no crisis." Ball also stated that Bush's plan to privatize Social Security would do nothing to close the Social Security shortfall. According to Ball: "In the very long run, there is a shortfall. It can be fixed. It can be met with very little pain."
 
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