‘Liberal' Media
Silent About Guckert Saga
The New York Observer
jconason@observer.com
by Joe Conason
2/21/2005
Proof that "the liberal media" is but a figment of right-wing
mythology has now arrived in the person of one James Guckert,
formerly known as Jeff Gannon. Were the American media truly
liberal—or merely unafraid to be called liberal—the
saga of Mr. Guckert's short, strange, quasi-journalistic
career would be resounding across the airwaves.
The intrinsic media interest of the Guckert/Gannon story
should be obvious to anyone who has followed his tale, which
touches on hot topics from the homosexual underground and the
investigation into the outing of C.I.A. agent Valerie Plame to
the political power of the Internet. But our supposedly liberal
media becomes quite squeamish when reporting anything that might
humiliate the Bush White House and the Republican Party.
Until very recently, Mr. Guckert served as the White House
correspondent for Talon News, a Web site owned and operated by a
group of Texas Republican activists who also run a highly
partisan site called GOPUSA.com. Mr. Guckert resigned from his
Talon job after liberal bloggers exposed his ties to Web sites
promoting homosexual prostitution. On Valentine's Day,
AmericaBlog.org posted new evidence indicating that Mr. Guckert
not only constructed those gay-play-for-pay sites, but worked as
a male escort himself—and continued to do so until he got
his first White House press pass in 2003.
Using his "Jeff Gannon" alias, Mr. Guckert soon became a
familiar face in the briefing room, where White House press
secretary Scott McClellan would call on him as "Jeff." No doubt
Mr. McClellan welcomed his mushy-soft, Democrat-baiting
questions.
George W. Bush called on him during his most recent press
conference—a signal honor for a reporter from an obscure
Internet publication, and quite a surprise to the dozens of
actual reporters bypassed by Mr. Bush on Jan. 26.
Mr. Guckert's archived writings suddenly disappeared
from the Talon News Web site, but several of his greatest works
have been preserved by the watchdogs at MediaMatters.org. They
show that he had no journalistic purpose, let alone experience.
His copy featured long passages lifted directly from White House
press releases. Last year, during the Internet frenzy over
Senator John Kerry's "intern girlfriend," he falsely wrote
that the young woman had "taped an interview with one of the
major television networks at Christmas substantiating the alleged
affair."
He also made a curious cameo appearance in the Valerie Plame
controversy. In late 2003, Mr. Guckert called former Ambassador
Joseph Wilson. During that interview, the Talon correspondent
mentioned a C.I.A. document that supposedly showed Ms. Plame had
dispatched Mr. Wilson, her husband, on a government mission to
Niger to investigate rumored Iraqi uranium purchases. That
allegation was meant to discredit the former ambassador, who had
exposed White House intelligence abuses. Administration leaks to
the press about Ms. Plame's C.I.A. work are currently under
investigation by a special prosecutor.
What Mr. Guckert seems to have been is not a journalist but a
Republican dirty trickster. He was schooled at the Leadership
Institute—an outfit run by veteran right-wing operative and
Republican National Committee member Morton Blackwell. (It was
Mr. Blackwell who distributed those cute "purple heart" Band-aids
mocking Mr. Kerry's war wounds at the Republican convention
last summer.) His former employers at Talon News include leading
Republican fund-raisers and former officials of the Texas
Republican Party who have been active in partisan affairs for the
past two decades.
How did this character obtain a coveted place in the White
House? What did the White House press staff know about him? How
does his story fit within the larger scandal of payola punditry,
with federal funds subsidizing Republican propagandists in the
press corps? Did someone in the Bush administration give him a
classified document?
Such questions are evidently of little concern to our liberal
media outlets, whose leading lights prefer to deliver prim
lectures about the unwarranted invasion of Mr. Guckert's
private affairs and his victimization for his conservative views.
In fact, everything known about him comes from material he posted
on public Web sites, but that's beside the point.
Imagine the media explosion if a male escort had been
discovered operating as a correspondent in the Clinton White
House. Imagine that he was paid by an outfit owned by Arkansas
Democrats and had been trained in journalism by James Carville.
Imagine that this gentleman had been cultivated and called upon
by Mike McCurry or Joe Lockhart—or by President Clinton
himself. Imagine that this "journalist" had smeared a Republican
Presidential candidate and had previously claimed access to
classified documents in a national-security scandal.
Then imagine the constant screaming on radio, on television,
on Capitol Hill, in the Washington press corps—and listen
to the placid mumbling of the "liberal" media now.
You may reach Joe Conason via email at:
jconason@observer.com.
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