Jeff Gannon makes front page of "The Advocate" (GLBT News magazine)

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
http://www.advocate.com/current_story_1_w.asp?id=15794



Jeff vs. the bloggers

|| Cover Story ||

Jeff vs. the bloggers
Ex–White House reporter Jeff Gannon learned the power of gay bloggers the hard way, by being outed as a partisan operative and an alleged former hustler. Online activists have mainstream media playing catch-up, and they’re reshaping the battle for gay equality.

By Jen Christensen

Excerpted from The Advocate, May 10, 2005

On most mornings, over a cup of coffee, John Aravosis sits alone in his studio apartment in Washington, D.C., pushing through piles of computer printouts. He scans new e-mails from around the world, searching for content for his www.americablog.org, a blog, or Web log, that mixes commentary and news. Information comes from everywhere—influential newspapers, cable news, other blogs, average people. On one particular April morning the top headline comes from “Chris, in Paris,” who is reporting that a new Iraqi president has been appointed. Another headline reads that conservative congressman Tom DeLay’s approval rating is heading into the toilet, according to a survey conducted by the Houston Chronicle.

Aravosis, 41, is a pioneer among the media-savvy gays and lesbians devoted to the country’s blogs. In February he bolstered his reputation as a gay advocate by helping blow the cover of one Jeff Gannon, who had come under fire for his partisan questions as a reporter in the White House briefing room. Media outlets discovered that Gannon was actually James Guckert, who had been hired to write for a Web site run by a wealthy Republican activist from Texas. And if that wasn’t enough, Aravosis also soon learned that Guckert had apparently advertised himself as a male escort.

“For the Gannongate story, I just really got the discussion going,” Aravosis says. “We finally were asking the question, Should we be coddling a gay hooker who is working just steps away from the Oval Office promoting an antigay agenda?”

Gannon denied the characterization of himself as a gay prostitute in a interview with The Advocate conducted via e-mail. “There is much misinformation and exaggeration about my past,” he wrote. “What is most interesting about it is that the people who talk about it the most in very graphic and disparaging terms are the ones who probably see nothing wrong with it.” Gannon, 48, adds that his sexual orientation is a private matter and that he objects to being “called a fake, phony, and faux or that ‘he was posing as a journalist.’ I was and still am a legitimate journalist, and I did some solid reporting.”

<</SNIP>>

[sabra]

1. How are the Freepers going to react to him being on the front page

of a GLBT magazine? Will they stand behind their man?

[FreedomAngel82]

10. Will they hold a rally

in support? Don't forget the porter potties. And what's with all the gay blooger stuff? I didn't know Raw Story was a gay blog. :eyes: Nothing wrong with being gay but didn't DailyKos first break the whole thing?

[sabra]

2. Not the best article, as it couples Aravosis and JimmyJeff

in the same league... Not even close!

[jdj]

17. yes, dammit, John needs to be on the cover, not this turd.

Advocate usually has fluff covers of some star we wish was queer but isn't.

Damn, Aravois needs to be on the cover of Time.

He is a true patriot!

[Catherine Vincent]

22. Yes, Aravosis is another good looking blogger.

[formerrepuke]

3. For the zillionth time- it's not the gay thing- its the prostitution thing

...a prostitute was given a White House press pass and was permitted to ask questions of the PRESIDENT. The gay issue is merely symptomatic of the larger hypocrisy among so many right-wingers

[sabra]

4. It's a little bit of the Gay thing too,

as it exposes the hypocricy of Gannon and the people "behind" him...

[FreedomAngel82]

11. Right

That's what was said in the article by the person they interviewed. That he was a gay hooker working on an anti-gay agenda. Pretty pathetic I think (that he was doing that).

[msongs]

5. the advocat is mostly trash and porno pimping....like the national

inquirer for gay men (it is not for lesbians). sex and more sex. reading it, one would believe that all gay men are under 30 muscle bound sexaholics.

by the way, wonder how gannon got this nice PR piece about himself in that magazine.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[sabra]

6. Good question?

Let's ask him...

[NYCGirl]

7. Was it that way when John Kerry gave them an exclusive interview

last year. At one time, The Advocate was a very respected publication.

[sabra]

8. What is your opinion on the article?

[NYCGirl]

12. Not much to it. The cover states "exclusive interview" and the article

isn't really an interview. Of course, that could be because Gannon has little to say that matters to anyone except Gannon.

[xchrom]

15. i like the advocate

i'm not under 30.
i am totally into working out.
i am not a sexaholic.

[6000eliot]

16. I wonder if you're talking about the same magazine

There are plenty of sex rags out there, but he Advocate isn't one of them. The offer plenty of "hard-news" coverage of issues that concern both gays and lesbians. They don't have enough lesbian coverage, and they clearly have a consumer marketing bias, but they aren't the magazine you describe! The article is balanced on the whole, but you can tell that the writer is against G/G. There is a short boxed interview where he plays his usual self-serving part.

[jdj]

18. okay, thanks for making me feel not crazy....

I was like WTF is this mfer talking about... a freaking DYKE runs the advocate, unless it has changed why would it have gone porno???

but I don't like to diss my fellow queers publicly unless backed into a corner. I haven't read it in a while, so I don't know, but I have always found it to be rock solid, to the point of being almost boring.

[Democrats_win]

9. They finally put a gay person on the cover.

Critics of these magazines point out that the cover person is often not gay. I suppose they could argue that the straight people they put on the cover are good role models. Maybe they could argue that Time once put Hitler on its cover.

[jdj]

19. WOOHOO!

Now there is a criticism I can get behind. All the queers that should be on the cover are closeted and the stars that are on there are on it just for creds but are as straight as, well, the Gannon cannon.

It always depresses me about these magazines. I'd rather see a picture of a vase of flowers on the cover than a straight person. So kudos on the observation, it's about time, isn't it?

:woohoo:

[PurityOfEssence]

13. Nice composition with the Washington Monument...

Roy Cohn and J. Edgar Hoover would be proud of this snake.

[jdj]

21. does anyone know if the mag took this shot for the article?

Did Jeff G. knowingly pose for an Advocate article??

That would be something, wouldn't it.

I hate to say it but thanks to Aravois I'm sure he has a ton of gay male fans. Hell, even I was impressed with the cannon, and he does nothing for me.

[Catherine Vincent]

14. Kick!

[DemonFighterLives]

20. SOME solid reporting

Some being the keyword and really a stretch of his imagination at that. They just showed jimmypoo on MSnbc where he was asking his divorced from reality question. Ron Reagan making the point that not only the pres. can be taken down at a press conference.
Ron wished to ask the president if the 10s of thousands of innocents we have killed under our bombs will go to the same heaven that he hopes to attend. B-)