WOW! DU, TWOSPARKLES, GANNON ON DES MOINES PAPER!!!!

[dhinojosa]

"The Gannon-Gosch conspiracy theory first appeared on the message board of a liberal political site called The Democratic Underground on Feb. 26. A site regular, using the name TwoSparkles, speculated that Jeff Gannon was victimized by a government-organized child pornography ring."



http://edit.desmoinesregister.gannettonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?NoCache=1&Dato=20050405&Kategori=LIFE04&Lopenr=504050376&Ref=AR

Who's he Johnny Gosch?

By ERIN CRAWFORD
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
April 5, 2005

Johnny Gosch may finally have been found, thanks to Rush Limbaugh.

The Iowa paperboy was kidnapped in 1982, with unsubstantiated stories emerging later from his mother that he was abducted into a child pedophilia ring. No trace of him has ever been found, and no suspects have been arrested.

Nearly 23 years later, White House correspondent Jeff Gannon, who wrote for a conservative Web site, was exposed in February as James D. Guckert, a man with no journalism experience and links to several gay escort addresses online.

If you have the time to read a few hundred Web postings, you will see how Johnny Gosch and Jeff Gannon, two completely unrelated individuals, became the same person on the Web. The way the theory developed says much about the anything-goes nature of the blogosphere and self-proclaimed reporters on the Internet, who seem to find accuracy and proof a nuisance in uncovering fantastical conspiracies.

It took the random efforts of scores of Web loggers (bloggers), credulous readers and longtime followers of the case to assign the two men a bizarre, shared backstory involving satanic CIA agents, pedophiles and presidents. And, of course, Limbaugh.

Gosch's mother, Noreen Gosch, called the theory "quite bizarre," but not impossible.

"We don't have anything conclusive," she said.

With so many people contributing twists, this dark fiction is as wild as anything on daytime television. It is really only the most recent speculation about what happened to Johnny Gosch, who has been "sighted" numerous times in the last 20 years in Africa, across the country and even in a Montreal subway. Police have been unable to confirm the sightings.

But here's how the Internet can feed a rumor until a bunch of people actually believe it.

The Gannon-Gosch conspiracy theory first appeared on the message board of a liberal political site called The Democratic Underground on Feb. 26. A site regular, using the name TwoSparkles, speculated that Jeff Gannon was victimized by a government-organized child pornography ring.

[mattclearing]

1. That's a shocker...Gannon is 48???

Sure doesn't look it. Especially in the male-prostitute photos ;)

[Disturbed]

2. Somewhat amazing that ...

from hundreds of posters commenting on Gannon/Guckert that one is picked out. Someone must have read hundreds of posts to cull that.

[mattclearing]

4. But seriously...that age thing is a mindblower.

48? He barely looks 35.

The reporter seems to have been sent out to discredit internet criticism of the government.

The pushy attitude may make more people question what's going on there.

Journalists need to get off their high horses...Jayson Blair can make it all up, and Dan Rather had his planted documents.

They followed the Bush Administration's phony WMD charges all the way to Iraq.

They are every bit as unreliable as the blogging community.

[unhappycamper]

3. keep those stories coming folks. looks like folks read our stuff.

and find merit.

[Catherine Vincent]

5. On the other thread she said her hubby was upset with her

for bringing it up. But we support you, TwoSparkles.

[burn the bush]

6. this isn't a blog though, it's a message board. as such, people are able

to discuss anything they want even if it does seem weird. No one posted it as news. It was a conversation. A conversation between many people who do not consider themselves reporters or bloggers or anything of the sort. Just a bunch of people supposing together. They (the paper) are the ones who reported on it not us.