Boston Globe: Gannon / Guckert allegations were "never proven"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/05/17/gannons_story_left_critics_tarnished_too/

Gannon's story left critics tarnished, too

By Peter S. Canellos, Globe Staff | May 17, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Jeff Gannon's 15 minutes of fame is running a little long, with a lengthy profile in June's Vanity Fair in which the onetime White House reporter for a website run by a Republican fund-raiser talks about his newfound celebrity.

Gannon's odd journey -- which began after he asked a comically flattering question to President Bush at a news conference in January, continued when numerous bloggers attacked him as a Republican operative planted amid the press corps, and took an odd turn when photos of him as a gay prostitute showed up on the Internet -- is a landmark: the first Washington scandal based entirely in cyberspace. It started with a website, was exposed and pursued by online journalists, and featured sordid pictures from the Internet.

Despite the sex pictures, the linchpin of the scandal was always the allegation that Bush and/or his press secretary, Scott McClellan, catered to Gannon so that his softball questions would make the president look good. Having Gannon in the press room allowed McClellan to change the subject whenever a mainstream reporter began to bore in with a tough line of questioning, according to the bloggers who promoted the story.

But the allegation was never proven. McClellan argued that he called on questioners in a routine manner, getting to Gannon only after fielding inquiries from larger news outlets in a fairly predictable order. Veteran White House correspondents backed him up. Meanwhile, McClellan maintained that his office did not give Gannon favorable treatment in getting a press pass. Former White House press secretaries from the Clinton administration generally sided with McClellan.

[aquart]

1. The White House has pictures of the Globe publisher?

Let me guess: with Guckert?

[gandalf]

2. "his office did not give Gannon favorable treatment"?

The story certainly did not take place only in cyber space. He was present in the real world WH many times. Does McClellan want to say virtually anybody, even without giving his proper name, can get a press pass? You don't need a preferential treatment for that? He can't be serious about that.
But he must love newspapers like Boston Globe...

[smoogatz]

3. Horseshit.

Maureen Dowd can't get a press pass. A homosexual prostitute posing as a journalist working for a rightwing front organization can. Helen Thomas never gets called on. A homosexual prostitute posing as a journalist working for a rightwing front organization does. That's not proof? Jesus. What does it take to get through to these yutzes? What are they teaching people in journalism school these days--how to take dictation from Republicans?

[cdb]

5. Once again underscoring

The death of actual investigative journalism. Or any kind of journalsim.

[EVDebs]

8. psssssssst ! Google "Operation Mockingbird"

Then, google "CNN and PsyOps" and read c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y.

Then pass the word. This is the way the general public's true "operation word-of-mouth" subverts M$M

[smoogatz]

12. Any documented proof?

What I see after a quick search is basically rumor and speculation. Any FOIA documents floating around that prove these assertions? Any links to specific info?

[gandalf]

14. Any specific questions?

1) If not, read the seminal and only article in the MSM, "THE CIA AND THE MEDIA" (1977), Carl Berstein, Rolling Stone. That more than rumour.
2) As long as it is necessary in 2005 to use a court to get a figure as trivial as the information on the CIA budget of 1963, there will probably not be a front page story in the NYT, based on an interview with the DCI.

[smoogatz]

17. Just point me at your documentary evidence

for a CIA operation to take over the WaPo, etc. Leaked memos, witness testimony, etc. That'll do.

[gandalf]

18. Read my edited message

the Berstein article contains witness reports.

[EVDebs]

22. The Pike and Church commission reports and Oct 1977 Rolling Stone

for the Bernstein article. Also scroll down under John Simkin at
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/lofiversion/index.php/t3054.html
for more info on the Church committee reports. Also see
Journalism and the CIA: The Mighty Wurlitzer
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/8425/CIAPRESS.HTM

BTW, check further into Bernstein's buddy Bob Woodward, the intell community's 'boy'. Secret Agenda, by Jim Hougan, revealed this but Lt. j g Woodward's background

Please read Bob Harris’ article in the old metro aritlce on Deep Throat at Sonoma Metro www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/07.03.97/scoop-9727.html

Woodward is now a virtual Bush ‘insider’ with accompanying hagiography. So sad. His military intelligence background had been revealed in Jim Hougan’s book Secret Agenda a long time ago.

Probe did a revealing bio on him also at www.webcom.com/ctka/pr196-woodward.html

BTW, all the Bush admin sources are expected to be ‘revealed’ by Newsweek, owned by Katherine Graham and Washington Post Company ? Remember who was involved in Operation Mockingbird….

Incidentally, Frances Fitzgerald's Fire In The Lake history of Vietnam war...she's Des's daughter. A relative of Graham A. Martin co-authored a book on the S&L fiasco (Martin's adopted son died in Vietham Nov 1965, Glenn Dill Mann), and it seems relatives of those close to the 'company' get things into print...but we all know the winner gets to write the history.

[LibDemAlways]

4. The Vanity Fair piece was a

crock of shit. Painted Guckert as a journalist wanna-be, glossed over the gay hooker stuff, and never addressed the issue of how this guy got access.

[EVDebs]

6. "Where there's smoke, there's fire". Operation Mockingbird singalong

in the M$M, LOL !

[Kota]

7. What allegation? That he got special treatment to get in?

He is a male prostitute that got to ask softball questions. Thats proven. That he is not really a journalist. Thats been proven. Isn't that bad enough. This article keeps this thing alive.

[riverwalker]

9. never proven?

Peter S. Canellos is the chief of the Globe's Washington bureau. He can be reached at [e-mail]

[glitch]

10. methinks he doth protest too much.

wonder what they got on him. nah, I don't wonder.

[carolinayellowdog]

11. Eric Boehlert demolishes this piece in Salon today

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html

excerpt:

during the roughly four weeks last February as the Gannon story made news the Boston Globe published exactly three stories or columns that mentioned the controversy, according to the Nexis electronic database. During the roughly four weeks the Swift Boat story made news last August, the Boston Globe published 41 articles or columns that mentioned the controversy...Yet according to the Globe, the two stories, a fictitious one that targeted a Democratic candidate and was embraced by the Beltway press, and a factual one that targeted a Republican White House and was downplayed by the Beltway press, "Followed a similar trajectory."

[carnie_sf]

13. Yes, Mr Fox

what were you doing in that henhouse?

[Edgewater_Joe]

15. Allegedly, He's A "Jurnuhlizt."

Was that what they referred to?

[paineinthearse]

16. Bullcrap!!!!!!! If we write a joint letter to the management

I will deliver it in person.

[earth mom]

19. Sounds like they are declaring war on Internet news and bloggers.

The corporate media are all such lying sacks of shit that they now believe their own lies!

Too bad that we can all smell them a mile away! :grr:

[EVDebs]

23. Your newspapers should now be delivered "sanitized for your protection"

wrapped around it instead of a rubber band.

[paineinthearse]

20. Peter S. Canellos

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/nation/canellos/



The National Perspective column, by Globe Washington bureau chief Peter S. Canellos, appears on Tuesdays.

WRITE BACK
Peter S. Canellos's e-mail address is [e-mail].

[paineinthearse]

21. The Pellican File

Cannelos' pieces are archived at http://www.pelicanfile.com/reporter.cfm/ReporterID/888.cfm