Quote of the week: “Bush officials have divorced themselves from reality. They flipped TV's in the West Wing and Air Force One to Fox News. They paid conservative columnists handsomely to promote administration programs. Federal agencies distributed packaged ”news" video releases with faux anchors so local news outlets would run them. As CNN reported, the Pentagon produces Web sites with “news” articles intended to influence opinion abroad and at home, but you have to look hard for the disclaimer: “Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense.” The agencies spent a whopping $88 million spinning reality in 2004, splurging on P.R. contracts.

Even the Nixon White House didn't do anything this creepy. It's worse than hating the press. It's an attempt to reinvent it."

-- New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, February 17

Week ending February 18, 2005
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Quote of the Week:

Bush officials have divorced themselves from reality. They flipped TV's in the West Wing and Air Force One to Fox News. They paid conservative columnists handsomely to promote administration programs. Federal agencies distributed packaged “news” video releases with faux anchors so local news outlets would run them. As CNN reported, the Pentagon produces Web sites with “news” articles intended to influence opinion abroad and at home, but you have to look hard for the disclaimer: “Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense.” The agencies spent a whopping $88 million spinning reality in 2004, splurging on P.R. contracts.

Even the Nixon White House didn't do anything this creepy. It's worse than hating the press. It's an attempt to reinvent it.

-- New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, February 17

This week:

New information in “Jeff Gannon” saga raises even more questions

“Gannon” story fits into a growing pattern of White House propaganda

Is Rush Limbaugh the next Armstrong Williams?

FOX's Hume committed “premeditated, historical fraud” in distorting FDR

More evidence of Swift Boat Vets' ties to Bush campaign

New information in “Jeff Gannon” saga raises even more questions

This week brought an avalanche of new information about the fake White House reporter who used the fake name “Jeff Gannon,” worked for the fake news organization “Talon News” and may have made his own fake White House press pass ... but that information raises more questions than it answers. Below is a rundown of recent developments about the man known as “Jeff Gannon” but really named James Guckert:

A simple solution: Media Matters for America President and CEO David Brock wrote to White House press secretary Scott McClellan and the White House Correspondents' Association, suggesting one simple step that would help lessen the likelihood of another Gannon situation arising:

I understand that Mr. McClellan recently met with WHCA President Ron Hutcheson, and that neither is eager to take on the role of deciding who is and is not a journalist. I can appreciate this hesitancy -- though in Mr. Gannon's case, the decision does not seem a difficult one, and though refusing to make a decision is, in effect, a decision in the affirmative. Nevertheless, I can well understand why, in cases that are less clear-cut than that of Mr. Gannon, the White House and the WHCA are reluctant to take responsibility for making these decisions.

There is a simple, partial solution that is worth considering: limiting the number of times per year a person may use a “daily pass” to attend a press briefing. Mr. Gannon apparently used these “daily passes” to attend press briefings nearly every day for two years, presumably because he was unable to obtain a “hard pass.” If use of a “daily pass” was limited to twelve times per year per person, out-of-town reporters would still be able to attend briefings while in Washington; news organizations that don't have full-time White House correspondents would still be able to send a representative on occasion; and new or “alternative” media outlets that are unable to obtain a “hard pass” would still be able to attend occasional briefings. But the “daily pass” could no longer be used as an “end-around” to the “hard pass” procedures, and somebody like Mr. Gannon would not be able to attend every briefing for two years while, to use The New York Times' Richard Stevenson's apt description, “hijacking” the press room.

A simple solution, part two: Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz complained on the February 17 edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360: “I didn't go into journalism, frankly, to be looking at websites like hotmilitarystud.com.” There are other options. At MediaMatters.org, we have detailed Gannon's tendency to reprint White House talking points verbatim without identifying their source, and explained that Talon News -- which Kurtz has described as a “straight news site” -- is nothing more than a portal to GOPUSA.com. Perhaps Kurtz has spent too much time at Hotmilitarystud.com --and not enough time reading Editor & Publisher, Salon.com, MediaMatters.org, or the comments of his Post colleagues Dana Milbank and Dan Froomkin. That would explain why Kurtz hasn't written about those details, or many of our other critiques of Gannon and GOPUSA -- critiques which are not based on Gannon's apparent extracurricular activities.

But did he know before Colin Powell? AmericaBlog's John Aravosis wrote “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.” While it would ordinarily be surprising if a fake reporter using a fake name was given advance notice of such a major military action, it isn't completely unbelievable, given the way the Bush administration made the attack known: Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia was reportedly told of the plans before then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, for example.

Who invited Gannon to White House Christmas parties? According to Editor & Publisher:

When asked if anyone in the White House staff or leadership planted, offered, or suggested questions to ask, Guckert said “absolutely not.” He said, “I only met Karl Rove once, at the media Christmas party at the White House in 2003. I was waiting in line for my 'grip and grin' [photo] with the president and he passed by. I introduced myself to him, he said hello, and he moved on.”

He said he also attended the 2004 Christmas party.

So how did Jeff Gannon get into these parties? Who invited him? What role did McClellan and his staff play in handing out invitations? McClellan told The New York Times: “The credentialing is all handled at the staff assistant level.” Is that true of invitations to White House parties as well?

How, exactly, did Texas Republican activist Bobby Eberle come to hire auto repairman “Jeff Gannon” to work at Talon News? According to E&P, Gannon/Guckert “said he came across Talon News while researching and liked its approach. The Texas Republican activist who runs it also manages the site GOPUSA. 'I had submitted my writings to Talon and saw they were looking for people to write news, and it was something I was interested in. I moved to Washington after Sept. 11, 2001, because I was so affected by [the attacks].' Guckert said he first went to work for Talon News in February 2003 after writing several test stories for them, becoming a stringer at first and later a full-time salaried reporter.”

But the blog World O' Crap suggested that explanation may not be true: “Um, no. See, on January 15, 2003 the first Jeff Gannon byline appears at at [sic] GOPUSA. And it's not until April 1, 2003 that Talon News is publishing. So, since Jeff wrote for GOPUSA before there was a Talon News, he would have surely known about the creation of its ”news division," Talon, without having to “come across it” while doing research."

Question: If Jeff Gannon got in to White House press briefings, just who were they turning away? Writing for Salon.com, Sidney Blumenthal noted:

Thus a phony journalist planted by a Republican operation, used by the White House press secretary to interrupt questions from the press corps, called on by the president for a safe question, protected from FBI vetting by the press office, disseminating innuendo and smears about critics and opponents of the administration, some of them gay-baiting, was unmasked not only as a hireling and fraud but as a gay prostitute, with enormous potential for blackmail.

Answer: Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd: New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd pointed out that not everyone has found it as easy to get into press briefings as Mr. Gannon did:

I'm still mystified by this story. I was rejected for a White House press pass at the start of the Bush administration, but someone with an alias, a tax evasion problem and Internet pictures where he posed like the “Barberini Faun” is credentialed to cover a White House that won a second term by mining homophobia and preaching family values?

Gannon attended White House press briefings before Talon even existed? According to Salon:

Guckert, using his alias “Jeff Gannon,” once boasted online about asking then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer a question at the Feb. 28, 2003, briefing. ... what's significant about the February 2003 date is that Talon did not even exist then. The organization was created in late March 2003, and began publishing online in early April 2003. Gannon, a jack of all trades who spent time in the military as well as working at an auto repair shop (not to mention escorting), has already stated publicly that Talon News was his first job in journalism. That means he wasn't working for any other news outlet in February 2003 when he was spotted by C-Span cameras inside the White House briefing room.

On February 18, Editor & Publisher reported:

Former Talon News reporter James Guckert obtained his first White House press credentials as a representative of the pro-Republican Web site, GOPUSA, not as a Talon News reporter, as previously believed, Press Secretary Scott McClellan told E&P today.

McClellan said White House Press Office staffers considered the obviously partisan site to be a legitimate news organization when they gave Guckert, a.k.a. Jeff Gannon, the first of numerous day passes in February 2003.

“He faxed a letter in on his [GOPUSA] letterhead, they checked that it was a Web site he worked for,” McClellan explained, referring to his staffers who handled such credentialing at the time. “There was a check to make sure it was a news organization and a news Web site. There was a determination made at that point [that it was legitimate].”

Was Talon created to address Fleischer's concerns? Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told Editor & Publisher that he “was so concerned about Talon News reporter James Guckert's potential ties to the Republican Party that he stopped calling on him at press briefings for about a week in 2003. 'I found out that he worked for a GOP site, and I didn't think it was my place to call on him because he worked for something that was related to the party,' Fleischer said in a phone interview. 'He had the editor call me and made the case that they were not related to the Republican Party. He said they used the GOP name for marketing purposes only.'”

It isn't clear when Fleischer raised his concerns about Gannon, but given that Gannon apparently attended White House press briefings before Talon even existed, and given that Fleischer had concerns about calling on someone from “GOPUSA,” was Talon created specifically to give cover to Fleischer? Even if Talon wasn't created in response to Fleischer's concerns, it still seems to have been created after Gannon began attending briefings; was it created in anticipation of such concerns?

That might explain why, as Media Matters has noted, Talon is nothing more than a portal to GOPUSA:

Articles on TalonNews.com consist of brief introductory paragraphs, followed by a link to “Read more”; clicking on that link takes you to a page that announces, “This story can be found on our #1 client -- GOPUSA!” Readers are then redirected to the GOPUSA.com site.

“Gannon” story fits into a growing pattern of White House propaganda

When Media Matters first wrote about Gannon, we noted that Gannon fit into the “growing scandal surrounding conservatives' use of fake 'news' reports, secret government propaganda, and payola to conservative commentators.” That pattern is the real significance of the Gannon story, and what more reporters should focus on, rather than the salacious details of Gannon's side businesses.

Fortunately, an increasing number of journalists are doing just that.

New York Times columnist Frank Rich noted:

By my count, “Jeff Gannon” is now at least the sixth “journalist” (four of whom have been unmasked so far this year) to have been a propagandist on the payroll of either the Bush administration or a barely arms-length ally like Talon News while simultaneously appearing in print or broadcast forums that purport to be real news.

The Christian Science Monitor likewise tied the Gannon matter in with other examples of White House manipulation of the media:

First came video “news releases” produced by the Bush administration using a TV news format. Then came three conservative columnists who got big paychecks from federal agencies. Now, there's Jeff Gannon (not his real name), a journalist (maybe) who gained surprisingly easy access to the president, only to lob a sympathetically slanted question.

No evidence has surfaced that Mr. Gannon was directed by the White House, but the circumstances ignited a debate over the inner workings of the White House press room.

[...]

Since President Bush took office, contracts for public relations work with the federal government have jumped from $39 million to $88.2 million last year, according to a report by Democratic staff of the House Government Reform Committee. These contracts cover everything from promoting the newly revised food pyramid to funding major initiatives from schools to Social Security.

The Monitor went on to note an historical parallel to the current White House's treatment of the media:

Deeply frustrated by the coverage of the Watergate scandal, President Nixon directed his staff to ban any representative from the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time Magazine, Newsweek, CBS, and a UPI reporter from the press pool - an order his staff largely ignored. But during the 2004 campaign, a New York Times reporter assigned to cover Vice President Cheney was routinely excluded from the press plane.

Meanwhile, Armstrong Williams, the conservative commentator who took nearly a quarter of a million dollars to promote Bush administration policies he had previously criticized, attended a Howard University forum where he addressed the controversy:

In the interview that followed, Mr. Williams repeated his apology for his work for the Education Department but expressed bitterness over the criticism he has received since news of it broke. He said he had revised two chapters of his book “The New Racism,” to reflect his belief that “the liberal elite despise black conservatives,” a factor that he thinks helped fuel the controversy.

“I am a conservative who does not know his place,” he said. “If I were white, they wouldn't care.”

Is Rush Limbaugh the next Armstrong Williams?

According to Reuters:

Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh is expected to visit Afghanistan with the top U.S. aid official to spotlight America's aid work there, officials said on Thursday.

[...]

“It's trying to get people to pay attention to all the good things we are doing in Afghanistan,” a U.S. official who asked not to be named said of the trip, which is expected to take place next week. “This is just a different kind of outreach.”

While it isn't clear who is paying for Limbaugh's trip, or if he is being paid for his time, the comments by the “U.S. official” certainly suggest the Bush administration is using Limbaugh to promote its agenda.

Limbaugh -- who said in April 2004 that women “actually wish” to be sexually harassed, said in March 2004 that "[a] Chavez is a Chavez. We've always had problems with them," claimed last year that “John Kerry really doesn't think 3,000 Americans dead in one day is that big a deal,” and asserted that the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. military personnel at Abu Ghraib was no worse than a fraternity prank -- is a close ally of the Bush White House. So close, in fact, that he “got a big hug from the president” at a White House Christmas party.

FOX's Hume committed “premeditated, historical fraud” in distorting FDR

On February 3, FOX News anchor Brit Hume distorted a 1935 statement by former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, falsely claiming that Roosevelt supported privatization of Social Security. Media Matters pointed out the distortion, leading Al Franken to call on Hume to resign, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann to describe Hume's actions as “premeditated, historical fraud,” and FDR grandson (and former Social Security commissioner) James Roosevelt Jr. to say Hume's “outrageous distortion ... calls for a retraction, an apology, maybe even a resignation.”

But while even some conservatives who originally touted Hume's “scoop” have now acknowledged that Hume's characterization of FDR is incorrect, Hume still hasn't issued a retraction, or an apology, and he still has his job.

More evidence of Swift Boat Vets' ties to Bush campaign

Though John O'Neill, Jerome Corsi and the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth repeatedly claimed they weren't partisan activists, and though many media outlets went along with those farcical claims, this week brings yet another piece of evidence that the Swifties were nothing more than pawns used by the Bush campaign and its right-wing allies to smear John Kerry. Zell Miller, the keynote speaker at the 2004 Republican National Convention and a frequent Bush campaign surrogate, is scheduled to present the Swifties with the American Conservative Union's “Courage Under Fire Award” at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Jamison Foser is Executive Vice President at Media Matters for America.