Take KXYL's Connie Carmichaels Advice: "Follow the Money" !

Saturday, February 19, 2005
Follow the Money
by Joe in DC - 2/19/2005 08:30:00 AM
Memo to the MSM:
"Follow the Money" was the term used in a White House Scandal thirty years ago. It came from a source named "Deep Throat" (not related to the porn movie, although this current Gannon/Guckert scandal has elements of that, too.) "Deep Throat" helped two young, inquisitive, enterprising reporters break open the story. They followed the money. They became very famous. Wrote books and movies. I mean, really famous. You may have heard of Watergate....it really was a big scandal. Actually, the reason some in your ranks call this Gannongate comes from that...get it?
The bloggers, who many of you in the MSM disdain, have done a lot of leg work for you in this story. Now, it's time for someone to Follow the Money in the Gannon/Guckert affair.
Clearly, someone was paying Jeff Gannon to be in the White House. Who? (And for this one, don't settle for an answer from Jeff....he hasn't been really completely accurate for some of your colleagues.)
Who funded GOPUSA/Talon News?
Did Jeff/Jim get paid by any campaigns or campaign committees? Lots of work was done for John Thune who was, in fact, paying bloggers.
Jeff, as a patriotic, god-fearing, country-loving, conservative American, MUST have been paying taxes. Wouldn't it be something to see his tax forms for the last few years?
GOPUSA is based in Texas. Its leader was a delegate for Bush to the GOP convention in 2000. How did GOPUSA get off the ground? Who funds that organization?
These are just a couple ideas. See, the point here, in case it's not clear, is that there is a lot of this story still untold. But, if you FOLLOW THE MONEY, it may just lead to some answers.

source:http://www.americablog.org/

Editorial: Phony journalist/Pimping for the White House
February 18, 2005 ED0218A
Heard about the Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert muck-up in Washington? If you are an aficionado of the blogs, you've heard plenty. They're having a field day with it. But underneath all the fun lies a serious problem that hasn't got its due from the mainstream press: This White House employs a lot more kinds of fakery than the budgetary smoke and mirrors described in the editorial above.
Here's a summary: For more than two years, a reporter named Jeff Gannon turned up at White House briefings and press conferences, where he asked softball questions with a decidedly pro-Bush bent. For example, at President Bush's Jan. 26 press conference, Gannon asked how Bush could work with lawmakers like Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Hillary Clinton, "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality."
Well, it turns out that "Jeff Gannon" is really Jim Guckert, and he was a reporter for an online outfit called "Talon News," which was associated with the online group GOPUSA. com, owned by Texas Republicans. It also turns out that Guckert, in addition to reporting for a phony Web site, has no real journalism training and is a $200-an-hour gay prostitute. He ran numerous Web sites like militaryescortsm4m. com. The photos of Gannon that were displayed on those Web sites left nothing to the imagination about his physical attributes.
So the question becomes, just how did this character get White House press credentials, despite supposed post-Sept. 11 security requirements? Bruce Bartlett, a conservative columnist who worked in the Reagan and first Bush administrations, says that "if Gannon was using an alias, the White House staff had to be involved in maintaining his cover." In other words, the White House wanted him at those briefings and wanted him to ask his softball questions, most likely to divert attention when legitimate reporters were getting too pushy.
This is part of a pattern by Bush's minions to construct a phony reality in news coverage. Consider:
• To promote Bush's Medicare prescription bill, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) paid for phony "newscasts" that were distributed to television stations nationwide.
• Columnist Armstrong Williams was paid $240,000 by the Department of Education to promote Bush's No Child Left Behind Act.
• Columnists Michael McManus and Maggie Gallagher were paid to "advise HHS on the Bush administration's marriage policies."
• Every Bush "town hall" forum during last fall's campaign was carefully limited to supporters who would ask fawning questions. No demonstrators -- indeed, no one wearing an offensive lapel pin -- were allowed in.
• The Bush Pentagon launched an Office of Strategic Influence to provide "news" to foreign media. When it became known, it was shut down in embarrassment.
The pattern is clear: This administration will do pretty much anything to shape reality to fit its agenda.
Another powerful tool in its arsenal is intimidation. This is by far the most vindictive administration since Richard Nixon's. Ask the wrong question or write something the White House doesn't like, and your access is cut off. Unfortunately, too many of the real journalists have gone along meekly. As columnist Michael Kinsley observed, if this White House said two plus two equaled five, there would be no shortage "of media to report both sides of the question."
Once it was fairly easy to distinguish real reporters from hacks and charlatans, objective news from partisan rant. That has become increasingly difficult, thanks in part to a Bush White House that finds the confusion useful, to its everlasting dishonor.

source: http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5247250.html