MoDo turns up her contempto-ray to "kill":
Quote:I am very impressed with James Guckert, a k a Jeff Gannon.
How often does an enterprising young man, heralded in press reports as both a reporter and a contributor to such sites as Hotmilitarystud.com, Workingboys.net, Militaryescorts .com, MilitaryescortsM4M.com and Meetlocalmen.com, get to question the president of the United States?
Who knew that a hotmilitarystud wanting to meetlocalmen could so easily get to be face2face with the commander in chief?
She raises questions I'd like answered about how one gets a White House press pass:
Quote: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?
At first when I tried to complain about not getting my pass renewed, even though I'd been covering presidents and first ladies since 1986, no one called me back. Finally, when Mr. McClellan replaced Ari Fleischer, he said he'd renew the pass - after a new Secret Service background check that would last several months.
In an era when security concerns are paramount, what kind of Secret Service background check did James Guckert get so he could saunter into the West Wing every day under an assumed name while he was doing full-frontal advertising for stud services for $1,200 a weekend? He used a driver's license that said James Guckert to get into the White House, then, once inside, switched to his alter ego, asking questions as Jeff Gannon.
...and the coup de grace:
Quote: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.
Someone in the White House let Gannon/Guckert happen. For two years.
At significant risk to themselves personally, someone approved of a gay prostitute pretending to be a journalist, using an alias, sitting in the White House press room long enough to be called on by the President.
Why? Were they involved in a sexual relationship with Gannon? Were they arranging liasons with Gannon for others?
There's no way this was an accident. Who's responsible for this lapse in security, this error in judgment? Will they be fired?
What about the people responsible for background checks? As MoDo says, after Bernard Kerik, you'd think this couldn't have happened again. (Actually, this little charade was going on long before Kerik was under consideration.)
Leave the sexual element aside. How could something like this happen without someone -- some one pretty high up in the White House -- knowing, and approving?
