Jeff Gannon, Jim Guckert, and... Prostitution?

There are many, many angles to look at this story from. The fact that Guckert/Gannon is gay pales when compared to the fact that he was using an alias to get into the WH and recieving classified documents.

If you'll look at the date of the first post, I created this thread on the first day that anyone knew about it; all that was really known was that the guy was using a fake name and had created gay porn sites for someone else. That turned out to be false; the sites were actually created for him, but noone really knew that at the time.

Therefore the question of whether or not Gannon was gay didn't come up for some time.

I, along with most liberals, couldn't care less if one of our colleagues or employees is gay. That's a problem with right wingers, not our side.

So say Guckert's outing costs him his gravy train at Talon "News", and he is replaced by someone else, would that kill the issue?

I hereby swear not to bring up Guckert's sexuality for at least ten pages, even though the guy is still operating escort sites with him naked on them. Which is a crime, but we'll forget that for now. Happy?

BREAKING NEWS: Gannon reportedly knew about Iraq attack four hours before it happened

by John in DC - 2/18/2005 09:57:00 AM

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.

According to the producer, Gannon specifically told them that in four hours the president was going to be making a speech to the nation announcing that the US was bombing Iraq. The producer told me they were surprised that Gannon, working with such a small news outfit, could have access to such information, but "what did you know, he was right," the producer said today. The producer went on to say that Gannon often had correct scoops on major stories, including information about Mary Mapes and the Dan Rather BUSH/AWOL scandal that this news outlet got from Gannon before any had the information publicly.

This more than a few questions and points:

1. Assuming this news producer is telling the truth, and I have no reason to believe they are not, how did Gannon get access to such highly classified information as to when the US was going to bomb Iraq?

2. Even if Gannon were part of a press gaggle that was told embargoed information about the war by the White House, this producer alleges that Gannon would have broken any such embargo, which is a security risk to the operation, and more generally shows that concerns about Gannon's White House access posing a risk to national security might now be warranted.

3. How would someone on a day pass, who hadn't gotten the requisite 3-4 month FBI background check that other full-time White House employees get, get access to such highly classified information? Certainly the White House didn't include someone with simply a day pass in the highly-classified pre-briefing about details of the war (assuming such a briefing even occurred)? If the White House did a briefing and Gannon were included, this would mean ANYONE could walk in off the street, say they're a reporter, and provided by they don't have a criminal record, the White House will simply tell them at what hour we're launching a major attack? And if there was no briefing for reporters, then how did Gannon allegedly find out?

4. Even if the White House had simply told the press pool that Bush was speaking to the nation in a few hours, and the press had figured out that this meant were were attacking Iraq, was the information about the upcoming speech embargoed? Was the information about the upcoming speech also announced to the public four hours before? Or did Gannon get access to inside information concerning the war simply because of his presence in the White House - a presence that should have required an FBI background check considering how often he was there?

5. How would Gannon get inside information on the Dan Rather scandal BEFORE the rest of the major media? Assuming the producer is correct, did it come from a White House source, and if so, what does this say about possible White House involvement in creating this scandal in the first place?

According to my source, Gannon's insider tidbits were always on the mark. "Gannon's stuff was always golden," the producer says. My source says they kept asking themself, "how does this small news outfit get this info?"

How indeed.

Ya know, ya could change the title of the thread, cycloptichorn.

Go back to the first post, hit edit - and edit the title.

It couldn't hurt the credibility of your argument.

Quote:

BREAKING NEWS: Gannon reportedly knew about Iraq attack four hours before it happened

by John in DC - 2/18/2005 09:57:00 AM

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.

I've posted all but the comments here just in case it gets archived and changes linkback.

Blog post and Comments can be read here: AMERICAblog

Fox, for example?

CYcloptichorn

damn, if it wasn't for the "gay porn" in the title I woulda never opened this thread.

Joe Strupp writes in Editor & Publisher: "Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer 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, Fleischer told E&P today.

" '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.'

"He said he resumed calling on Guckert, who used the alias Jeff Gannon, after Bobby Eberle, owner of both GOPUSA and Talon News, 'assured me that they were not part of the Republican Party.' Eberle is a Texas Republican activist and served as a delegate to the 2000 Republican National Convention."