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

...So when Jeff Gannon, White House "reporter" for Talon "News," was unmasked last week, the leap to a possible Rove connection was unavoidable. Gannon says that he met Rove only once, at a White House Christmas party, and Gannon is kind of small potatoes for Rove at this point in his career.

But Rove's dominance of White House and Republican politics, Gannon's aggressively partisan work and the ease with which he got day passes for the White House press room the past two years make it hard to believe that he wasn't at least implicitly sanctioned by the "boy genius." Rove, who rarely gave on-the-record interviews to the MSM (mainstream media), had time to talk to GOPUSA, which owns Talon.

GOPUSA and Talon are both owned by Bobby Eberle, a Texas Republican and business associate of conservative direct-mail guru Bruce Eberle who says that Bobby is from the "Texas branch of the Eberle clan." Bobby Eberle told The New York Times that he created Talon to build a news service with a conservative slant and "if someone were to see 'GOPUSA,' there's an instant built-in bias there." No kidding.

...But what Gannon was up to was not just writing opinion columns or using a different technique to get information. He was a player in Republican campaigns and his work in the South Dakota Senate race illustrates the role he played. It is also a classic example of how political operatives are using the brave new world of the Internet and the blogosphere. Gannon and Talon News appear to be mini-Drudge reports; a "news" source which partisans use to put out negative information, get the attention of the bloggers, talk radio and then the MSM in a way that mere press releases are unable to achieve.

Planting or even just sanctioning a political operative in the WH press room is a dangerous precedent and Karl Rove's hope to become a respected policymaker will be hampered if the dirty tricks from his political past are more apparent than his desire to spread liberty around the globe.

Eberle is the owner, president and CEO of two Web sites, the openly partisan GOPUSA (gopusa.com) and what he says is a nonpartisan news organization, Talon News (talonnews.com).

Eberle's older brother, Bruce, runs a conservative Web site, Millions of Americans (millionsofamericans.com). The two sites joined forces in 2004, and Bruce Eberle started referring his readers to Bobby Eberle's site....

Public records show that Eberle has never donated to a political campaign, and the Texas Ethics Commission reports only one time that Eberle gave or received money from the GOP. He was paid $165 last year for travel expenses to deep East Texas to speak to the Smith County Republicans.

Several local Republican elected officials did not return phone calls regarding Eberle.

"I'm not going to comment because I don't know him, and nobody here does," said Sherry Sylvester, a spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Texas, when asked about Eberle.

Kelly McBride, an ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, a journalism school, said the criteria for legitimate news organizations must include attempts to avoid conflicts of interest and biased reporting. Ideological and opinion journalism could still meet this criteria, she said, but only if they are upfront about their stances.

Talon News, she said, is "using a journalism format, but they're not employing the practices of journalism."

Eberle claims that, although GOPUSA is clearly partisan, Talon offers unbiased news "without the liberal filter" that he believes mainstream media contain. The two sites, though, are inextricably linked. Talon News contains only blurbs of stories. Users who want to read more are directed to GOPUSA.

"Talon News is not designed to be a destination Web site," Eberle said, explaining that Talon provides content for other Web sites, including GOPUSA. "The GOPUSA site is designed to be a destination site."

Eberle told the Chronicle that Talon's reporters are a mixture of volunteers and paid staffers, but he would not disclose how many reporters are on staff. The three stories posted on the Talon site Thursday had no bylines or datelines and seemed to involve no original reporting, taking quotes from televised news conferences and news releases.

In the 1960s, right-wing strategist Richard Viguerie -- in search of troops for a conservative revolution -- realized that one of the most effective ways to recruit small donors and foot soldiers was through a simple letter in their mailboxes. And the political direct-mail industry was born.

Written in blunt and alarmist language, Viguerie's direct-mail pieces tapped into conservative discontent on a range of issues, from taxes to immigration to the United Nations to abortion. His Virginia-based firm, now called American Target Advertising Inc., claims to have mailed more than a billion pieces of mail over four decades. Thousands of recipients responded with donations of $10 or $15. They helped fund a network of conservative think tanks, advocacy organizations and pressure groups that, Viguerie believes, has finally achieved its end with the reelection of President Bush.

"Now comes the revolution," Viguerie recently told conservatives, according to the New York Times.

In Lynch's her own words: "From 1972 until 1985 I worked in politics as a pollster for Democratic candidates and liberal causes. Most of the candidates, most notably Presidential contenders George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy and Gary Hart, were simpatico with my liberal values and I felt somewhat fulfilled in working through them to build a better society. I had become a very ardent feminist...."

Lynch participated in a December 2004 C-SPAN panel. She agreed that the Swift Boat attacks had no basis in fact. To the suggestion that the MSM should have actually investigated what the "facts" were, before pronouncing them to be false, Lynch stated that since the public can only focus on a few sentences of a story, the MSM was justified in not investigating this "complex" Kerry story, because it would only confuse the public. That is, no investigation other than to solicit a denial from the Kerry campaign....

Attacking the messenger for being a "feminist" (gasp!) does not in any way dilute the message.

Karl Rove knew about Jimmy/Jeff, and also probably knew about his escort sites (which are still live, as of this morning). Let me restate that, so that Brand X and anyone else who's having trouble with the relativity can clearly understand it:

Karl Rove knew there was a gay hooker masquerading as a journalist in the WH press room.

So the only question left to answer is:

Who at the White House has to be blown to get a press pass?

"People criticize me for being a Christian and having some of these questionable things in my past,"

"I believe in a God of forgiveness."

RAW STORY reports that the mainstream press is now "aggressively" on the Gannon story, noting that "the tenor of calls, it appears, has reached a fevered pitch":

Washington sources tell RAW STORY that calls are flying around the District as much of the mainstream press seeks to catch up with online reporting -- including some from such prestigious magazines as The New Yorker.

The wire services have also begun digging, sources say, which could place the Gannon scandal in hundreds of smaller newspapers across America.

Some suggest that the mainstream media -- which initially left blogs and online outlets like this site to flesh out the story-are now seeking to reestablish their grasp and perhaps break new elements of it themselves. [...]

Mainstream journalists are scrambling to be the first to hammer down a solid connection between President Bush's White House and the conservative reporter with a dubious history who was given daily access to White House briefings and invited to the White House Christmas party.

Getting White House day pass not so easy
by kos
Sat Feb 19th, 2005 at 09:14:42 PST

The Augusta Free press got one:
Yes, we have been through the process for obtaining White House day passes.

And let us just say that it is not at all an easy process to get through.

Needless to say that it is difficult to think that it could have been done using a fake name - the Secret Service needs your real name so it can do a background check on you before letting you inside the gate.

Several phone calls placed over the course of a two-week period were needed to get us inside.

And that was for a one-shot deal.

If we did not live in a time when the news culture itself is divorced from reality, the story might end there: "Jeff," you'd assume, was a lapdog reporter from a legitimate, if right-wing, news organization like Fox, and you'd get some predictable yuks from watching a compressed video anthology of his kissing up to power. But as Mr. Olbermann explained, "Jeff Gannon," the star of the montage, was a newsman no more real than a "Senior White House Correspondent" like Stephen Colbert on "The Daily Show" and he worked for a news organization no more real than The Onion. Yet the video broadcast by Mr. Olbermann was not fake. "Jeff" was in the real White House, and he did have those exchanges with the real Mr. McClellan and the real Mr. Bush.

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. Of these six, two have been syndicated newspaper columnists paid by the Department of Health and Human Services to promote the administration's "marriage" initiatives. The other four have played real newsmen on TV. Before Mr. Guckert and Armstrong Williams, the talking head paid $240,000 by the Department of Education, there were Karen Ryan and Alberto Garcia. Let us not forget these pioneers - the Woodward and Bernstein of fake news. They starred in bogus reports ("In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting," went the script) pretending to "sort through the details" of the administration's Medicare prescription-drug plan in 2004. Such "reports," some of which found their way into news packages distributed to local stations by CNN, appeared in more than 50 news broadcasts around the country and have now been deemed illegal "covert propaganda" by the Government Accountability Office.

In addition she all but braggs about not investigating a story because the publics attention span is just too short to grasp it. So how much did she leave out or omit in this story that she will later cop to...

In her case, due to her reputation, it is perfectly in line to question the messenger.

John Aravosis at AMERICAblog.org has dug up seven websites where Jeff Gannon / James Guckert offers himself for sale as an "escort". Here is some mild text from one page "Ex-USMC Jock: Available for hourly, overnight, weekend or longer travel - OUT ONLY!"

Personal Trainer: Safe-Sane-Strenuous-Satisfying workouts, Sports training, and competition, especially wrestling....

Big SPORTS Fan: Will go to the game with you, then take you home and....

"AGGRESIVE, VERBAL, DOMINANT TOP. I DON'T LEAVE MARKS....ONLY IMPRESSIONS." Aravosis's article contains particulars on what "services" he offered, how much he charged, links to x-rated pictures of him, and Guckert's non-denials of any of this information.

One part in this story that has yet to surface is related to "Gannon"'s claim in his bio to have "taught in the public school system". Since Guckert's degree from West Chester University of Pennsylvania is in Physical Education, he presumably was a gym teacher. Many parents will be unhappy that boys' gym was taught by a gay prostitute that likes to wrestle, even if they can accept a discretely gay English teacher.

The bigger question is how did "Gannon" gain inside access to the White House only five days after Talon News Service was established? Was that long enough to run a background check? Did he have inside help? Did an earlier background check only turn up the problem that it would not look good if he were reporting for GOPUSA?

Finally there are the blackmail questions which exist for gays who are not "out of the closet". Was Guckert blackmailing someone associated with the White House? Was somebody blackmailing Guckert or using Guckert's services to blackmail someone else?

"Gannon" definitely got special treatment from the White House. So far the White House has denied this, saying anybody in a similar position could get daily press passes. Refusing to acknowledge his special treatment only leads to speculation that blackmail is somehow involved.

2/19/2005
The missing link? Partner of GOPUSA founder has checkered past as Republican moneyman

Did Bruce Eberle get Gannon top White House access?

By John Byrne | RAW STORY Editor

Reporters in Washington are scrambling to explain how a reporter with a dubious past got access to the president, and how his boss-a relative nobody in Republican Party circles-scored an exclusive interview with Bush's closest advisor, Karl Rove.

The tangled web of how a minor website got such high-level access, and possibly classified information, may have begun to unravel.

RAW STORY has found a solid connection between the founder of Talon News and GOPUSA and a well-connected relative and business partner whose links to Bush advisors, dubious fundraising and marketing activities and paid commentators abound.

Bruce W. Eberle-a member of the Bobby Eberle "clan" (according to his former website which Bobby bought), the founder of GOPUSA and Talon News-may be the missing link.

Many have wondered how Bobby Eberle, an former engineer with no journalism experience who never donated to a political campaign managed to get Jeff Gannon so deep into the White House. Bobby received money from the Republican Party just once-a meager $165 for travel expenses when he spoke to the Smith County Republicans in East Texas. He did not receive an honorarium.

But Bruce Eberle has donated to the Party. He and his wife Katherine each gave $2,000 to the Bush reelection campaign, the highest allowable by law.

And what's more, he's raised money; Bruce boasts of raising more than $270 million for various organizations and campaigns, the vast plurality of them conservative. His clients have included Ronald Reagan, Pat Buchanan, Oliver North and former Bush Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Bruce's firm, Bruce W. Eberle & Associates, is also a top corporate sponsor of the Conservative Political Action Conference. Vice President Dick Cheney and top Bush advisor Karl Rove spoke at the conference Thursday.

Both Rove and Bruce worked for Attorney General John Ashcroft; Bruce took over for Rove when Rove sold his consulting firm to join Bush's presidential campaign. Both made much of their money in direct-mail fundraising.

But more salient, perhaps, is Bruce's dabbling in below-the-radar media activity, in which he pioneered a system which boasted of blurring the boundaries between advertising, polling and talk radio.

Bruce also owns the Omega List Company, which manages and rents donor mailing lists. Beginning in 2000, it began selling similar services for e-mail, boasting that it was "a pioneer in the endorsement e-mail field."

According to the Editor of PR Watch Sheldon Rampton, who wrote an article about it at the time, the Omega List website once featured a presentation by conservative talk radio personality Blanquita Cullum, who explained how "endorsement e-mail" effaced the boundaries between paid advertising, opinion polling and talk radio.

"You do what you do best!" Cullum said, in a feature that has since been removed. "Get on the air and talk to your listeners! Drive them to your website by conducting a daily survey or a contest on the topic of your choosing." Eberle's software then captured the names of respondents and added them to a donor list.

"What happens next is a cakewalk," Cullum added. "Omega will call you with an opportunity to send an endorsement e-mail to your list . . . and receive a royalty for lending your name to a cause, organization or product you believe in. . . . Omega gives you their specialized software absolutely FREE and presents you with an opportunity to earn an extra $25,000 or more annually."

Bruce has also been at the vanguard of conservative activism on the Internet.

After the 2000 presidential election, Bruce ran a website called AlGoreLost.org, which sought to derail a Florida recount by soliciting email addresses in a petition drive supporting then-Florida Secretary of State Katharine Harris, Sheldon says. The site failed to disclose that it was run by Eberle's firm.

AlGoreLost.org later became MillionsOfAmericans.com, which joined Bobby's GOPUSA in March 2004.

At the time, Bruce noted that GOPUSA had collected 50,000 opt-in email addresses. Given Bruce's background in email harvesting, the comment may signal the two had been working together much earlier.

According to PR Watch, Eberle also once ran a website which promised to donate 25 cents to the "conservative cause of choice" for each visitor to the site. The real purpose of the site was less charitable: by signing up, visitors had their emails added to a potential donor directory. Their "cause of choice" indicated the initiatives they would likely support in future appeals.

The list of causes to which Eberle promised to "give" his quarters, wrote Sheldon, were his own clients, including the Linda Tripp Defense Fund, Oliver North's Freedom Alliance and a fund claiming to defend police officers accused of brutality.

Bruce counted the police officers who beat Rodney King as clients. He also at one point claimed to be raising money for Paula Jones' defense fund, though the institute which actually paid Jones' legal bills said they never received any money.

Bruce's fundraising has drawn ire and repeated charges of ethical misconduct, even from Republicans.

In the mid-1990s, it was discovered that some $1.9 million of $2.2 million raised to "rescue" Vietnam prisoners of war was spent on "fundraising expenses" paid to Bruce's firm. No prisoners of war were ever rescued, or, for that matter, even reported.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ)-who was once a Vietnam prisoner of war himself-called Bruce and his associates "criminals and some of the most craven, most cynical and most despicable human beings to ever run a scam."

While working with Ashcroft, Bruce gave him a donor list valued at $1.7 million in apparent violation of campaign finance laws, according to ethics groups.

In July 1998, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch revealed that at least 50 percent of Ashcroft's political action campaign money, intended for Republican candidates, had been paid to firms controlled or associated with Eberle.

Bobby and Bruce's "relations" are nebulous-they have been reported not to

be blood relatives by a conservative website, though Bruce himself says they are members of the same "clan." Bobby works out of Texas; Bruce's firm is based in Virginia.

Clarification: Some have noted that Bobby and Bruce are not close relatives, an assertion this article never alleged. Bobby and Bruce have not commented on their relations, though they did press the Houston Chronicle, which incorrectly reported that they were brothers. Human Events, a conservative website which prints articles from Bobby's firm, says they are not blood relatives; Bruce himself says that Bobby is a member of the Texas Eberle "clan."