Fake news, fake reporter

Why was a partisan hack, using an alias and with no journalism background, given repeated
access to daily White House press briefings?

James Guckert, better known by his pen name Jeff Gannon, got press credentials for two years at the White House under his alias, first under the auspices of GOPUSA, then Talon News. He has since been linked to male escorts sites and has refused to deny working as a prostitute

Editor & Publisher reported February 24 that Talon News first lost Gannon as its White House correspondent, then scrubbed all his articles from its web site and then went dark with an amnnoucement it was going off line for a “top-to-bottom” review.

But let Eric Boehklert of Salon.com explain:

When President Bush bypassed dozens of eager reporters from nationally and internationally recognized news outlets and selected Jeff Gannon to pose a question at his Jan. 26 news conference, Bush's recognition bestowed instant credibility on the apparently novice reporter, as well as the little-known conservative organization he worked for at the time, called Talon News. That attention only intensified when Gannon used his nationally televised press conference time to ask Bush a loaded, partisan question -- featuring a manufactured quote that mocked Democrats for being "divorced from reality."

Gannon's star turn quickly piqued the interest of many online commentators, who wondered how an obvious Republican operative had been granted access to daily White House press briefings normally reserved for accredited journalists. Two weeks later, a swarming investigation inside the blogosphere into Gannon and Talon News had produced all sorts of damning revelations about how Talon is connected at the hip to a right-wing activist organization called GOPUSA, how its "news" staff consists largely of volunteer Republican activists with no journalism experience, how Gannon often simply rewrote GOP press releases when filing his Talon dispatches. It also uncovered embarrassing information about Gannon's past as well as his fake identity. When Gannon himself this week confirmed to the Washington Post that his name was a pseudonym, it only added to the sense of a bizarre hoax waiting to be exposed.

Kathy Goforth and Charlie Buffum first called our attention to a New York Times story of Feb 20 by Frank Rich headlined “The White House stages its “Daily Show” and then we came across Rich again in an International Herald-Tribune story on Feb 19 headlined “When real news debunks fake news.” Finally came the E&P news on Feb 24.

Check the Editor & Publisher site or for the full story, go to either of these newspapers:

International Herald Tribune

New York Times

There are many real, hard-working, seasoned reporters out there spawned by the real Akron Beacon Journal who could comment wisely on this post. Hopefully, a few of them read this blog and will comment.