| The piece, titled "The
press takes a pass on Jeff Gannon," is by Carol
Towaricky.
###
IF A REPORTER who doubled as a gay hooker had visited
the Clinton White House nearly 200 times, think it would
have made the news?
If "Jeff Gannon"/James D. Guckert had been
unveiled, so to speak, as a liberal imposter who lobbed
softball questions at Clinton administration press briefings,
he would be as infamous as Michael Schiavo.
And if 39 of those White House visits were mysteriously
unrelated to his "reporting" duties, imagine
what innuendoes would be issuing forth from Planet Limbaugh.
Imagine the organized phone call campaign demanding
newspapers and TV stations report the story.
But Gannon/Guckert isn't being unveiled or innuendoed
or even blipped on media radar screens, even among liberals.
Just last week, a Freedom of Information Act search
requested by two members of Congress revealed that Gannon/Guckert
visited the White House 196 times - 39 of them days
when there were no press briefings. While liberal blogs
made much of the news, a Nexis search found that the
Associated Press gave it only three paragraphs, which
were picked up by only two newspapers nationwide. CNN
mentioned the story only to say that the blogs had it.
On MSNBC's "Countdown," Washington Post reporter
Dana Milbank offered excuses for the 14 times that Gannon/Guckert's
entries or exits weren't recorded by White House security
and host Keith Olbermann seemed apologetic for bringing
it up.
If reporters aren't worried about imposter journalists,
at least they should smell a good story in a possible
White House security breach.
Journalists get hopping-mad if CIA agents masquerade
as reporters in war zones - it puts them at high risk.
Yet these same journalists seem almost blasé
at the assault on truth zones every day at the White
House, on Capitol Hill and on a TV screen near you.
At a time when the radicals of the right, aided by
the White House, seek to eviscerate constitutional protections,
the news media have found a curious way to protect the
First Amendment: Don't worry that Congress will abridge
freedom of the press; The press will do the job of abridging
itself all on its own.
Article originally published May 2, 2005. |
