UPDATE (Chapter Seven): He can’t stand the heat, so he wisely gets out of the kitchen. White House will have to find a new lackey.
Chapter One: Who is Jeff Gannon?
With all this talk about media bias, nobody can beat Jeff Gannon. He is a member of the White House press pool. This is the kind of question he asks (this particular one was asked by Gannon to George Bush on January 26, 2005):
Thank you. Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. Harry Reid was talking about soup lines, and Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet, in the same breath, they say that Social Security is rock-solid and there’s no crisis there. How are you going to work — you said you’re going to reach out to these people — how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?
(Emphasis added). Pretty biased, huh?
Chapter Two: Yeah, but who IS Jeff Gannon?
He works with Talon News, an openly biased "media" outlet. In fact, he is their Washington Bureau Chief. He is also a contributor to the Free Republic. And he has a radio talk show. Hell, you can read about him at his aptly-named blog: http://www.jeffgannon.com/.
Chapter Three: What Are His Journalism Credientials as the Washington Bureau Chief of a News Service?
Good question. Since the recent controversy started (more on that below the fold), his Talon News bio has been delated, but it still exists here at GOPUSA. In a nutshell, this nutshell obtained a B.S. degree in Education from the Pennsylvania State University System, and attended the Leadership Institute Broadcast School of Journalism. What the bio doesn’t tell you is that the "Leadership Institute Broadcast School of Journalism" is a two-day right-wing seminar about journalism. That’s what qualifies him to get a press pass to the White House.
Chapter Four: Why Are You Telling Me This? Is There A Point?
Yes. Jeff Gannon isn’t his real name.
Chapter Five: So (Again) Who IS Jeff Gannon?
Here’s where the story gets interesting. The folks at Daily Kos have tracked down his true identity. It’s not too hard really. His GOPUSA bio says that he authors the website found at www.theconservativeguy.com. Unfortunately, much of what he authored has been removed, but some of it has been discovered and cached. Like this. Yeah . . . he’s not biased.
Anyway, Atrios among others was able to I.D. Jeff Gannon as James D. "JD" Guckert. James Guckert is the owner of several websites, including theconservativeguy.com. So that appears to be our boy.
Chapter Six: What About Sex? Is There Any Sex in this "Saga"?
Sure. The digging on Guckert aka Gannon has turned up some interesting facts. Here is his AOL homepage, containing this picture:
And aside from www.theconservativeguy.com, what are some other websites associated with him? There is a full list here, but some of them are, well, odd for a conservative Republican.
Like Hotmilitarystud.com, Militaryescorts.com, Militaryescortsm4m.com.
Don’t bother looking for them. They are websites registered to him or his pseudonyms.
M4M? For those who don’t know, M4M is gay-web parlance (I’m guessing it means "men for men", but I don’t know for sure).
Remember, this is the guy in the White House press pool that the White House has handpicked to give them softball questions.
Jeff (or whatever the hell your name is), your days appear to be done.
This is an amusing and ongoing story about the hypocrisy and seemy underbelly of some conservatives. No, Roy Cohn ain’t dead, kids. If you want to read about it in more detail, go here.