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Revision as of 19:44, 29 April 2005

James Dale Guckert (c. 1958) worked under the pseudonym Jeff Gannon as a White House reporter between 2003 and 2005, representing Talon News. After Guckert came under public scrutiny, in particular for his journalistic background and involvement with various escort service websites using the professional name Bulldog, he resigned from Talon News on February 8, 2005.

Guckert has stated that he obtained frequent daily passes to White House briefings. He attended four Bush press conferences, and appeared regularly at White House press briefings. Weblogs discovered Gannon's pseudonym and made public his past history, as Guckert, 'Gannon', and 'Bulldog'. Questions have arisen as to Guckert's relationship with the White House and with the Republican Party. Although he did not qualify for a Congressional press pass, Guckert was given daily passes to White House press briefings "after supplying his real name, date of birth and Social Security number."

Guckert first gained national attention during a presidential press conference on January 26, 2005, in which he asked United States President George W. Bush a question that contained a factual error, and that some in the press corps considered "so friendly it might have been planted."

James Guckert is under investigation in the Valerie Plame affair. Democratic Representative Louise Slaughter of New York is calling for an investigation of these allegations and possibly related incidents where the Bush administration paid pundits to advocate their policies.

James Guckert was a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity when he attended West Chester University of Pennsylvania in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which he left without attaining a degree.

Credentials as a journalist

Talon News is a virtual organization (with no physical office or newsroom) owned by the Web site GOPUSA. "Talon News apparently consists of little more than (Robert) Eberle, (Jeff) Gannon, and a few volunteers, and is virtually indistinguishable from GOPUSA.com," says the Media Matters for America web site . Robert Eberle is the president and CEO of both GOPUSA and Talon News. As of mid-February, 2005 Talon News website had shut down for an indefinite amount of time according to the message on that site. Guckert applied for a congressional press pass but was denied one on the grounds that Talon did not qualify as a legitimate news service, according to Jim Drinkard, a USA Today reporter who headed the committee that reviewed the application.

On his resume Guckert claimed to be a "graduate of the Leadership Institute Broadcast School of Journalism." However, upon examination this was found to be a two day seminar for "conservatives who want a career in journalism".

Scott McClellan has claimed that there was no breakdown in security and no one intervened on Guckert's behalf. However, it has now been discovered that Guckert attended a February 28, 2003 press conference and there asked a question of McClellan's predecessor, Ari Fleischer, before he had ever written an article, attended the two-day journalism seminar, been associated with any kind of news organization at all (Talon News had not yet been created), and while he was still actively advertising his services as a gay prostitute on several Web sites. Journalists have pointed out that it can take months to get the kind of clearance Guckert received. Indeed, the Augusta Free Press reported that its acquisition of a single one-day pass was a two-week process. In Gannon's case, the timing has led to charges that Talon News was created specifically to give Gannon a news organization that he could ostensibly represent, to justify his continuing to work at the White House.

The House Judiciary Committee voted against House resolution 136, on March 16, 2005. The 21 Committee Republicans present voted against the resolution. The 10 Committee Democrats voted for the resolution. The resolution directed the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security to transmit to the House of Representatives not later than 14 days after the date of the adoption of this resolution documents in the possession of those officials relating to the security investigations and background checks relating to granting access to the White House of James D. Guckert (also known as Jeff Gannon).

The resolution requested information including:

• all records setting forth or discussing policies, procedures, or guidelines discussing security clearances and background checks relating to granting access into the White House briefing room
• all records indicating how the policies, procedures, or guidelines were communicated to Mr. Guckert
• all records indicating the officer or office responsible for requesting that the Secret Service carry out a security investigation or background check with respect to an individual seeking access to the President or to the White House briefing room
• all records setting forth the standards for security investigations or background checks with respect to "day pass" credentials
• all records indicating or discussing whether and to what extent an individual who is cleared for a day pass for a given date is required to receive further security clearance for a day pass for a later date, all records setting forth or discussing which officer or officers, if any, have the authority to exempt an individual seeking access to the President or to the White House briefing room from the standards for security investigations or background checks that otherwise apply
• all records of communication between the Secret Service and Mr. Guckert

Democratic Representatives John Conyers of Michigan and Louise Slaughter of New York had submitted similar requests under the Freedom of information act, on February 15, 2005. A letter dated March 7, 2005, from the Secret Service stated ,"Please be advised that our Office of Protective Operations has looked into this matter and has determined that there was no deviation from Secret Service standards and procedures as your letter suggests," wrote Secret Service Deputy Assistant Director Conrad A. Everett. The letter did not detail what the standards were. During the Committee meeting Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said Gannon had engaged in a possible "penetration of the White House."

The Louise Slaughter request was answered by the Department of Homeland Security with Secret Service records of Mr. Guckert's check in and out times at the Whitehouse .

Guckert, who wants to be addressed as Jeff Gannon, wrote in his blog, "I hope this vote will put these issues to rest and allow me to return to my work as a journalist".

Initial controversy

The initial controversy started at President George W. Bush's January 26, 2005 press conference, at which Gannon asked the president the following question:

Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid was talking about soup lines. And Senator 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've said you are going to reach out to these people – how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?

Guckert's question was ridiculed on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (which dubbed him "Chip Rightwingenstein of the Bush Agenda Gazette") and by a number of liberal bloggers, who considered it an excessively deferential question for a reporter to ask at a presidential press conference. Some also noted that Guckert's reference to Sen. Harry Reid "talking about soup lines" was false, a canard that had apparently originated from a characterization Rush Limbaugh had made on his syndicated radio program.

The White House press corps is not exclusive to non-partisan reporters and organizations. The issue is not whether Guckert was partisan, but whether he had a concealed relationship of some kind with White House officials. Much speculation centered on the question of how Gannon/Guckert was able to get a press pass using an assumed name. His response has been that the alias Jeff Gannon is a professional name used for convenience, claiming that his "real last name is hard to spell and pronounce," and that the Secret Service was aware of his identity.

After the January 26, 2005 press conference, scrutiny into his background by news organizations and blogs began. On February 8, 2005, Guckert resigned from Talon News and shut down his website www.jeffgannon.com. Guckert said he was being stalked and his family was being harassed. He has revived his website since that time. http://www.whyareweback.blogspot.com/ claims to have shown Guckert's blog articles to be cut/paste jobs or small edits of existing news stories and press releases.

Pornography and prostitution allegations

Guckert was soon discovered by bloggers to have registered several domain names of a sexual nature, including Hotmilitarystud.com and Militaryescorts4m.com. Guckert said that he had registered the domain names for a client who ended up not using them. Further inspection showed that many sexually explicit photos of Guckert existed online, with accompanying ads appearing to offer himself as a gay prostitute for clients seeking a military type. Gannon commented that these activities were in his "past," however some noted that many of his online gay profiles were still active after he had resigned from Talon News .

These findings had some critics questioning Guckert's sexual orientation. Supporters denounce this speculation as irrelevant, but others say that it reveals hypocrisy on the part of Guckert, his employers, the White House and/or the Republican Party. Opponents note, for instance, that Guckert had made statements in articles that could be perceived as anti-gay or homophobic. During the 2004 election, he wrote that John Kerry "might someday be known as ‘the first gay president,’" and that Kerry had supported "the pro-gay agenda."

Connection to Plame investigation

Guckert has also been questioned by the Justice Department in relation to the department's criminal investigation into the Valerie Plame affair, in which Plame's identity as an undercover CIA operative was allegedly illegally leaked to a number of journalists and commentators by one or more senior administration officials. On October 28, 2003, Talon News published an interview Guckert had conducted with Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, Plame's husband, whom the CIA had sent to Niger in 2003 to investigate claims that Iraq was attempting to procure yellowcake uranium. In the interview, Guckert asked Wilson about an "internal government memo prepared by U.S. intelligence personnel" that said Plame had suggested Wilson for the job. In a February 2005 interview, Guckert told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that the FBI had spoken to him in an effort to learn who had leaked the classified memo and to whom, but that he had not been asked to appear before the grand jury investigating the case.

Tom Daschle connection

In the past, Gannon came under fire when he extensively covered the South Dakota Senate race between Tom Daschle and John Thune. Supporters of Daschle claimed he advocated for the Thune campaign and attacked Daschle.

See also

• Talon News
• List of topics related to public relations and propaganda

External links and references

• www.jeffgannon.com, Gannon's blog, "So feared by the Left it had to take me down"
• "A man called Jeff" (WARNING: nude photos) by John Aravosis for AMERICAblog, February 14, 2005
• Jeff Gannon Dot Org. "Jeffgannon.org is a website dedicated to analysis, deconstruction and critique of political manipulation of public opinion under the Bush regime."
• "Democrats Want Investigation of Reporter Using Fake Name" by Katharine Q. Seelye for The New York Times, February 11, 2005 (subscription required).
• Transcript of February 10, 2005 Wolf Blitzer show on CNN with case against Gannon and Gannon's response.
• "White House-friendly reporter under scrutiny" by Charlie Savage and Alan Wirzbicki for The Boston Globe, February 2, 2005. Gannon drew scrutiny after January 26, 2005 question with false "soup line" allegation against Minority Leader Harry Reid.
• "Fake news, fake reporter" by Eric Boehlert for Salon.com, February 10, 2005. "Why was a partisan hack, using an alias and with no journalism background, given repeated access to daily White House press briefings?"
• Talon News, Gannon's former empoyer
• "What is Talon News, and why does it have press credentials?" by Jamison Foser for MediaMatters, January 28, 2005. "Talon News... appears to be more a political organization than a media outlet."
• "The Destruction of Jeff Gannon" by Cliff Kincaid for Accuracy in Media, February 10, 2005. A conservative's point of view: "The campaign against Gannon demonstrates the paranoid mentality and mean-spirited nature of the political left."
• Jeff Gannon at dKosopedia. That wiki's compilation of the case against Jeff Gannon
• "'Jeff Gannon' and Karl Rove -- one degree of separation", Campaign Extra, January 29, 2005
• Video (Quicktime format, transcript) of Real Time with Bill Maher, February 18, 2005. Bill Maher, with his guests Lesley Stahl, Robin Williams, and Joe Biden, commenting on the Gannon affair.
• "Jeff Gannon Admits Past 'Mistakes,' Berates Critics" by Howard Kurtz for The Washington Post, February 19, 2005. Article about an interview with Gannon.
• "Have They No Shame? No, Actually, They Don't" by John H. Hinderaker for Power Line. "No, the story has to do with the depth to which the Democratic Party and the American left have fallen."
• "An Identity Crisis Unfolds in a Not-So-Elite Press Corps" by Johanna Neuman for the Los Angeles Times, February 25, 2005 (subscription required)
• "White House Approves Pass For Blogger" by Katharine Q. Seelye for The New York Times, March 7, 2005 (subscription required). "Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University and specialist in blogging, said Mr. Graff's odyssey was significant ... he showed that it was harder to get a pass than the White House said it was after the Guckert case."

• U.S. political scandals
• February 2005 news