The Strange Case of Jeff Gannon: Male Prostitute and Right-Wing Ideologue who Infiltrated the White House Press Corps
Gannon was seemingly a member of the White House Press Corp
until 2005. To be a member of the White House Press Corp (those
reporters who ask the White House Press Secretary questions every day
and get spun in circles), one must be with a legitimate news organization,
which means that the organization 1.) Regularly publishes, 2.) Is
independent and non-partisan, and 3.) Has advertiser or subscriber
financial support. Once these qualifications are met, the reporter must
undergo an FBI security clearance check in order to get the White House
Press Corps pass.
Jeff Gannon (real name James Guckert) did not work for a
non-partisan, subscriber or advertiser-supported news source, did not
have any prior journalism experience, and never had an FBI security
clearance check. He was issued a daily pass by someone from within the
adminsitration; normally this would be alright, and is a practice
started in the Reagan adminsitration to allow journalists from various
media sources White House access. However, it was meant for a day or
two; Gannon got day passes for over two years.
Other journalists became curious about Gannon when Press Secretary Scott McClellan
developed a practice of calling on Jeff whenever he was being barraged
with difficult questions. Jeff could be counted on to break up the
tough questions with a few softballs. On Jan. 26, 2005, during a
presidential press conference, Gannon asked President Bush how he could
"work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality";
this was a decidedly non-journalistic question, and others in the press
corps started investigating. Gannon worked for an organization called
Talon News, which was a wholly-owned subsidiary of GOPUSA, a Texas
political action committee; the job of Talon News was to release
conservative talking points as press releases. This was neither a
subscriber nor advertiser-funded organizaiton, nor was it independent
or non-partisan. Furthermore, they learned that Gannon's real name was
James Guckert, and at the time was also a high-class male-for-male
prostitute in the D.C. area; he advertised on the web (with telling
photos), and angled for military men. So not only was Gannon/Guckert
not a journalist, he didn't work for a legitimate media organization
and made his living through prostitution.
Questions arose. Who did he know in the White House that was
giving him daily press passes for two years? Why was he given the press
passes? Was it because if they didn't give him the passes, he'd never
pass the FBI security clearance, being a prostitute? And more telling --why
was Gannon one of 25 journalists to whom deep-cover CIA agent Valerie
Plame's identity was leaked by an administration official (now known to be Vice President Cheney's chief of staff Scooter Libby)?
- Wikipedia Entry for Jeff Gannon
- CBS News: Rove-Gannon Connection?
- MSNBC Keith Olbermann: Separating the Gannons from the Guckerts
- The
Observer: The mole, the US media and a White House coup
- The Washington Post: Online Nude Photos Latest Chapter
- The Washington Post: From the Archives, but Still News
- Media Matters for America: Go Ahead, Jeff
- New York Daily News: Strange Bedfellows
- Salon.com: Gannongate: It's Worse than You Think
- The Nation: Problems with Gannongate
This is a good article to read against the Men's News Daily article and
Gannon's own piece; this is the so-called liberal media elite claiming
that the homosexual prostitution aspect is a non-issue, and claiming
that to date, the story simply needs more investigation and less
smearing.
- The New York Times: Democrats Want Investigaion
- The Washington Post: Inside the Real West Wing
This article is from 2004; note the highlighted text
- Daily Show: Dino Ironbody, Undercover Reporter
As of Feb. 2005, there had not been much written about this in the
conservative press. It would be worth keeping an eye out for such
articles. Searches on The Weekly Standard and The New York Post show
nothing.
- The Washington Times: Inside Politics: Try a Bake Sale
Claims that the Democrats are simply using the Gannon story to raise money. Did conservatives use Lewinsky to raise money?
- Men's News Daily: Applying the Gannon Standard
- Free Republic Online: Gannon search
A right-wing news and blog website
- Jeff Gannon's posts on Free Republic
- www.jeffgannon.com
Begun after he was outed. A recent post decrying his situation.
Gannon claims here that he is being persecuted because of his
"salacious past," and that if it were a liberal, that person would be
the Grand Marshal at the next Gay Pride Parade. In light of the
"persecution" claim, compare his case to the Democratic Gov. of New Jersey who recently came out of the closet and resigned. Has he become a media darling? Have you heard of him? He also blames Media Matters for America
for leading the attacks. The man who began and runs Media Matters for
America, David Brock, was himself a conservative pundit who was
instrumental in helping to get conservative Supreme Court Justice
Clarence Thomas confirmed while he was facing sexual harassment charges
during his confirmation hearings by Anita Hill. Brock famously called
her "a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty." He also wrote attack
articles about the Clintons. When Brock himself came out of the closet,
he was effectively pushed out of the conservative groups he ran in, and
he ended up writing a tell-all book about the the media he used to work
for actually worked, Blinded by the Right. As for Gannon's claim that Media Matters for America is a "well-funded liberal attack machine," note that the organization is registered as a non-profit. [Note: This course was called "Media Matters" two years before the website Media Matters for America was established.]
Jeff Gannon was one of the reporters to whom a White House official
leaked Valerie Plame's deep cover CIA status. The problem is, he was
never a credentialed reporter and never underwent a security clearance
check, which would have uncovered his life as a high-class male
prostitute.
- The Washington Post: Leaks
Probe is Gathering Momentum
This article is tangentially related; it concerns the case of CIA
agent Valerie Plame, who's deep-cover status was blown when a White
House official leaked a document to some members of the press that she
was a secret agent working on WMD in Iraq. Her name was leaked as a
punishment to her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who debunked the
White House claim that Iraq was getting weapons-grade uranium from
Niger. The case is still pending; as it stands, the only journalist who
reported her name after it was leaked was conservative columnist Robert
Novak, and he refuses to give up the source. If that were known, the
source could be tried for treason, which is still punishable by death
in the United States. Jeff Gannon appears on the list of journalists
who received this leak. See the highlighted text regarding Talon News.
- The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution: Reporter's Role Questioned
Oddly, there are few articles floating around about who the some
25 journalists who received the leak are. This may be because it's part
of a federal grand jury investigation. In any case, Jim Hauser of Talon
News, the sameconservative outfit Jeff Gannon's wrote for, had
published a March 9, 2004 article about Gannon's being subpoenaed.
However, since the Gannon case, Talon News is no longer publishing, so
any record of this is pretty much through repostings of the article on
other sites. The fact that Gannon's own news service wrote an article
about his being subpoenaed in the Valerie Plame case suggests, however,
that this is indeed that case, and he is being implicated.
- Daily Kos on Gannon, Plame
This is a blog that has
collected a running catalogue of articles and commentary around this
issue
- Daily Kos Plame Timeline
