Laura and I heard about this on Emily Rooney’s “Beat the Press” edition of Greater Boston last Friday, but the implications are deeply disturbing. Some man, using a pseudonym, was not only posing as a journalist with approval of the White House but (follow the links) was likely not the person he was claiming to be. What is going on in the White House?
Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism, Etc. reports:
‘Reporter’ Gannon is Gone. The “Jeff Gannon” saga took an ugly turn. Gannon, you may recall, was the White House “reporter” of questionable bona fides — apparently a Republican operative whose main role was to ask friendly questions of the president and his spokespeople, a countervailing force to what the Bush administration plainly believes is an overwhelmingly liberal White House press corps. (That view of the suck-up brigade is laughable, in my view, given the half-baked, credulous coverage the administration has enjoyed.)
“Various bloggers have been investigating Gannon, and one of them turned up some news that led him to silence himself.”
“Timothy Karr has some details. See also Daniel Conover’s analysis, in which he notes: “It must be clear now that blogs and websites are providing the bulk of significant real-time reporting on MSM matters. Those of us who work in the MSM and care about these issues turn to these “non-official” sources to get the scoop on our industry, and I don’t expect that to change any time soon.”
“Fair enough. But this episode should give people a queasy feeling. The scandal is the administration’s contempt for the public, and the lack of journalistic credibility this person demonstrated, not whatever he was doing on the side.”
MSM = Mainstream Media, for those not up on the latest TLA — Ted