Have to hear some of the questions this moron asks. If this guy is a conservative's idea of unbiased media then I dont know what to say. :lol

 

The guy's real name is Jim Guckert

 

Listen to his questions: http://movies.ziaspace.com/Gannon_Question...20Olbermann.wmv

 

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washingt...crutiny?pg=full

 

White House-friendly reporter under scrutiny

By Charlie Savage and Alan Wirzbicki, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent? |? February 2, 2005

 

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has provided White House media credentials to a man who has virtually no journalistic background, asks softball questions to the president and his spokesman in the midst of contentious news conferences, and routinely reprints long passages verbatim from official press releases as original news articles on his website.

?

Jeff Gannon calls himself the White House correspondent for TalonNews.com, a website that says it is "committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news coverage to our readers." It is operated by a Texas-based Republican Party delegate and political activist who also runs GOPUSA.com, a website that touts itself as "bringing the conservative message to America."

 

Called on last week by President Bush at a press conference, Gannon attacked Democratic Senate leaders and called them "divorced from reality." During the presidential campaign, when called on by Press Secretary Scott McClellan, Gannon linked Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, to Jane Fonda and questioned why anyone would dispute Bush's National Guard service.

 

Now, the question of how Gannon gets into White House press conferences is coming under intense scrutiny from critics who contend that Gannon is not a journalist but rather a White House tool to soften media coverage of Bush. The issue was raised by a media watchdog group and picked up by Internet bloggers, who linked Gannon's presence in White House briefings to recent controversies over whether the administration manipulates the flow of information to the public.

 

These include the disclosure that the Education Department secretly paid columnist Armstrong Williams to promote its education policy and the administration's practice of sending out video press releases about its policies that purport to be "news stories" by fake journalists.

 

McClellan said Gannon has not been issued -- nor requested -- a regular "hard pass" to the White House, and instead has come in for the past two years on daily passes. Daily passes, he said, may be issued to anyone who writes for an organization that publishes regularly and who is cleared to enter the building.

 

He said other reporters and political commentators from lesser-known newsletters and from across the political spectrum also attend briefings, though he could not recall any Internet bloggers. McClellan said it is not the White House's role to decide who is and who is not a real journalist and dismissed any notion of conspiracy.

 

Nonetheless, transcripts of White House briefings indicate that McClellan often calls on Gannon and that the press secretary -- and the president -- have found relief in a question from Gannon after critical lines of questioning from mainstream news organizations.

 

When Bush called on Gannon near the end of his nationally televised Jan. 26 news conference, he had just been questioned about Williams and the Education Department funds, an embarrassment to the administration. Gannon's question was different.

 

"Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the US economy," Gannon said. "[Minority Leader] 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?"

 

As it turned out, Reid had never talked about soup lines. That was a phrase attributed to him in satire by Rush Limbaugh on his radio show.

 

Last year, during the presidential campaign, Gannon's comments could be even more pointed. In a Feb. 10, 2004, briefing with McClellan, for example, Gannon rose to deliver the following:

 

"Since there have been so many questions about what the president was doing over 30 years ago, what is it that he did after his honorable discharge from the National Guard? Did he make speeches alongside Jane Fonda, denouncing America's racist war in Vietnam? Did he testify before Congress that American troops committed war crimes in Vietnam? And did he throw somebody else's medals at the White House to protest a war America was still fighting?"

 

David Brock, the former investigative journalist who made his name revealing aspects of former President Bill Clinton's extramarital affairs, said he was watching last week's press conference on television and the "soup lines" question sparked his interest because it "struck me as so extremely biased." Brock asked his media watchdog group, Media Matters for America, to look into Talon News.

 

It quickly discovered two things, he said. First, both Talon and the political organization GOP USA were run by a Texas Republican activist and party delegate named Bobby Eberle. Second, many of the reports Gannon filed for Talon News "appeared to be lifted verbatim from various White House and Republican political committee documents."

 

Eberle did not return phone calls yesterday, and Gannon declined to comment. He did reply to Brock's group on his personal blog: "In many cases I have liberally used the verbiage provided on key aspects of the issue because it is the precise expression of where the White House stands -- free of any 'spin.' It's the ultimate in journalistic honesty -- unvarnished and unfiltered. If only others would be as forthcoming."

Here is what some of his apologists have to say:

 

?Jeff Gannon? is a pseudonym. So what? Pseudonyms have been used by writers, for years. Do you remember Mark Twain? His real name was Samuel Clemons. Jeff Gannon?s real name appears to be James Guckert. It?s not a crime but, the leftist media would have us believe that it is. Again, it is not. Dem leaders are, now, actually screaming for an investigation into the ?Jeff Gannon affair?! Note: Jeff, if you had only been more ?liberally-diplomatic? with your question, none of this would have happened. But, Jeff being the straight-shooter that he is, opted to be direct. For a conservative, that can prove hazardous. And it was. The reason I?m writing this, hopefully last article on Mr. Gannon, is that my emails on this subject have actually increased; since yesterday?s article. So, hopefully, this will clear up any residual questions my left-leaning readers have. But, I?m not holding my breath. Purple is not my favorite color.

 

...

 

 

The real issue is that old leftist media doesn?t want New (slightly more conservative) Media into their club. That?s the real issue. Nothing else. They?ve had a monopoly on beating up Republican presidents for years and they refuse to give it up, without a fight. Face it old media?your side is fading away, thankfully. Like it or not, we in the New Media plan to enter the old-media?s hallowed halls of press conferences, join you clubs and (uh-oh!) maybe even move into your neighborhoods! That?s what you?re really afraid of?isn?t it?

 

 

http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/archive/yz/z-...zieve021105.htm

 

 

More proof that liberal bias=not having a conservative agenda and objective reporting=conservative agenda for some of these people. Goodness.

 

 

 

Id like to hear someone defend his questions as somehow being diplomatic or unbiased.

He is such a great reporter that all info about him from his job has been removed:

 

Since Media Matters for America drew attention (here, here, here, and here) to Talon News and its Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent Jeff Gannon -- who lifted large portions of RNC and White House releases verbatim and without attribution for inclusion in several of his "reports" -- information about Gannon and other Talon staff members has disappeared from the Talon News website.

 

Gannon's bio on the Talon News website is no longer available. A link from Google to his bio leads to the Talon website with a message that reads: "The file you are looking for cannot be found on the Talon News web site," though it is still available in Google's cache. Additionally, the "About" section on the Talon News website, which previously contained information and bios for Talon's staff and "volunteer reporters," has been cleared of everything except brief information about Talon; the previous version has been cached by Google as well. Media Matters' January 28 report detailing how Talon News staff members appeared to be more Republican activists than reporters relied heavily on the bios posted on that page.

 

Gannon's bio remains available on GOPUSA's website, which identifies him as the author of another website, The Conservative Guy. That site is also blank, but is cached here. Media Matters has previously noted that Talon News editor-in-chief Bobby Eberle also serves as president and CEO of GOPUSA.

 

 

 

http://mediamatters.org/items/200502010006

I saw this story on Countdown with Keith Olbermann earlier this week, and I thought it was hilarious.

 

I would personally be very surprised if there was absolutely no connection between the administration and this guy, since the only things he seemed to say during press conferences were in complete support of Bush's policies.

 

Additionally, since we already know that the administration has been paying other columnists and journalists to talk in support of their policies, it wouldn't surprise me if they were also paying this guy to act like he was a real journalist.

 

I honestly think the White House would be skeptical of a guy who took out a year's worth of day passes to their press conferences, unless they knew who he was already, or were paying him to do his "job".

I saw this story on Countdown with Keith Olbermann earlier this week, and I thought it was hilarious.

 

I would personally be very surprised if there was absolutely no connection between the administration and this guy, since the only things he seemed to say during press conferences were in complete support of Bush's policies.

 

Additionally, since we already know that the administration has been paying other columnists and journalists to talk in support of their policies, it wouldn't surprise me if they were also paying this guy to act like he was a real journalist.

 

I honestly think the White House would be skeptical of a guy who took out a year's worth of day passes to their press conferences, unless they knew who he was already, or were paying him to do his "job".

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They def knew and relied on his presence there. For a guy who was just there on one day passes, he sure is treated like a regular. What surprises me is that other media sources are critisized for what they report on and not necessarily what they say. But this guy was plain and simple a propoganda machine.

He sure seemed like a propaganda machine to me.