The man-whore scandal is dead.

[Warren Stupidity]

Or at least it appears to be dead to me, I could of course be wrong. But I have a question:

What level of scandal involving the bush administration would the MSM actually report as a scandal?

[Goldeneye]

1. www.rawstory.com

New Yorker, other major media outlets eyeing gannon scandel.

[ender]

41. i think that we'vew got a case of pink tutus here...

oh no, nothing will ever stick, these guys will wiggle out of everything...

fsck off. if you cant stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

[tx_dem41]

42. What exactly do you mean by...

"a case of pink tutus"?

[tinanator]

43. PC police, pull over!

I wouldnt want your job.

[Domitan]

2. No way!

If you're really paying attention, you'd notice that this story is growing more legs...even MSNBC, CBS, and CNN (via Anderson Cooper) are showcasing this.

[spinbaby]

3. I wish it would grow more legs

I'm just not seeing it on the news and no one I've mentioned it to has heard of it.

[mcg]

54. It is growing legs.

I'm more aware of it now than before, sometimes it takes a while for something to sink in. I heard about it before but didn't pay much attention, now I am, and I think it's the same for others.

[regnaD kciN]

28. My mother lives in San Diego...

...which, in case you can't guess, is an extremely conservative area. When I told her of the "Republican Man-Date" scandal a couple of days ago, she was surprised, as she hadn't read a word about it in the local (Republican-dominated) newspaper.

Last night, she told me that said paper actually printed a story about it. Not a big story, of course -- about three column inches. But, still, it's a sign that even conservative papers with a monopoly in their local markets now feel compelled to at least mention Gannongate.

[QC]

4. If it'd dead, making it a gay sex story killed it.

The point here is that "Gannon" is a part of a larger propaganda operation, along with the payola pundit mess and other such problems. But by making it a story about a rentboy, with all the snickering innuendo that has gone with it, draws attention away from the real problem.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[annabanana]

30. yep indeed!

Howdy BellvueRN..
Welcome to DU! :toast:

[blue neen]

36. "nope"

[tx_dem41]

11. Spot-on, QC!

How come only a few of us can understand that?!?

[John Q. Citizen]

16. Yeah, the same thing happened in the Monica L scandle with

Clinton a few years back. As soon as it became about a stain on a blue dress and cigars, the whole thing just went away........NOT

Ever hear the saying that there is no such thing as bad publicity?

Adding sex to a scandle never killed a scandle before, unless I'm missing something.

[tx_dem41]

17. But confusing sex with a real scandal....

can hurt things. You do remember that with the Monica L thing, it was ONLY about sex, don't you?

[John Q. Citizen]

22. Sex is what kept it in the news and sex is what it remains for

most Americans in the Monica deal.

It wasn't enough for an impeachment so they used the perjury in a civil suit angle for that.

We should use all aspects of gannongate as well, instead of limiting ourselves.

[tx_dem41]

25. Do yourself a favor and Google "Jeff Gannon" on Google-News...

The silence from the MSM is fairly deafening. Mostly, liberal websites only.

[John Q. Citizen]

27. be patient

I think the tittering is a little tiresome but I disagree that the gay hooker aspect somehow damages the story.

[QC]

24. Exactly. All they had with Monica was blowjobs.

The business about "the rule of law" was just some very shopworn windowdressing on a tawdry sex story, and everyone knew that.

Here we have an administration that manipulates the press in ways that would make Goebbels himself ashamed, but we can't talk about that because we're too busy posting snickering, juvenile speculations as to whether Gannon might have poked Bush's hoo-hoo and did Rove touch his dingus and the like.

Is it wonderfully ironic that Bush's paid shill in the press is a rentboy? Sure. Is that the heart of the story? Nope, far from it.

[pacalo]

18. No, they're asking all the right questions.

I was afraid of all the focus on the gay sex, too, but I'm glad to see that all the right questions are being asked in regard to how this fake journalist was able to get expeditious security clearance for WH press briefings, while other better known journalists have not.

In fact, the legendary Helen Thomas has gotten shabby treatment; she's been relegated to the back row & is ignored. Maureen Dowd was told she would need to be subjected to a month-long FBI security check before being accepted. What makes Mr. Spread-Eagle so special, is the question.

No, the media is focusing on the right issues with regard to "Gannon". The gay sex side of his life, which was put on the 'net for the sake of soliciting high-priced gay sex & for everyone to see, is just part of the equation. And it may be turn out to be the tip of a much larger scandal.

[Nite Owl]

5. Don't think so

I get the CBS news summary email and today is the first day that the story was included.

[Tsiyu]

29. CBS has been lying low, but I can't

imagine why they wouldn't vindicate themselves of all the bullshit the White House has rained on Rather and CBS News.

But they have to proceed slowly, carefully, with all facts double, triple, quadruple checked. This whole Guckgan thang could be another Rove ploy.

Give CBS time. They have a grudge here and it's not going away until they redeem themselves. The whole Rathergate saga went to "credibility of the media." What's the Prostitute's Press Pass say about the "credibility" of the media???? Let's give CBS time to get their ducks in a row.

[Mountainman]

6. Wouldn't you think that legitimate journalists would be mad at Gannon

because he had such access yet was not a journalist?

If so wouldn't they want to help get the facts out?

[Al-CIAda]

8. The story has been pronounced 'dead' every day for the past week

Instead of whining about itt being 'dead', maybe write someone or investigate an aspect of the general propaganda/payola scandal.


JMO

[HysteryDiagnosis]

9. KO kicked it pretty well last night... too bad you missed it. Link:

MSNBC -
Press pass bypass (Keith Olbermann). ... In short, ‘Groan Injury Man’ was better vetted
by that ballclub than James Guckert alias Jeff Gannon was vetted by the ...
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/ - 101k - Feb 18, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

MSNBC - Will Spongebob make you gay?
... KEITH BLOGS. ... Olbermann blogs: “Guckert's presence in the White House briefing room
before the ... the White House, as a reporter named Jeff Gannon — even though ...
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6852828/ - 33k - Feb 18, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages
< More results from www.msnbc.msn.com >

MSNBC - Countdown with Keith Olbermann Front Page
... Guckert (aka "Jeff Gannon") who had access to press briefings, as it turns out,
even before the creation of his psuedo-news organization. Keith Olbermann as he ...
www.msnbc.com/news/countdownolbermann_front.asp - 39k - Feb 19, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

Media Matters for America
... Pass. CBS's Lynch: "Hard to believe" Gannon "wasn't at least implicitly
sanctioned by" Rove. Keith Olbermann: "Press pass bypass". ...
mediamatters.org/ - 43k - Feb 18, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

Olbermann Watch - reality-based news for the belligerently ...
... Host: Keith Olbermann. ... OLBYWATCH GUIDE: KO started out with the Gannon story, continuing
with his sarcastic attack on the Bush administration and WH Press office ...
www.olbermannwatch.com/ - 41k - Feb 18, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

Technorati: Tag: Keith Olbermann
... 'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for Wednesday Feb. 9 Host: Keith Olbermann Scheduled
Topics/Guests: DUBIOUS WHITE HOUSE REPORTER JEFF GANNON STEPS... ...
www.technorati.com/tag/Keith%20Olbermann - 21k - Cached - Similar pages

Best of the Blogs
... exposed Gannon's ruse. Milbank, on Keith Olbermann's MSNBC program, said
he'd seen Gannon at the White House as recently as Monday. ...
www.bestoftheblogs.com/ - 54k - Cached - Similar pages

Feedster RSS Search : "Keith Olbermann"
... questions. Complicity is obvious. Who is Jeff Gannon ? MSNBC's Keith Olbermann
Reports. Video via Norm and... From Shlonkom Bakazay? ...
feedster.com/search.php?q=%22Keith+Olbermann%22& hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sort=date - 39k - Cached - Similar pages

Feedster RSS Search : "Keith Olbermann"
... Thanks to DailyKos commenter davecc, you can watch a video of Keith Olbermann's
segment tonight on the Jeff Gannon fiasco. And then ...
feedster.com/search.php?searchtype=similar& id=161630096&q=%22Keith+Olbermann%22&ie=&hl= - 32k - Cached - Similar pages
< More results from feedster.com >

[pacalo]

21. There are a lot of video snippets

at www.crooksandliars.com of a lot of the press coverage this story is getting.

[BlackVelvet04]

10. Why in the world

would you say that?

[tuvor]

12. Google "Guckert"

Not a lot of MSM there.

http://news.google.ca/news?hl=en&ned=ca&q=guckert&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d

[tx_dem41]

14. Thanks for pointing me to that....

Hardly anything from MSM.

[arcos]

48. now Google "Gannon"

http://news.google.ca/news?hl=en&ned=ca&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d&q=gannon

[tx_dem41]

49. I did. Still, frustratingly few papers doing stories.

A few big city papers, a couple of Canadian papers, and one-or-two mid/small market papers. Pitiful. We need to get this story to the level where you get 150 hits a day on Google-News from papers all over the USA. So far, we are far from that.

P.S. Hint, do a Google search on "Jeff Gannon". Your search got me lots of swimming meet results and other extranneous hits.

[Catchawave]

50. There's more on Yahoo :)

Ever since Google hooked up with AOL, I haven't quite trusted their searches anymore.

Here's the latest on Yahoo...several MSM's included!

http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/search?p=Jeff+Gannon&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&fr=FP-tab-web-t

[pacalo]

13. It's "dead" to you? Yep, you could be wrong.

This story has already been termed as a scandal -- because that's what it is. The creepy, self-proclaimed "ex-bureau chief" & "South Dakota politics expert" has many sordid connections to this administration & the information on each is being unraveled one by one.

[rzemanfl]

15. What level of scandal? If * peed in the Holy Water at the

Vatican, then put it in a champagne bottle and Ann Coulter drank it then came down with AIDS, they'd call it a series of unfortunate events and say the President was in perfect health.

[Lexingtonian]

19. well, it may just be a story rather than a scandal

The deal that makes for a scandal is some kind of crime or virtual crime- unbearable abuse of public trust or social conventions. Obviously, being a gay prostitute and paid off by some concealed Republican interest is not such a thing these days- it's only dirty partisan behavior.

I think you have to get at some hidden betrayal of Republican selfinterests before things turn into 'scandal' at this point.

The point of the Gannon affair is just to break another piece out of the Republican propaganda effort. Snagging a dozen such things a year should put it out of business soon enough.

[pacalo]

23. This administration controls the media, hiding the truth of its dirty

business from the People. It's known that this administration pays certain journalists with bribe money to get out its distorted message. That is an abuse of public trust.

[Lexingtonian]

31. to you and me it is, yes

To your average run-of-the-mill Republican, it's not a problem. To them, the mainstream media has been far too knowledgeable, critical, and cosmopolitan in its viewpoint- 'liberal'- for most of their lives.

You assume they want integrity (after all, they do claim that). Well, no. Too much of that is too hard for them to bear, as well. They like their news properly provincial, narrow, uncomplicated, and full of implications that the world exists and is organized such that the likes of themselves are God's Own People.

[tx_dem41]

32. You bring up a great point.

A story truly turns into a scandal when your own party members can't even support you. Watergate is a good example of that.

[fooj]

20. Good news! It's not dead!

Besides Cooper, Matthews, KO, B. Williams...and Maher-Raw Story said that The New Yorker and the NYT was working on a story this weekend! Shrub is up to his eyeballs in scandal. I think their luck has just about run out!

[zann725]

45. You forgot Jon Stewart. And Leslie Stahl (on Maher's show)...and...and...

The story opened wide this past week. And it's only just begun!

[Edgewater_Joe]

26. So Was Watergate After The First Two Weeks

But then ... it wasn't.

Keep digging. There's a there there.

[DU GrovelBot]

33. ## PLEASE DONATE TO DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND! ##

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This week is our first quarter 2005 fund drive. Democratic
Underground is a completely independent website. We depend almost entirely
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[cindyw]

34. If gay-prostitute shill in press core is not scandal that nothing is

anymore. There seems to be some new requirements to be a scandal these days.

1. Must be Democrat.
and
2. Must be real journalist.
or
3. Must be celebrity.
or
4. Must have spouse who was murdered.
or
5. Must be pop star.
or
6. Must be UN member

[zulchzulu]

35. Only after Guckert returns to the White House and beheads himself...

...wait...

Shit!

I gave away the ending. My bad.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

37. What an odd statement to make? It seems to be gaining steam

rather than dying.

Last night Anderson Cooper interviewed JimmieJeff, and it was none too favorable, and then I understand Bill Maher made mincemeat out of him on Real Time.

This story has legs.

[tinanator]

38. odd but echoed in many ways everywhere

wishful thinking on the part of some Id say.

[demgrrrll]

39. That was my immediate thought when I saw the thread title. eom

.

[Warren Stupidity]

51. I could be wrong and I hope I am.

Ok so here is my reality check on the steam gaining for man-whore and bush scandal:

Front page NYT, Boston Globe, WP: nothing.

National news NYT, Boston Globe, WP:
NYT 1 article - interview of Eberle, article states that Guckert was a 'volunteer reporter' for Talon, as in unpaid:

"Mr. Eberle said that in the two years that Mr. Guckert worked for him, he had not kept track of his volunteer reporter."

"Before engaging Mr. Guckert on "a volunteer basis," Mr. Eberle said he himself got temporary press credentials to attend a White House briefing. "I think I asked a question about a U.N. resolution on Iraq," Mr. Eberle said."

Is anybody going to find out how Guckert paid the rent for the last two or three years?

Article of course includes the rightwing frame:
"Mr. Eberle also said he had no inkling that Mr. Guckert had created pornographic Web sites or offered himself as a gay escort. Those revelations came in recent accounts in The Washington Post. If he had known, Mr. Eberle said, "I don't think I would have brought him on."

Mr. Guckert would not address the salacious details of his personal life - including sexually explicit photographs of him online but said "all of these personal things" have nothing to do with the administration or Talon News."

(Actually re-reading that last quote it looks like the reporter, Anne Kornblut meant 'Mr. Eberle would not address', not 'Mr Guckert would not address' unless she forgot to mention that man-whore was in room and part of the interview as well.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/national/20gannon.html?

WP: man-whore not news.

Boston Globe: nothing

Yahoo: not on top news national news political news

Google: not front page news

So this morning I find one item and that a non-front page item on man-whore in my non-scientific survey of the 'growing scandal'.

On another point made in response to my post:

Yes I read the Anderson Cooper transcript. Maybe it played better on video. Cooper allowed Guckert to spin the 'invasion of privacy' crap, although he did go after him a bit. You would think that the 87th time that the Official Spin is offered up Ace Reporter would be ready with the follow up question: "How are public advertisments offering sexual services for hire 'private'?" But nope. The spin is allowed unchallenged over and over and over.

[sampsonblk]

40. None of the top-name Dems bothered to help in this effort

Or am I wrong?

[zann725]

44. Obviously you missed Cooper Anderson's interview of Gannon on Friday

Welcome newbie. But NO, the story is farrrr from over.

Fasten your seat belts, this ride's just begun.

[Warren Stupidity]

53. I didn't miss anything.

I read the transcript saturday long before I posted and I have commented on it here and elsewhere.

While my motives have been held suspect in this thread, it seems that I am wishing that the scandal would die, it is my assertion here that perhaps we are engaged in wishful thinking that it hasn't died.

As for the Cooper Anderson interview, like I have said elsewhere, perhaps it played better on video. In the transcript Gluckert gets away with the whole right wing framing of 'invasion of privacy by the nasty bloggers' unchallenged. Was Anderson unprepared? Did he not know that this was the talking point? So far nobody has asked man-whore the obviouos question: 'as your position at Talon was on a volunteer basis, how have you been paying the rent for the last 2 or 3 years?'.

I hope you all are right and this thing has legs. I fail to see any real evidence of that in the MSM.

Oh, and I don't care really what your post weight is with respect to mine. I am more concerned about content. Your response had little.

[leftofthedial]

46. there is nothing, NOTHING, that will stick

the media works for the neotheocon corporate death cult

[cry baby]

47. See this thread that says that MSM is hot after the story trying to

catch up - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1609594

[John_H]

52. The media has been dead for some time. Gannpngate is more proof.

[Benbow]

55. It is not dead in the UK, it is only just starting -

- with his being a plant to compromise members of the MSM. Read today's Observer newspaper (which is owned by the Guardian)

The mole, the US media and a White House coup

For two years Jeff Gannon cut an unobtrusive figure at White House press conferences. The shaven-headed, craggily handsome man worked for an obscure news agency called Talon News, known for its conservative sympathies. He was often the subject of jokes by colleagues on weightier news organisations.

No one is laughing now, because Gannon was far from being a harmless distraction. He was writing under a false name and working for a Republican front organisation. Suddenly, his 'softball' questions to White House officials looked less like eccentricities and more like plotting by an administration which has frequently displayed a dark mastery of the arts of press control.

When it emerged that Gannon was also linked to gay prostitution websites and might be a gay prostitute himself, the scandal as to how he was allowed daily access to the White House grew even murkier.

... The media is in the midst of a transformation which the Bush administration is keen to foster. They have discovered that a partisan and atomised media can be controlled, manipulated and used to an unprecedented degree.

and Independent

White House's loyal reporter once worked as gay hooker

In a city where access to information is everything, Democrats have demanded an investigation into why Mr Guckert, with almost no background as a reporter, was provided with White House credentials, and how he received access to a classified CIA report. Congresswoman Louise Slaughter has filed a request for all information relating to Mr Guckert's security clearance. "By his own implication 'Mr Gannon' has had access to classified documents that contained the identity of an undercover agent for the CIA," she said. "The American people deserve to know how this man was able to get access not only to the White House briefing room but also to these very sensitive documents."

Both articles acknowledge the contribution made by bloggers.

[mod mom]

56. bumpersticker? gannon in undies w gop.usa, anyoneable to produce this? nt

[Benbow]

57. Message to MSM reporters - if you ever want to be taken seriously again

by the news media in the rest of the world, remember your news values; do you want to be able to hold your head up when you meet senior journalists from other countries - journalists who have often suffered intimidation and threats from their own Western governments but (with the support of their trade union, sometimes), managed to stay true to their lodestar? What made you go into journalism, in the first place, instead of - say - road-sweeping? (Obviously, Jeff Gannon does not have to answer this question.)

[Blue Christmas]

58. No mention of it on This Week or MTP

Hardly surprising, but still a little disappointing...

[Contrary1]

59. We need to quite focusing on the "man-whore" story...

I want it to be proved that Guckert was involved in the Rather
fiasco. I have been over at Freeperville looking at old posts
from around that time. I really do believe he was a major player.

Anytime Guckert was asked how he knew that Mary Mapes was the
source of the CBS documents and the Abu Grahib photos, or how
she came to be in possession of them, his response conspicuously
absent. Not even a "I can't reveal my source" reply.

We are dealing with a big story here. If we continue to allow the
tawdry sexual aspect of it to dominate the headlines, we will lose.
We can't let this one get away.

[Ashamed_American]

60. I don't think it is dead, per se,

and I see it growing. However this may find its way into that ever growing file cabinet of crapfest events that the administration cannot be held accountable for. It only dies if we allow it to.


www.BlackEyedSundays.com