The Strange But True Story of “Jeff Gannon”
Jeff Gannon / James Guckert
Since the unpleasantness in November, I haven’t been much for the news in general, political news in particular. But I make an exception for The Daily Show, for obvious reasons. I laughed the other day when Stewart made a joke about the reporter who asked Mr. Bush this loaded question at a 26 Jan press conference:
Thank you. Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. 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? [emphasis added; see transcript]
I didn’t think of it again until a few days ago, when I came across a Salon story that revealed the questioner, “Jeff Gannon”, had had plenty more to say. Turns out the guy isn’t really much of a reporter, works for an offshoot of a GOP group that isn’t an accredited news organization, and, oh yeah, isn’t even really using his own name.
If that’s not enough, reports also indicate the dude, real name James Guckert, has now quit his faux-reporter job. Some attribute that to the discovery that in addition to having registered domain names such as ConservativeGuy.com, ExposeJesseJackson.com, and DCBibleMarathon.org, Guckert owns HotMilitaryStud.com and MilitaryEscortsM4M.com. And then there’s his AOL page.
Oh, and did I mention this guy was apparently the first reporter to receive the confidential CIA memo naming Valeria Plame as a covert operative?
Who the hell is this creep, and who let him into the White House briefing room for two years?