Giving 'media whore' a whole new meaning
If you're on the left and hear the phrase 'media whore,' chances are you'll immediately think of megalomaniac Rupert Murdoch's FOX News and it's slavish devotion to all things Republican or the Moonie-owned Washington Times or a host of other right-wing news sources.
Those on the right apply the term 'media whore' to the major networks, The Washington Post, and other media sources they claim owe their allegiance to that pesky "liberal bias."
Regardless of on which side you stand on, there seems to be a whole lot of whoring around these days when it comes to the media, who's making news, who's deciding what news to cover, and who's parading up and down in a metaphorical hot pants and feather boa trying to get their idea of "news" covered.
But now it seems as if the grand pimp daddy with the customized Caddy and all the bling-bling has turned out to be the Bush Administration.
First there was Sterling Williams who received close to a quarter of a million bucks from the Department of Education to shill for Bush's "No Child Left Behind" program. Williams made the circuit of Sunday news talk shows and wrote columns extolling the virtues of the under-funded program. Sure, being a conservative, he'd have likely supported Bush's plan anyway ... but that extra $240,000 didn't hurt.
Since Williams, three other (ahem! ... cough, cough!) "journalists" have been exposed as receiving money from the government for writing and promoting Bush's program. (And according to some insiders, at least two more "journalists" are about to be revealed to have sold their journalistic virtue by writing pro-administration pieces while suckling cash from the government's ample teats.
While prostitution is generally accepted to mean exchanging sexual services for money, these modern day media whores are whores only in the figurative sense.
Until now.
Almost two years ago a well-built, muscular man with a shaved head by the name of "Jeff Gannon" joined the White House press corps. He wrote for Talon News, a right-wing website known primarily for regurgitating Bush Administration press releases as "news." He had credentials that allowed him into the White House for press briefings and those rare Bush press conference. He was called upon by Bush to ask questions ... and his questions were notorious in their "softball" approach. Maybe that explains why Bush liked to call on Joe during press conferences.
The trouble is that "Jeff" really wasn't Jeff. His real name is Jim Gucket. And Jeff/Jim isn't really a journalist in the sense that most people would define the term. As it turns out, Jeff/Jim had a bit of a checkered past. First he was linked to gay pornography sites with salacious names like hotmilitarystuds.com. Then, upon more research, it turned out that Jeff/Jim had nude photos all over the Web advertising his "services" as an escort for $200 an hour.
At last a literal "media whore" had been uncovered.
Of course the Bush Administration scrambled to distance itself from Jeff/Jim/hotmilitarystud4hire. First they claimed "hey, he was from a legitimate news organization." It didn't take long for the blogsphere to dismantle that. By this morning photographic evidence of Jeff/Jim at press briefings show him there in February 2003 - a month before Talon News was founded!
What's even more astounding is that in this era of background checks and security checks that have become part of everyday life in post-9/11 America, no one - not the White House, not the FBI - caught that "Jeff Gannon" was an assumed name.
Let's see now. There are two possible explanations: either all the security checks that are in place to make sure those who will be in the same room as the president are so lax as to be non-existent, or someone in the White House arranged to get Jeff/Jim's press credentials and White House pass approved so that he could lob softball questions to Bush during press conferences and White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan during daily press briefings.
It's no secret that Bush hates the press. It's no secret that he arrogantly believes he should be above being questioned by reporters. What's still a secret - at least for now - is who planted the literal whore among all the figurative ones in the White House press corps?
The best guess so far is that Bush puppet-master Karl Rove's pudgy sticky fingerprints are all over Joe/Jim. One can almost hear Rove giggling about getting Joe/Jim into the White House. The right-wing media won't care who we put on the payroll as long as we can further the cause and the left-wing media won't dare cover the story because they'll be too sensitive to the 'gay' angle (tee-hee-hee) one can almost hear Rove snickering. Meanwhile, with Jeff/Jim now officially resigned from Talon News (though I'm willing to bet the price for his other "services" have now jumped dramatically!) Rove and company will be on to the next "journalist" to woo with big bucks.
Call it Propaganda-Gate, or GannonGate, or ManslutGate, or whatever you will, the challenge for the real media will be to keep following this story to see where it leads.
And it begs the question: Is this what Bush meant when he said he had a "man date"?
Those on the right apply the term 'media whore' to the major networks, The Washington Post, and other media sources they claim owe their allegiance to that pesky "liberal bias."
Regardless of on which side you stand on, there seems to be a whole lot of whoring around these days when it comes to the media, who's making news, who's deciding what news to cover, and who's parading up and down in a metaphorical hot pants and feather boa trying to get their idea of "news" covered.
But now it seems as if the grand pimp daddy with the customized Caddy and all the bling-bling has turned out to be the Bush Administration.
First there was Sterling Williams who received close to a quarter of a million bucks from the Department of Education to shill for Bush's "No Child Left Behind" program. Williams made the circuit of Sunday news talk shows and wrote columns extolling the virtues of the under-funded program. Sure, being a conservative, he'd have likely supported Bush's plan anyway ... but that extra $240,000 didn't hurt.
Since Williams, three other (ahem! ... cough, cough!) "journalists" have been exposed as receiving money from the government for writing and promoting Bush's program. (And according to some insiders, at least two more "journalists" are about to be revealed to have sold their journalistic virtue by writing pro-administration pieces while suckling cash from the government's ample teats.
While prostitution is generally accepted to mean exchanging sexual services for money, these modern day media whores are whores only in the figurative sense.
Until now.
Almost two years ago a well-built, muscular man with a shaved head by the name of "Jeff Gannon" joined the White House press corps. He wrote for Talon News, a right-wing website known primarily for regurgitating Bush Administration press releases as "news." He had credentials that allowed him into the White House for press briefings and those rare Bush press conference. He was called upon by Bush to ask questions ... and his questions were notorious in their "softball" approach. Maybe that explains why Bush liked to call on Joe during press conferences.
The trouble is that "Jeff" really wasn't Jeff. His real name is Jim Gucket. And Jeff/Jim isn't really a journalist in the sense that most people would define the term. As it turns out, Jeff/Jim had a bit of a checkered past. First he was linked to gay pornography sites with salacious names like hotmilitarystuds.com. Then, upon more research, it turned out that Jeff/Jim had nude photos all over the Web advertising his "services" as an escort for $200 an hour.
At last a literal "media whore" had been uncovered.
Of course the Bush Administration scrambled to distance itself from Jeff/Jim/hotmilitarystud4hire. First they claimed "hey, he was from a legitimate news organization." It didn't take long for the blogsphere to dismantle that. By this morning photographic evidence of Jeff/Jim at press briefings show him there in February 2003 - a month before Talon News was founded!
What's even more astounding is that in this era of background checks and security checks that have become part of everyday life in post-9/11 America, no one - not the White House, not the FBI - caught that "Jeff Gannon" was an assumed name.
Let's see now. There are two possible explanations: either all the security checks that are in place to make sure those who will be in the same room as the president are so lax as to be non-existent, or someone in the White House arranged to get Jeff/Jim's press credentials and White House pass approved so that he could lob softball questions to Bush during press conferences and White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan during daily press briefings.
It's no secret that Bush hates the press. It's no secret that he arrogantly believes he should be above being questioned by reporters. What's still a secret - at least for now - is who planted the literal whore among all the figurative ones in the White House press corps?
The best guess so far is that Bush puppet-master Karl Rove's pudgy sticky fingerprints are all over Joe/Jim. One can almost hear Rove giggling about getting Joe/Jim into the White House. The right-wing media won't care who we put on the payroll as long as we can further the cause and the left-wing media won't dare cover the story because they'll be too sensitive to the 'gay' angle (tee-hee-hee) one can almost hear Rove snickering. Meanwhile, with Jeff/Jim now officially resigned from Talon News (though I'm willing to bet the price for his other "services" have now jumped dramatically!) Rove and company will be on to the next "journalist" to woo with big bucks.
Call it Propaganda-Gate, or GannonGate, or ManslutGate, or whatever you will, the challenge for the real media will be to keep following this story to see where it leads.
And it begs the question: Is this what Bush meant when he said he had a "man date"?
posted by Van | 3:13 PM
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