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Jeff Gannon Selling Book, Himself in the Blogs?
When the subject is fraudulent journalism, thoughts naturally turn to Jeff Gannon. With FEMA staging fake press conferences and Hillary Clinton under the microscope for answering planted questions at campaign events, the male escort turned Bush White House press corps fixture inevitably will crawl out from under a rock for 15 more minutes of fame.
And so it appears on Perrspectives and several other blogs. Commenting on a Perrspectives blog post Saturday comparing the Clinton campaign's bad judgment with the masterful stage-management and political theater that is the Bush presidency, someone claiming to be "Jeff Gannon" weighed in in his own defense. His comment, lifted verbatim from an October 29. 2007 JeffGannon.com piece rationalizing FEMA's descent into Goebbels-style disinformation, defended Gannon's journalistic credentials while plugging his new book. Apparently, he objected to my application of the term "ersatz journalist" to his body of work (no pun intended):
When I learned of the fake news conference, I expected that the characterization of Jeff Gannon as a "phony reporter" would be revived. Liberal media activist Keith Olbermann noted it on his nightly train wreck of a talk show and the lefties of the blogosphere dutifully repeated it ad nauseum. This is a classic case of how a lie becomes reality, since the record proves otherwise. I was as real as a reporter gets, writing over 500 articles as a White House correspondent, a job that Secret Service records indicate I actually showed up for more than 200 times over the course of two years. The veracity of my work as a reporter has never been successfully challenged.
Further, in 2006, a year after my supposed exposure as a "phony reporter" - my peers accepted me into the National Press Club, the most prestigious association of professional journalists in the world. My book about the media will be featured at the National Press Club's 30th annual book fair on November 1. Not bad for a "fake, fraud and phony."
In response to the potential Jeff Gannon commenting on this site, I explained:
Jeff Gannon (real or imagined),
No one doubts that you/Jeff Gannon was a "real" reporter in the metaphysical sense that you/he showed up at briefings and then committed words to the page.
The "fake, phony and fraud" journalist issue you/he raise is simply the result of your/his willingness to bend over for President Bush and his allies, a position that despite your/his past career, you/he now seem willing to do for free.
In what would be an altogether fitting circle of life, Jeff Gannon appears to be blog-whoring to sell his book, The Great Media War, currently ranked #1,008,585 (#2,453,537 in hard cover) on Amazon. With the holidays coming up, Gannon's book along with other selections of ConPorn from Bill O'Reilly, Lynne Cheney and Scooter Libby could be the ideal gift for that reactionary on your list.
Whether or not the Perrspectives commenter is in fact Jeff Gannon, it's nice to know he's not going to go the route of Richard Nixon. We'll always have him to kick around.
For more examples of Jeff Gannon selling himself and his book in the blogs, see The Carpetbagger Report, UncommonSense and The Garlic. (The Garlic contacted Gannon, who confirmed "that the comment left of The Garlic was with his 'knowledge and permission.'")
UPDATE: Jeff Gannon replies below. Perrspectives responds. See the Comments for more.
—Perrspective
03:46 PM Permalink
I'm sorry if you feel slighted that you are not getting personalized, exclusive content. I had one statement to make, so I shared it with as many websites as possible.
I'll let you in on that latest development. I recently became a member of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).
So let's recap:
1. 500 articles as a White House correspondent over a period of two years that have never been successfully challenged for accuracy.
2. Personal attacks that have never been confirmed or proven.
3. Accepted into membership in the National Press Club in 2006.
4. Published book in September 2007.
5. Seated at head table at National Press Club luncheon featuring Lynne Cheney, joined by Vice President Dick Cheney in October 2007.
6. Book featured at National Press Club book fair in November 2007.
7. Accepted into membership in the Society of Professional Journalists in November 2007.
What's new in your life?
Joined the SPJ, eh? Quite the journalistic feat to fill out the form and send in $72. How'd you find the money after self-publishing your book at iUniverse? Someday you'll have a realization, ala David Brock, of the role you're playing for the conservatives - people who would just as soon light you on fire. I hope that day comes soon.
Jeff Gannon,
Thank you for the update on your latest accomplishments. We're all very proud. We're especially happy that you were able to escape the National Press Club luncheon with Dick Cheney without getting shot in the face.
Thanks also for asking about what's new on this end. To recap, among other things, I have been:
1. Wondering what happened to your former employer and media outlet, the GOPUSA-sponsored Talon News, which shuttered its site following your resignation. I found a convenient Talon News web archive here. Ironically, the original domain is now being used for a parody of journalism.
2. Searching for the web archive of the 500 articles you wrote during your two years as a White House correspondent. Your previous and current blogs do not contain any content from before your February 2005 resignation, and the GOPUSA site only seems to have some of your prodigious output in its forums. Any information you could provide about the whereabouts of those 500 journalistic gems, such as "League of Women Voters Advocates Liberal Agenda" or "AP Reporter has Kerry Ties," would be greatly appreciated.
3. Hoping for some enlightenment on how and from whom you and Talon News received a White House press credential. Could Scott McClellan shed any light, or would he just say "Go ahead, Jeff" and ask you to provide the details. Or perhaps Ari Fleischer could help, since he claimed you were "just as legitimate as some of the fringe organizations in the room" and that you asked him a question at a February 2003 briefing held before the existence of Talon News.
4. Blogging on the ongoing PR fraud of the Bush presidency here, here and here. Any insight you could provide into the White House's use of rented reporters, purchased pundits, rigged rallies, scripted sessions, fake news and pseudo-science would again be much appreciated. Then again, I should probably just read your book; I'm sure the details are in there.
Thank you also for taking the time to visit and comment at Perrspectives. Please don't worry about me "feeling slighted" by your drive-by spamming of the site to, as President Bush once said, "catapult the propaganda." That's what Americans expect from the organs of the right.
Perrspective
"5. Seated at head table at National Press Club luncheon featuring Lynne Cheney, joined by Vice President Dick Cheney in October 2007."
A phony reporter seated as guest by a phony VP, selected by a partisan and corrupt Supreme Court with the help of massive illegal voter fraud and intimidation.
Yea, you're the real thing Jeff.
I'm sorry but in what universe is copying G.O.P. press releases considered journalism? I mean, I agree that the MSM is in pitiful shape, but I don't think it has quite sunk so low as that.
There is a reason no one takes you seriously Jeff. And it just ain't your nude photos.
The subtitle of Guckert's book should be "How to Self-Publish Rightwing Spittle in 10 Easy Steps" or "Vanity Publishing for the Vainglorious."
Oh, MARY, Bre'r Gannon! Drive-by blogspam is just - so - very - *_sophisticated_.* Ya' know?
As in *sophistry*. As in DELIBRATE EROR being quite clearly just dreamed up, dressed up, vetted for expediency alone (truth be damned), then shoved down our deeply offended throats like Steely Dan the Robo-Dildo from "Naked Lunch" fer Jebus' sake! Shee-yit, man, how you *do* catapult that smelly brown propaganda! (So d'yadig trickledown theory too?)
Really. Yes, REALLY! BULLSHIT on all your LAMER LIES and the leprous elephant-sized PIG they all rode in on! Cut all the pretentions, all the half-truths, all the LIES, and all that ego-building crap before you ENTIRELY poison your OWN self with it! (There is so much...)
Lookit: We are far from stupid. Our intelligence is non-faulty BIGTIME. Our Third Nostrils are wide open 24/7 these days. They have been wide open for a very long time now, thanks to you and all your odious ilk.
What's more, we ourselves tend toward ACTUAL HONESTY as our daily sociocultural standard, not that vastly inferior expediency-based imbecility that passes for "leadership" with no more than 27% (and dropping) of We the People these days, despite all your war-pimpin' ilk's propagandization and echo-chamber neener-neener wallofdenial noise. Did you know that you have not wiped out all the honest people from the face of the earth yet, even with all your lies and warpimping softball prearrangements, MISTER Gannon?
Oh, um, gee. On pimping. One must ask: Who else but your own highly objectionable self has lent any more poignant, even deeper-throated meaning to the post-Bush neologism "presstitute" than YOU, Sirrah?
Poor lad. Guess it just ain't for a Monarch slaveguy from Boys' Town or any such to ever even think to give a damn against anything like that fine steamin' heap o' mammon, or even to care at all about contributing in any genuinely positive way to anyone's quality of life but your own and your owner/operator(s) here on Earth. John 8:32 could have been Just All Right for YOU, too. But noooo... It ain't about where The Dick got forced. It's all about where the SOUL got sold, y'see.
You took the MAMMON, y'see.
Mammonhead you now surely are. Sham. POO on you! Repent, redeem, and THEN rise in transparent brilliant LIVING WATER. Rinse well. Repeat until CLEAN.
Be sure to dry well behind those fine burnin' ears, my brother. So instead of the scheiss you pull/pack/shove/fling, you might just want to...
Increase the Peace.
Reverse the Curse.
Reject all terror.
You know you want to, Bre'r Guckert.
Gannon your mom is looking for you .... no really, she is. Go home and maybe you can find your heart and soul too.
Who the eff' is Walking Turtle? Damm' that's great fukin' stuff.
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