Don't Give Gannon A Pass

progressreport.org
2/24/2005

Don't Give Gannon A Pass

By now, almost everyone's heard of Jeff Gannon/James Guckert. He's the
fake reporter with a false name given all-too-real press credentials by
the White House. He's known for asking biased, leading questions during
press briefings before finally being exposed a month ago as a
right-wing operative with no journalism experience, a fake name, and a shady
past. There are some serious ethical, professional and national security
issues at stake. Now, "Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) is circulating a
letter among his colleagues that asks President Bush to launch an
investigation
(http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000816326)
" into how Gannon gained access to White House press briefings without
any journalistic qualifications. Durbin and other concerned lawmakers
are adding their voices to a previous investigation request by Sen.
Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), as well as a subpoena request by two leaders of
the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Reps. John Conyers (D-MI) and Louise
Slaughter (D-NY), who want federal prosecutors to gain access to a
record Gannon kept of his time over the past two years. Here are some basic
questions that must be answered by the White House:

HOW LONG CAN JOURNALISTS GAIN ACCESS TO THE WHITE HOUSE WITHOUT AN FBI
BACKGROUND CHECK? Most White House journalists have what is called a
"hard pass," a permanent pass obtained after undergoing a rigorous FBI
background check
(http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/02/15/guckert/print.html) .
Gannon skipped over that step. Instead, as Salon's Eric Boehlert explains,
"the White House waved him into press briefings for nearly two years
using what's called a day pass." Now, day passes are special exceptions
that are "designed for temporary use by out-of-town reporters who need
access to the White House, not for indefinite use
(http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/02/23/more_gannon/print.html)
by reporters." If the background check is necessary for reporters with
extended access to the White House, why were the rules circumvented for
Gannon? Is there a limit to how long a reporter can slide on "day"
passes, as Gannon did for years?

HOW DID GANNON GET A WHITE HOUSE PRESS PASS TWO MONTHS BEFORE HIS
SUPPOSED PUBLICATION EVEN EXISTED? Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan
admitted the White House gave Gannon his first day press pass in February
2003
(http://199.249.170.220/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000808705)
. The problem: His "publication," Talon News, didn't exist until April
2003.

BY WHAT CRITERIA DID THE WHITE HOUSE EVALUATE TALON NEWS? Talon News
is the brainchild (http://mediamatters.org/items/200501280006) of a
Republican activist from Texas, Bobby Eberle. Eberle, who runs the aptly
named "GOPUSA," told the New York Times he created Talon News because he
wanted to quietly construct a news service with a conservative slant:
"if someone were to see 'GOPUSA,' there's an instant built-in bias
(http://199.249.170.220/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000808705)
there." In denying Gannon a pass, the congressional press office
pointed out Gannon was unable to show that "Talon News has any paid
subscribers
(http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/02/23/more_gannon/print.html) ."
They also found that while actual working reporters can show their
principal income comes from reporting stories for publication in actual
news services, Talon's "paying a single reporter a 'stipend' does not meet
the intent of the rule." As the Washington Post's Dana Milbank put it,
Gannon was "representing a phony media company
(http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/arts/20rich.html) that doesn't
really have any such thing as circulation or readership."

HOW DID GANNON GET A WHITE HOUSE PRESS PASS UNDER A FAKE NAME? Jeff
Gannon's real name is James Guckert. (He told Wolf Blitzer that he changed
his name because "Jeff Gannon" was easier to pronounce.) Although all
applications for White House press passes are supposed to be thoroughly
vetted, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said he was
unaware (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/arts/20rich.html) that Gannon was
using an alias. His predecessor, Ari Fleischer, also pleads ignorance
(http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000807754)
. Gannon signed in to the White House each day as "Jeff Guckert,"
(http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0502/10/wbr.01.html) a name
which did not match his pass -- yet no one seemed to thing that was
strange. In fact, no one at the White House seems overly concerned with what
amounts to a stunning national security breach.

WHAT IS GANNON'S CONNECTION TO THE VALERIE PLAME CASE? Jeff Gannon has
been interviewed by FBI agents who are investigating another security
breach in the White House, namely, the leaking of CIA agent Valerie
Plame's name to the press. So far, Gannon has been coy, giving "
conflicting signals
(http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000816326)
, over many months, concerning whether he saw a secret document or
merely knew about it from other sources." Today he says he never really saw
the memo, he'd only read about it in the Wall Street Journal. Reps.
Conyers and Slaughter are asking Patrick Fitzgerald, the lead prosecutor
in the Plame investigation, to subpoena the journal Gannon kept over the
past two years to find out what Gannon actually knew, and when.