Since George W. Bush took office his secrecy with respect to the media has been unprecedented. He rarely holds press conferences, and on the rare occasions when he does, his answers are constantly obfuscated by double-speak and misdirection. Thus it is for good reason that the blogosphere and independent media became suspicious when little known reporter Jeff Gannon was called on by President Bush at one of these rare conferences, and ended his question with the softball: “How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?” referring to Senator Hillary Clinton and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.
After some digging, it turned out that “Jeff Gannon” is really an alias for an individual named James D. Guckert, who represented a conservative news site called “Talon News”. Somehow, within a short time of entering “journalism,” Guckert, masquerading as Gannon was able to get credentialed and attend numerous White House briefings, where he lobed softball questions at White House officials. According to DemocraticUnderground.com, “Gannon was actually in the White House as early as February 28, 2003 — a month before Talon News even existed”.
Whenever one goes digging, the most interesting details usually buried the deepest, and this story is no exception. It turns out that by day, Guckert was merely a half-credentialed “journalist” planted by the Bush Administration to ask easy questions, but by night was transformed into a high dollar male escort and gay porn star! Guckert appeared on a wide variety of websites that feature homosexual pornography, including HotMilitaryStud.com and MilitaryEscorts.com. These sites have now been taken down and are listed for sale in the Adult/Porn category.
One would think that when the White House plants a fake reporter who is also a gay porn star and male escort, the religious right would be outraged, but interestingly they have not. In an article by Bill Berkowitz entitled “Christian Right Mum on Gannon Affair Why have the “traditional family values” folks erected a wall of silence around the Gannon scandal?” a long list of religious news organizations and Christian political action committees were contacted, with not so much as one willing to comment on the scandal. Apparently, the same individuals who are so up in arms against gay rights have no problem with the President allowing a homosexual male prostitute to meander around the west wing of the White House so long as it serves their agenda.
This scandal does not seem to be going away nearly as quickly as the President would like. With so much buzz in the blogosphere, even extremely conservative media sources such as Fox News have been browbeaten into covering it. What is truly disturbing to me is not the fact that Guckert is a male escort and gay porn star, but the fact that the Bush Administration has taken to planting fake journalists who simply repeat GOP talking points and ask questions that advance the neo conservative agenda.
Christian Right Mum on Gannon Affair
A Man Called Jeff… More than you really want to see of Guckert
