Not so Useless Speculation II

February 9, 2005

An few days ago there was a post about barfly SusanG’s search for the background of Jeff Gannon – a fake White House reporter involved in the Winston/Plame case.

Atrios suggested Jeff Gannon is not the mans real name. Searching the Internet domain name registrations related to Jeff Gannon resulted in some finds of very conservative opinion pages of him plus some sex domains. The company name those sites were registered for, turned up at an address of a private house and several cross checks actually found that Jeff Gannon is Jim Guckert. Here is his private AOL homepage – a hypocrite when you compare his lifestyle to his Jeff Gannon opinions.

Still there are many open questions:

– Who pays this man?

– Why does he have a prominent/preferred role in White House press conferences?

– How did he get his hands on a secret Plame / Wilson / Nigeria Uranium paper?

Some hundred people have worked on the issue via several blogs. This is a great success for the blogsphere and maybe a real new kind of journalism.

Go Susan, go. You are writing media history here.

Posted by b on February 9, 2005 at 00:59 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Thanks for this news. I haven’t had time to follow this unfolding story lately, but I am really impressed with what SusanG and other bloggers have done with this story. How long before the mainstream media picks it up?

Posted by: maxcrat | Feb 9 2005 1:33 utc | 1

i tried to access his aol homepage – got this message:
Web Site Not Displayed
Sorry, We Can’t Display That Page
This member has exceeded their bandwith for the day. Please check back after 4 am EST to access this pa

Posted by: mistah charley | Feb 9 2005 2:18 utc | 2

GANNONGAYTE

Posted by: Latest links | Feb 9 2005 3:02 utc | 3

it’s thrilling i’ve been glued to it for days and it finally exploded while i was reading. all at once. now it’s all over the place, can’t wait for the next chapter once the gay thing dies down. wonder if he’ll be able to carry on in the same fashion! highly unlikely. susang started a bombshell, cheers to her. also i didn’t realize she used to be a reporter. go susan go.

Posted by: annie | Feb 9 2005 3:13 utc | 4

Congrats, SusanG, for doing such wonderful work and creating a community of “activist bullshit detectors.
and now, ot:
…can I get a little hallelujah chorus?

Posted by: fauxreal | Feb 9 2005 3:28 utc | 5

This was an interesting process to watch
Indeed the BLogosphere outdid itself
David Brin wrote and interesting book a few years ago called Earth which envisioned a “snoop society” in the near future ( about 2030 as I recall) where there really was no privacy. This seems a good example of what he was imagining. The Blogosphere as an example of the collective power of intelligence against propoganda is truly astounding.
A good question is how will the tactics of the snake oil salesmen evolve in response (I realize that they can’t call it evolution but assume I meant how will God reprogame them in response)

Posted by: ed_finnerty | Feb 9 2005 4:30 utc | 6

If you guys need a chuckle, check out the thread on this over at Eschaton.
It got a little silly, but it was truly hilarious.

Posted by: fourlegsgood | Feb 9 2005 5:05 utc | 7

coming on the heels of rethug porn funding/presidential hugging & kissing & mannerisms, the late night comedians should have a field day w/ this one. dick & george set ’em up, john stewart can knock ’em out of the park. and to think some have the gall to call this a lame duck administration…
seriously though, congrats to those unraveling this story so far. looks like it’s gonna lead [further] into some spooky territory.

Posted by: b real | Feb 9 2005 5:51 utc | 8

Well, it’s been an amazing ride, that’s for sure.
The hardest part has been managing the information for the past week. After about the first 24 hours I couldn’t do the research myself anymore; I couldn’t do anything but manage. (Well, I learned to delegate pretty quickly as well.) I think even more important than the specifics of the “story” we’re pursuing is the community research and investigative effort. It’s incredible, how many people are involved with this (thanks fauxreal! thanks Bernhard!).
There’s a lot of administrative stuff going on behind all the research that is posted that isn’t really visible but is getting done anyway — creation of a visual database and probably a website, with a gung-ho blogger who got interested in the process he was seeing unfold, blogged on how to design software for such a huge endeavor, and before you know it, we recruited him.
I think for most of the people involved, it’s been an invigorating and welcome dose of activism. We are all tired of feeling powerless, we are all tired of waiting waiting waiting for the mainstream press to tell us the truth. We all simply are so thirsting after truth that scores of people are willing to put their personal lives on hold for a week or two (or however long it takes to get the truth).
This should say something about the sad state of affairs of both the media and government.
I hope to be able to drop in at least once a day here. I’m really missing you folks.
Thanks for all the cheering on, and come join in if you’re not doing it already. There are new things to look up every day and you don’t need to know all the ins and outs of it.
And let me just say … nothing on earth beats the cool of getting quoted at Whiskey Bar. That may well prove to be the highlight of the whole endeavor for me.

Posted by: SusanG | Feb 9 2005 6:11 utc | 9

SusanG you are my Hero, if you ever need anything, I mean anything, up here in Montana let me know. On another note, I could be so off the mark here, but it seems to me kos wasn’t to happy about all this, just my intution.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 9 2005 7:54 utc | 10

oh susang oh won’t you spy for me.
i come from pennsylvania
w/ no identity worth to keep

Posted by: annie | Feb 9 2005 8:07 utc | 11

let me try that again
oh susang oh won’t you spy for me.
i come from pennsylvania
w/ no identity worth to keep

Posted by: fuckert | Feb 9 2005 8:08 utc | 12

Kudos, that was a very well done job by you and your team 🙂
I don’t think “Gannon” will ever show up at a WH press conference. Maistream media may not mention this, but the journalists there pretty much know it all now, and Gannon would just be laughed off of the room.
It’s time to give his seat and prominent place to real, serious and honest journalists. Like Helen Thomas.

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Feb 9 2005 9:38 utc | 13

looking at this whole affair from afar, i am inclined to see it as one more symptom of the waxing fascism slowly engulfing everything in the US.
i clearly see here the “race for the bottom”: grossing out qualified and responsible people only to replace them with yes-men of ill repute which is of course hidden. when the sleazy past of such an actor is covered up, he or she will be replaced with another plug with a least as dirty a past as the discarded one.
in any fascistic regime, people like “gannon” serve only to diffuse the energies of the dissenters by engaging them into uncovering the dirt instead of using same energy on discourse of relevant themes. after “gannon” the next such scandal will arise. it is a natural part of fascism.
if dissenters are not careful they will look like the scandal weeklies to be had at any supermarket in the western world.
stern, hola, bravo, enquirer, the sun, lefty dissenters, will end up in one bin in the perception of the masses. and that is what the fascists want.
still, gratulations for the work to susang and everybody else involved. it was fun to download the pic of that macho stud 🙂

Posted by: name | Feb 9 2005 10:33 utc | 14

For those who have been able to keep up with this story over the last few days…could someone do a brief (no links required, indeed, not wanted) recap?
I’m able to check in on this site or kos for just a bit at a time…I can’t read through all the threads, keep track, etc. right now.
From what I could glean, Gannon’s real name is now known, where he went to college, that he has web sites that look like gaydar outposts…and that’s it.
Thank you if someone can let me know of substantials…did he get a memo of some sort about a pdb?
In two or three weeks, I should hopefully be able to come up for air and find out about these things myself. I tried the other day, but cannot survive on three hours of sleep for more than two days at a time.

Posted by: fauxreal | Feb 9 2005 11:50 utc | 15

As Valerie Plame’s name has come up in all of this, can anyone project how this might all play out to her benefit and the “investigation”?

Posted by: beq | Feb 9 2005 12:34 utc | 16

The substantials as provided by SusanG in Diary IV:

White House-credentialed fake news reporter “Jeff Gannon” from fake news agency “Talon News” was cited by the Washington Post as having the only access to an internal CIA memo that named Joseph Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, as a covert CIA agent. Gannon, in a question posed to Wilson in an October 2003 interview, referred to the memo (to which no other news outlet had access, according to the Post). Gannon subsequently has been subpoenaed by the federal grand jury looking into the Plame outing.
The precise wording of the question posed in the subject interview is:

TN: An internal government memo prepared by U.S. intelligence personnel details a meeting in early 2002 where your wife, a member of the agency for clandestine service working on Iraqi weapons issues, suggested that you could be sent to investigate the reports. Do you dispute that?

Jeff Gannon was a fake name and uncovered it is now inoperational. That person has stopped sitting in the White House briefings, supporting Scott with dumb questions and is no longer writing for Talon News. (a good thing in itself and White House press corps should take a bow to the bloggers who did this).
Now the hunt is concentrating to uncover more of the background of Talon News and GOPUSA. How is this financed and who gives the marching orders. That again could lead to persons who might have given the Plame memo to “Jeff Gannon”.
Long shoot and the search may never get there, but its like pealing an onion and any piece found shows more of the operating of the GOP media manipulation.

Posted by: b | Feb 9 2005 13:01 utc | 17

Thanks, Bernhard. And SusanG: Way to Go!

Posted by: beq | Feb 9 2005 13:31 utc | 18

I’d also like to add my thanks to B and SusanG for their great work on this issue. This story deserves wider public circulation to help people understand how they are being manipulated and who is behind it

Posted by: lonesomeG | Feb 9 2005 16:26 utc | 19

Update:
SusanG interviews Wilson

I did not like fascists when I fought them as a diplomat for 23 years and I don’t like them now in my own country.
…
That said, if we allow ourselves to be intimidated and silenced by the liars, our democracy will not survive. We have to continue to confront them.
…
I also believe that the nature of the profession has changed to the detriment of good investigative journalism. No longer is there a quest for the truth so much as there is this apparent need to present both sides of an issue even if one is nothing but lies and distortions. Giving the same value to fiction as to fact in the interest of so-called fairness is to mislead the American people and the press has become party to that.

Hear, hear!!!

Posted by: b | Feb 9 2005 16:54 utc | 20

In the comments to the above interview Wilson also points to a definition of fascism. He says one should read it replacing government with republicans.

Posted by: b | Feb 9 2005 17:20 utc | 21

While I respect Mr. Wilson’s view, the Democrat’s are just as much to blame for this clusterfuck. We have got to get past this binary Aristotle straight jacket.
Bravo SusanG ! bravo!…
Next up: The Sibel Edmonds case?
Man I would work day and night on that one…
I know the gannon thing is not over but what’s to stop the blogshphere from opening several fronts on these tyrannts.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 9 2005 17:35 utc | 22

Truly remarkable story Susan and by implication how many other “Gannons” are out there?

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Feb 9 2005 18:06 utc | 23

Joining the choir and saying: well done and keep on unpeeling this onion. May the sour sting only in the eyes of the Shrubbery-gang.

Posted by: A swedish kind of death | Feb 9 2005 19:09 utc | 24

The General weights in Supporting the military

You see, they’re suggesting that he might be a homosexual because he likes to show people pictures of himself dressed only in underwear, and he owns web site domains with names like Hotmilitarystud.com, Militaryescorts.com, and Militaryescortsm4m.com.
I can’t see how Mr. Jeff Jim JD Gannon Guckert’s detractors can live with themselves. These sites have nothing to do with homosexuality. If they did, Jeff Jim JD Gannon Guckert couldn’t serve as Our Leader’s point man in the war against seditious reason without being a self-hating, power-hungry, Roy-Cohn-channeling, little carny-barking quisling.

Posted by: b | Feb 9 2005 19:58 utc | 25

Been following this amazing effort at DKos as real life permits.
Not to go all 1960’s on everyone, but
FAR FUCKIN’ OUT SusanG!!!
And RE getting quoted at WB? The honor isn’t yours – it’s his.

Posted by: OkieByAccident | Feb 9 2005 20:20 utc | 26

The Gannon story is on NPR! It got several minutes and mentioned DKos and the “homo-erotic” websites associated with him!
Score! A standing ovation for SusanG is in order!

Posted by: stoy | Feb 9 2005 22:43 utc | 27

Here is the link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4492778

Posted by: stoy | Feb 9 2005 22:45 utc | 28

Wow, Susan’s story is on the main page of Yahoo! and calls Gannon by name. Scottie is his usual smarmy self. Link

Posted by: dan of steele | Feb 10 2005 20:51 utc | 29

U.S. reporter quits amid credential questions

Posted by: Anonymous | Feb 10 2005 21:09 utc | 30

Check news.google.com and search for “Gannon” – 132 references by now.
Unfortunatly most miss the real story Rove – Gannon – Plame – Nigeria – Iraq.

Posted by: b | Feb 10 2005 21:46 utc | 31

SusanG,
the story has now is made it into the Guardian. Keep up your great work.

Posted by: Fran | Feb 11 2005 6:16 utc | 32

Déja vue: Stirring the White House honey pot – Why, when I read the name – actually, pseudonymn – “Jeff Gannon,” do I see the name Craig Spence?

Spence was a conservative lobbyist during the Reagan-Bush years. The New York Times called him “Washington’s ultimate power broker.” He was also running a gay prostitution ring which employed adolescent boys. As perks of the job, he treated his boys to after-hour tours of the White House. In The Washington Times of August 9, 1989, Spence “hinted the tours were arranged by top level” persons, including Vice President Bush’s National Security Advisor Donald Gregg, whose name also figures prominently in the October Surprise story. The paper added that “Spence, according to friends, was also carrying out homosexual blackmail operations for the CIA.”

Posted by: Fran | Feb 11 2005 6:43 utc | 33

Gannon/Guckert quoted in Fran’s linked Guardian story:
“I asked a question at a White House press briefing and this is what happened to me. If this is what happens to me, what reporter is safe?” he told a newspaper in his hometown in Delaware yesterday.
Is he trying to scare us?

Posted by: Citizen | Feb 11 2005 6:45 utc | 34

Amazing work SusanG, inspiring to see how it’s done.

Posted by: Citizen | Feb 11 2005 6:47 utc | 35

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