I've not been following the saga of Jeff Gannon/James Gluckart very closely, but it does put me in the mind of the adventures of Benedick and Claudio. I realize a lot of people are upset, but just because you can think up a scenario doesn't mean it's even close to reality. If I was upset over Dan Rather's fraudulent TNG story on Bush, and Eason Jordan's claim that the military targets reporters and more importantly his revelation that CNN deliberately lied to the public in order to keep reporters in Iraq where they were in reality hostages, why am I not too concerned in this case? Read on McDuff.
Mr. Gannon is accused of asking biased and/or softball questions. Usually one question is cited, which was undeniably both biased and a softball. But if that is the measure, then a lot of journalists should also be drummed out of the corps. And that apparently wasn't his typical question - although it may have been the one to bring on all the scrutiny.
Mr. Gannon is accused of being gay. OK, so that should somehow matter to getting a day pass? No, it's the hypocrisy. According to John Aravosis of Americablog.org "The White House wouldn't let him in the door right now, knowing of his background." Umm, so there are no openly gay people working anywhere in the Whitehouse, let alone attend press briefings? I find that hard to believe, nor have I heard of any such policy. No, it's the nude pictures and the possibility he was a gay escort. OK, so should the White House announce a list of prior activities based on moral issues as opposed to criminal ones that will proclude access to the White House (including press briefings) they will now investigate and enforce?
That's the problem to me with this line of reasoning -- are those upset honestly asking the White House to officially define who's a journalist and who isn't, and to enforce a morals test? Do they really want the White House investigating journalists to ensure their moral purity? Most journalists working the beat apparently don't want that. Which makes me believe the critics are just looking for a stick to beat Bush with.
But wait, Gannon is really some sort of Rovian mole, a political operative in disguise. Yeah, like Stephanopolous, Mathews, and Russert, all of whom worked for Democratic office holders.
And those day pases - access to the White House baby. Which apparently you can get by providing some basic info like name and SSN coupled with the ability to show up early and wait for one. Kind of like how I got access to Congress a couple of summers ago - we showed up and waited. Interestingly enough, we could never get to the ticket office early enough to go up in Washington's Monument, but we had no trouble getting access to Congress.
I'm sorry, but with all the real issues, both those within the media and those facing the country, I find it hard to get worked up about a guy with a checkerd past working (although not any longer) for a minor press outfit asking questions at press conferences 99.99% of the population of the country pay no attention to.
