Here are the facts.
A former gay male prostitute, using an alias, was given a White House press pass on an expedited basis, not having to undergo the usual security screenings, in order to ask softball questions. He was there for two years. (1)
That's right, the White House brought in a plant, to ask the questions they wanted to be asked. A gay pornography-selling plant. With fake ID. (2)
Seems like there's a story there, doesn't it?
Well, the corporate media has steadfastly refused to cover the story. At least, the American (3) corporate media.
No one is denying the facts. The White House isn't. It's all quite true. But none of the major media outlets - not CNN, not the New York Times (4) , not the Wall Street Journal, none of them - covered it. Not a word on CBS, on ABC, USA Today. Not even the National Enquirer. The Los Angeles Times, (5) the San Francisco Chronicle (6) and the Washington Post (7), perhaps goaded by a stream of "WTF?"s from the Internet, have now commented on it belatedy and in the back pages. Had it not been for small time reporters, no one would ever have heard about it.
That's frightening. In fact, it's fucking terrifying.
This is a scandal. The fact that it probably means nothing, other than that the current administration doesn't believe it needs to or should answer questions other than for propaganda purposes, is irrelevent. It's a scandal. It's juicy. Dig an inch and you find out all sorts of scandalous things about this guy and his connections to the Republican bosses and to things homoerotic. The news should be all over this.
Not a word.
It's not disinterest. It's not censorship. It even goes beyond the outright purchase of media opinion using government money (8).
It's a conspiracy of silence.
It was obvious that the corporate media favors Republicans. Eight years of chasing after utterly non-existant Clinton "scandals", baying obediently after anything fed them by the right-wing speakerbox. A 2000 campaign where no smear was too facile to use against Gore and no gaffe too embarrassing to forgive Bush. Four years of an administration dead set against truth and reality, and always the ostensibly independent media (not, obviously, counting propaganda outlets such as Fox news) hewed to the administration's line and presented outright falsehoods (9) as if they were valid points of view.
Now they're not even going to chase a scandal.
Dear God.
Please help my country.
- Sun Ra
(1) A guy named James Guckert, using the alias Jeff Gannon, and employed by "Talon News", was issued daily press passes for the white house briefing room. (Long-term press passes require a background check.) This went on for two years despite the facts that he was using a false name, had phony journalistic credentials, a completely false resume, and represented a phony news organization. Oh, and he skipped out on more than twenty thousand in income taxes he owes the state of Delaware.
The White House press secretary knew about all this, but since Guckert/Gannon's purpose was to ask the questions the administration wanted them to, which he obediently did, that's not a big surprise. Reprehensible, but not a surprise.
The real surprise? Guckert/Gannon's background in gay porn. I'm not going to link to it. You can find it easily enough if you want to.
Oh, and I shouldn't have to say this, but given the modern reactionary's level of discourse I will. I don't care about Guckert's homosexuality. I care about the Republican leaderships' almost unbelievable hypocrisy.
(2) Maureen Dowd perhaps encapsulated it best: "I was rejected for a White House press pass at the start of the Bush administration, but someone with an alias, a tax evasion problem and Internet pictures where he posed like the "Barberini Faun" is credentialed to cover a White House that won a second term by mining homophobia and preaching family values?"
(3) The British press - ah, that we have to look abroad to find a free press, eh? - aren't shy about covering the story.
(4) With the exception of Maureen Dowd's OpEd piece.
(5) The LA Times buried this cute little article at the back of the Nation section... without having ever unfolded the "Gannon affair" beforehand. The spin? Oh, the journalist corps. has always had eccentric characters. Nothing to see here, move along.
(6) Here's the SF Chronicle's story. The spin? Oh, how dare you investigate my sexuality? Speaking of hypocrisy.
(7) Perhaps stung by criticism, the Washington Post finally gave it some ink - with a dizzying spin that both trivializes (Nothing to see here, move along) and makes partisan (darn liberals!) the whole affair. Then this; apparently only beltway insiders care about the story. Or that the White House only answers questions it hands out.
(8) Armstrong Williams is just the tip of the iceberg. They're buying propaganda with tax dollars.
(9) "I want you to think about a Social Security system that will be flat bust, bankrupt, unless the United States Congress has got the willingness to act now. And that's what we're here to talk about, a system that will be bankrupt." Except, of course, that it won't. The president is flat-out lying. The worst-case Social Security scenario is that benefits will be reduced to 70% of what were promised. In 2042. Is the world in 2005 the way you thought it would be back in 1968?