There is a big media (and gay) scandal brewing at the White House that has some people charging that the Administration is planting journalists in the White House press corps to lob "softball" questions to the Press Secretary.

Background

From the Washington Post's White House Briefing blog:

James Guckert, aka Jeff Gannon worked for a Web site called Talon News, and his writings appeared on that site as well one called GOPUSA.com, both of which were operated by Texas Republican activist Bobby Eberle. On his personal Web page, Gannon had a section called "Behind Enemy Lines: Stories from Inside the White House Briefing Room."

Pretty much every day, Gannon got cleared into the White House briefing room by a press office that knew his real name. Press Secretary Scott McClellan frequently called on him during the mid-day briefings, using his fake name. McClellan was consistently rewarded with questions that -- in stark contrast from most of what passes for questions in that room -- were more expressions of conservative dogma than actual attempts to elicit information. Members of the press corps individually confronted Gannon and told him that he didn't belong there. But nothing more serious than that happened -- until Bush called on him at his televised Jan. 26 news conference and he asked a loaded, inaccurate question partly derived from a Rush Limbaugh joke.

Here was his question:

"Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. Harry Reid was talking about soup lines, and Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet, in the same breath, they say that Social Security is rock-solid and there's no crisis there. How are you going to work -- you said you're going to reach out to these people -- how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?" [the soup kitchen line came from the Limbaugh joke]

In the ensuing days, liberal Web sites and an army of bloggers determined his real name, called attention to his lack of journalistic credentials, found a link to gay porn Web sites, pointed out how that ran afoul of his "family values" positions, and apparently hounded him into resigning.

The gay angle

From the Washington Blade's blog:

Gannon, the "reporter" in question, has resigned his softball position after many liberal blogs, led by Daily Kos have reported that the owner of his personal Web site -- jeffgannon.com -- is also the owner of the following Web site domain names:

Hotmilitarystud.com
Militaryescorts.com
Militaryescortsm4m.com

After bloggers investigated, what they found was a profile on AOL that included this picture (courtesy of AmericaBlog). The profile on AOL has been removed, as has all mention of Gannon from the Talon News "media" site.

So, if you read between the lines the White House plant "reporter" has a profile up that looks mighty gay and owns domain names that appear to be gay (m4m). And this pillar of social conservatives values has one Web site that offers military escorts for hire.

The hypocrisy of it all is just too much to believe.

Bush Shenanigans?

The Boston Globe reports:

Now, the question of how Gannon gets into White House press conferences is coming under intense scrutiny from critics who contend that Gannon is not a journalist but rather a White House tool to soften media coverage of Bush. The issue was raised by a media watchdog group and picked up by Internet bloggers, who linked Gannon's presence in White House briefings to recent controversies over whether the administration manipulates the flow of information to the public.

These include the disclosure that the Education Department secretly paid columnist Armstrong Williams to promote its education policy and the administration's practice of sending out video press releases about its policies that purport to be "news stories" by fake journalists.

McClellan said Gannon has not been issued -- nor requested -- a regular "hard pass" to the White House, and instead has come in for the past two years on daily passes. Daily passes, he said, may be issued to anyone who writes for an organization that publishes regularly and who is cleared to enter the building.

He said other reporters and political commentators from lesser-known newsletters and from across the political spectrum also attend briefings, though he could not recall any Internet bloggers. McClellan said it is not the White House's role to decide who is and who is not a real journalist and dismissed any notion of conspiracy.

Nonetheless, transcripts of White House briefings indicate that McClellan often calls on Gannon and that the press secretary -- and the president -- have found relief in a question from Gannon after critical lines of questioning from mainstream news organizations.

Gannon's Response

Jennifer Brooks, a reporter for the Delaware News Journal, spoke to the man she calls Guckert, a former Wilmington resident.

" 'I asked a question at a White House press briefing and this is what happened to me,' Guckert told The News Journal on Wednesday after announcing his resignation. 'If this is what happens to me, what reporter is safe?'"

"Guckert said he registered those [gay pornographic porn site] domain names for a client while he was working to set up a Web hosting business in Wilmington.

" 'There are people out there who will turn people's lives inside out,' Guckert said. 'They tried to intimidate me, punish me. Then they tried to embarrass me, and they've done a pretty good job of that.' "