The mole, the US media and a White House coup

February 21, 2005
by Paul Harris in New York.
The Observer

For two years Jeff Gannon cut an unobtrusive figure at White House press conferences. The shaven-headed, craggily handsome man worked for an obscure news agency called Talon News, known for its conservative sympathies. He was often the subject of jokes by colleagues on weightier news organisations.

No one is laughing now, because Gannon was far from being a harmless distraction. He was writing under a false name and working for a Republican front organisation. Suddenly, his 'softball' questions to White House officials looked less like eccentricities and more like plotting by an administration which has frequently displayed a dark mastery of the arts of press control.

When it emerged that Gannon was also linked to gay prostitution websites and might be a gay prostitute himself, the scandal as to how he was allowed daily access to the White House grew even murkier. The American media is now being forced to confront the possibility that Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert, was simply a Republican plant, used by officials, including President George W Bush, to ask easy questions in difficult press conferences. 'The idea of having a mole in the White House press corp is amazing, but that's what it looks like,' said Jack Lule, a journalism professor at Lehigh University.

But the Gannon affair, which has shocked much of America's political establishment, is just the latest scandal in the media establishment. Newspapers including the New York Times and USA Today have been hit by plagiarism and forgery scandals. Other papers and television stations have been consumed with a soul-searching inquest into how they were misled about non-existent Iraqi weapons programmes. Added to that is growing evidence of a White House campaign to bypass or control the media in its everyday presentation of government policy , which included paying one journalist hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote its policies.

Last week a federal watchdog warned the Bush administration that any video news releases must state that the government is the source. Twice in two years, government departments have been accused of distributing fake news packages, using actors as journalists.

On the internet, the mainstream media is derided and scorned. One question is dominating US newsrooms and television studios: ignored, scandalised and now corrupted, just what is America's mainstream media for anymore?

The extent of the Bush White House's command and control of the press corps is often revealed in the seemingly innocuous White House pool reports. These are dispatches dutifully filed by a correspondent assigned to travel with Bush and contain little but lists of endless meetings, meals eaten and clothes worn. But no detail is too small to be ignored by Bush's ever-watchful press handlers. One report, on 13 August 2004, contained a remark from Bush that it was a 'good question' as to who to support if Iraq's soccer team played the United States in the Olympics. Officials scurried to 'correct' it. 'To clear up any possible misconception ... the president would of course support the American soccer team in any hypothetical game with Iraq,' a new report said. 'The initial report should have done more to reflect the exchange was mainly in jest.'

Such micromanagement has been a hallmark of the Bush White House and its all-powerful policy guru, Karl Rove. Added to that has been what appears to be a concerted effort to subvert the mainstream media.

Administration officials were recently revealed to have paid three senior journalists to promote or design policies. More than $240,000 of taxpayers' cash was paid to black pundit Armstrong Williams to push the agenda of Bush's education department. Critics were blunt in their assessment of what Armstrong's contract with the government meant. 'It is propaganda,' said Melanie Sloan of watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics.

At the same time, Bush has held fewer Washington press conferences than any of his modern predecessors, while courting local media, such as small city newspapers, which are perceived as easier to steamroll. During last year's election campaign Bush avoided interviews with leading newspapers, such as the Washington Post , but frequently invited reporters from smaller swing state publications to speak with him on Air Force One. Vice-president Dick Cheney took the strategy one step further and banned New York Times reporters from travelling with him.

The media has not helped its own case. First, New York Times reporter Jayson Blair was found to have plagiarised numerous stories. The incident cost Blair his job, forced the editor to resign and was the subject of fevered Manhattan dinner party chatter for months. Then USA Today 's top foreign reporter, Jack Kelley, was discovered to have fabricated stories from around the world and invented interviews and witnesses from Cuba to Jerusalem.

Right-wing media ratcheted up the long-standing conservative complaint that the media is dominated by liberal publications. Though many journalism experts deny that is the case, the image has settled in the American consciousness, forcing newspapers, magazines and television stations to go out of their way to prove they are not liberal. 'We have a conservative media and also a mainstream media, which is also now fairly conservative because it has been forced to deny being liberal,' said Lule.

The Gannon case is a prime illustration. If, during the Clinton administration, a fake reporter from a Democrat front organisation, using a false name, had been exposed as attending White House press conferences it would have been a national scandal. If he had then been shown to be a gay prostitute, the scandal could have threatened a Democrat presidency. With 'Gannon' and Bush there has been no such outcry. The mainstream media has approached the story warily, while right-wing organisations such as Fox News have largely ignored it.

That has created a vacuum in the US media. It is a space being filled by 'bloggers' from both left and right who write personal journals, or weblogs, on the internet. It is here that the real media battles are now being fought. The internet has become a sort of Fifth Estate as the Fourth Estate of the mainstream media has slid toward irrelevance. The groundwork was done mainly by the right. Internet gossip hound Matt Drudge, whose Drudge Report is a key source for every American political journalist, struck the first blow with his breaking of the Monica Lewinsky affair.

Since then a plethora of right wing blogs have sprung up. Unlike Britain, where political blogs are barely part of the debate, internet sites in America are seen as a vital political tool. Conservative bloggers have taken two big scalps recently. Last year bloggers questioned the veracity of a CBS news report on Bush's National Guard service. They dumped enough doubt on the story to cause four CBS reporters to lose their jobs, tarnish the reputation of legendary anchor Dan Rather and insure that the substance of the CBS story - whether Bush fulfilled his service - never emerged as an election issue.

Last week, CNN's chief news executive, Eason Jordan, resigned after an internet campaign prompted by his claim that American soldiers targeted journalists in Iraq. Though Jordan said that his remarks had been misinterpreted, the bloggers' revenge was so vehement he ended his 23-year CNN career. One anti-Jordan website, Easongate.com, crowed openly when he quit: 'To every reader, commentator, e-mailer and blogger that committed to this cause, thank you.'

The left has also had victories. It was not the mainstream media that exposed Gannon, but left-wing website Media Matters for America which enlisted other liberal bloggers to help. All the significant breaks in the story emerged online, forcing Gannon to resign, reveal his real name and go into hiding.

Some commentators see the emergence of blogging as a media force as a liberating phenomenon. Unlike the mainstream media, blogging is cheap, easy and open to anyone regardless of qualification or background or money. 'Blogging gives a voice to those who were previously silent,' said Ananda Mitra, a communications professor at Wake Forest University.

Others see it as part of the trend towards partisan journalism. Spearheaded by the nakedly right-wing Fox News, journalism in America has come to resemble a political shouting match rather than any form of debate of the issues. But with soaring viewership, Fox has emerged as one of the most powerful forces in the media landscape. Other networks, such as CNN and MSNBC, have sought to copy Fox's personality-led and opinion-based news.

The media is in the midst of a transformation which the Bush administration is keen to foster. They have discovered that a partisan and atomised media can be controlled, manipulated and used to an unprecedented degree.

It is a lesson that liberals are also learning. In answer to the talk radio of Rush Limbaugh - one of America's most popular and conservative commentators - liberal groups have set up Air America. Defying the critics, it has established itself as a left-wing radio network every bit as ruthless in skewering its opponents' points of view as its right-wing equivalents. In answer to right-wing television, former presidential candidate Al Gore is rumoured to be seeking backers to finance a liberal television network. Now both sides are equally ready and willing to use any means necessary to tear the other apart. The old-fashioned mainstream media is disappearing. 'Once that pattern is put in place, it is going to be hard to break,' said Lule.

How the media shot themselves in the foot

A series of scandals have not helped the American media's reputation and its struggle for independence.

New York Times

Reporter Jayson Blair was fired and the newspaper's editor forced to resign after Blair was found to have plagiarised numerous stories.

USA Today

Foreign reporter Jack Kelly was discovered to have invented stories, interviews and witnesses from around the world.

CBS

Four reporters lost their jobs and the reputation of legendary anchor Dan Rather was tarnished after doubts were cast on a news report of Bush's National Guard Service.

CNN

Chief news executive Eason Jordan resigned his 23-year career after he claimed that American soldiers had deliberately targeted journalists in Iraq.

Rove-Gannon Connection?

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2005

(CBS) Dotty Lynch is the Senior Political Editor for CBS News. E-mail your questions and comments to Political Points

Karl Rove took a victory lap at an SRO lunch at the Conservative Political Action Committee meeting at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington on Thursday. After a glowing introduction by Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association, Rove proclaimed "conservatism as the dominant political creed in America," but warned Republicans not to get complacent or grow "tired and timid." He recalled the dark days when the Democrats were dominant and cautioned that that could happen again if they let down their guard. The new White House deputy chief of staff also called on conservatives to "seize the mantle of idealism."

Tired and timid are two adjectives never applied to Rove. The architect of the Bush victories in 2000 and 2004 came through the ranks of college Republicans with the late Lee Atwater, and their admitted and alleged dirty tricks are the legends many young political operatives dream of pulling off. So when Jeff Gannon, White House "reporter" for Talon "News," was unmasked last week, the leap to a possible Rove connection was unavoidable. Gannon says that he met Rove only once, at a White House Christmas party, and Gannon is kind of small potatoes for Rove at this point in his career.

But Rove's dominance of White House and Republican politics, Gannon's aggressively partisan work and the ease with which he got day passes for the White House press room the past two years make it hard to believe that he wasn't at least implicitly sanctioned by the "boy genius." Rove, who rarely gave on-the-record interviews to the MSM (mainstream media), had time to talk to GOPUSA, which owns Talon.

GOPUSA and Talon are both owned by Bobby Eberle, a Texas Republican and business associate of conservative direct-mail guru Bruce Eberle who says that Bobby is from the "Texas branch of the Eberle clan." Bobby Eberle told The New York Times that he created Talon to build a news service with a conservative slant and "if someone were to see 'GOPUSA,' there's an instant built-in bias there." No kidding.

Some of the real reporters in the White House pressroom were apparently annoyed at Gannon's presence and his softball, partisan questions, but considered him only a minor irritant. One told me he thought of Gannon as a balance for the opinionated liberal questions of Hearst's Helen Thomas. But what Gannon was up to was not just writing opinion columns or using a different technique to get information. He was a player in Republican campaigns and his work in the South Dakota Senate race illustrates the role he played. It is also a classic example of how political operatives are using the brave new world of the Internet and the blogosphere. Gannon and Talon News appear to be mini-Drudge reports; a "news" source which partisans use to put out negative information, get the attention of the bloggers, talk radio and then the MSM in a way that mere press releases are unable to achieve.

One of Gannon's first projects was an attempt to discredit the South Dakota Argus Leader, South Dakota's major paper, and its longtime political writer, David Kranz. According to the National Journal, which reported on this last November, Gannon wrote a series of articles in the summer of 2003 alleging that Kranz, who went to college with Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle, was not only sympathetic to him but was an actual part of the Daschle campaign. These articles then got a huge amount of play on the blogs of John Lauck and Jason Van Beek, and were picked up by other conservative sites and talk radio. The paper was bombarded with messages about its bias and acknowledges that these had an impact on its coverage.

Daschle opponent John Thune's campaign manager was Dick Wadham, an old political crony of Karl Rove's; the kind of pal Rove could ask to hire his first cousin, John Wood, a few years back. Wadham put the bloggers on the campaign payroll and the symbiotic relationship between the campaign, the bloggers and "reporter" Gannon continued. On September 29, Gannon broke the story that Daschle had claimed a special tax exemption for a house in Washington and the bloggers jumped all over it. According to a November 17 posting on South Dakota Politics , a site that Van Beek, who has become a staffer for now-Sen. Thune, has bequeathed to Lauck. "Jeff Gannon, whose reportage had a dramatic impact on the Daschle v. Thune race (his story about Sen. Daschle signing a legal document claiming to be a D.C. resident was published nearly the same day Thune began to run an ad showing Daschle saying, "I'm a D.C. resident) has written an analysis of the debacle."

Daschle aides told Roll Call, "This guy (Gannon) became the dumping ground for opposition research." The connections are so strong that there is an FEC challenge which could be a test case on the limits of the use of the Internet in federal campaigns.

Gannon also had Thune on his radio show "Jeff Gannon's Washington," and the White House correspondent for Talon became touted as the "resident D.C. expert on South Dakota politics" by the bloggers. Thune and Wadham (who has been hired by aspiring White House Republican Sen. George Allen) have become go-to guys on the use of blogs in campaigns. Thune was cited in The New York Times as introducing "Senators to the meaning of 'blogging,' explaining the basics of self-published online political commentary and arguing that it can affect public opinion."

This week Democrats, who have serious case of Rove envy, went a little nuts and started sending around information and graphic pictures of Gannon and his porn Web sites. But it is the more routine part of Gannon's life that deserves serious scrutiny. Planting or even just sanctioning a political operative in the WH press room is a dangerous precedent and Karl Rove's hope to become a respected policymaker will be hampered if the dirty tricks from his political past are more apparent than his desire to spread liberty around the globe.

Bush’s Marine Poster Boy: The ‘Gannon’ Pictures

AMERICAblog.blogspot.com

http://americablog.blogspot.com/USMCPT.pdf

The Web site reflects the era in which it was built A simple black background, white text, lots of kitschy images and bad puns. The theme is decidedly military. The logo at the top is borrowed from the US Marine Corps, an eagle standing atop an anchor. The letters USMCPT run across the logo, written in the colors of the flag. Below the strange acronym are four words: “Personal Trainer, Bodyguard, Escort.” Above it stands a muscular and headless man in black military boots, white socks, buck naked.

In 1999, Paul Leddy, a Web designer and photographer, says he received an email from a man named Jeff from Wilmington, Delaware. Jeff wanted Paul to build him a new Web site for his business. Paul accepted the job, provided Jeff mailed him a check with half the money up front (Jeff had not provided a last name, and Paul wanted to make sure he was for real). Jeff sent the check, it cleared, and Paul built the site and launched it online for Jeff.

Paul didn’t think about Jeff much until last week when he heard about a breaking scandal involving a man named Jeff who owned several military escort service Web addresses. “I saw the name Jeff Gannon, knew our Jeff, saw the militarystud.com Web address, and thought ‘hmmm, everything was military, that sounds like Jeff who we did the site for.’”

Paul searched the Internet WhoIs director for militarystud.com and saw that the owner was Bedrock Corp of Wilmington, Delaware. “That’s definitely him,” Paul said. (Paul and a second source both recall Jeff paying with a check in the name of Bedrock Corp. The name stuck in their heads at the time because they asked Jeff why “Bedrock”? He replied something about the Flintstones, they recall.) This is relevant because a Bedrock Corp in Wilmington, Delaware also owns former White House reporter Jeff Gannon's personal Web site and a series of Web addresses apparently dealing with military male escorts.

Paul then went and checked his files. He found five invoices to Jeff from August 31, 1999 to March 30, 2000. (The file properties say they were created on those dates by Paul Leddy.)

The invoices are from BELDesigns for “Website Design”and “hosting.” The billing address?
Bedrock Corp
5721 Kennett Pike
Centreville, DE 19807

(Paul Leddy’s address, phone number and email were removed from this invoice by me before publishing, at Paul’s request. I am happy to show the full invoice to journalists.)

According to the date the html files were created for the USMCPT Web site – files Paul still has - Paul built the site for Jeff in September 1999. Paul says he launched it within a matter of weeks. The site was eventually migrated to its own URL, USMCPT.com. While the site is no longer live on the Internet, archived copies of it were available up until around February 23, 2005 (someone had them deleted after this story broke on February 14, 2005- )

Those archives showed that the site was live at the USMCPT.com address at least from October 31, 2001 until May 8, 2003. (This date is relevant since Gannon reportedly entered the White House the first time as a "journalist" in February, 2003.) When asked what USMCPT meant, Paul said he asked Jeff that very question. The answer: United States Marine Corps, Part Time. Paul recalls Jeff telling him he was still in the Marines, but only part time. Paul also recalls Jeff being around 40 years old, even though the Web site said he was 32.

The military theme continues at USMCPT.com. The “Ammunition” section contains the description of the escort. It reads: White, 200 pounds, hair “high and tight,” chest “46’ Usually Shaved or Clipped,” and under “Weapon” it says "8 inches cut." The escort mentions that he takes clients in the Washington, DC, Virginia and Maryland area, and that he prefers to “travel to your location or travel with you.”

The USMCPT home page never specifically mentions sex, though it’s clear this is not your run-of-the-mill personal trainer or bodyguard. Under a section entitled “Mission,” it says:

Ex-USMC Jock: Available for hourly, overnight, weekend or longer travel - OUT ONLY!

Personal Trainer: Safe-Sane-Strenuous-Satisfying workouts, Sports training, and competition, especially wrestling....

Big SPORTS Fan: Will go to the game with you, then take you home and....

"AGGRESIVE, VERBAL, DOMINANT TOP"

I DON'T LEAVE MARKS....ONLY IMPRESSIONS

Further on down the page, on at least the early versions of the Web site (several versions over the span of a year and a half are cached online), you can see the logo for BELDesigns, Paul's Web design business. There's also a button that says “SEE MORE OF ME.”

This brings you to a page comprising 43 or so thumbnail-sized pictures of Jeff, in various states of undress. In one photo he’s lounging spread eagle on some pillows, fully erect. In another he’s bent over, naked, apparently checking something on his nightstand (while revealing a great set of lats), and in a third set of photos he is urinating. If you click on the thumbnail photos, you can see larger-sized versions (though not for all the photos, the archive is incomplete). If you look at the html source on this page, you will see that numerous of the photos are named “Jeff.” In several of the photos you will see Jeff wearing a distinctive silver watch with a solid black band. He likes to wear it on his left hand, slightly above the wrist joint.

The site also contains a third page, called “Bulldog.htm.” (The bulldog is recurring theme on the site.) On this page we learn that Jeff is available as a travel companion, a workout partner/trainer, an event companion (“Want to see the Orioles, Caps, Wizards, or ‘Skins?”), tour guide, and bodyguard. Jeff then provides his email address, USMCPT@aol.com

The USMCPT site has a link on its home page that, depending on which version in time of the home page you’re examining, says either “See more of me and my buddies at: Male Corps” or “Featured on Studfiles.”

The Male Corps link takes you to another of Jeff’s escort pages, housed on a different escort service Web site called MaleCorps.com. The page contains the same spread-eagle picture that was on Jeff’s personal site, notes that his branch of service is “United States Marine Corps,” provides more personal information, and the email address for contact is USMCPT@malecorps.com. There’s also a link to see 30 more “x-pics” of Jeff, including “full bod, dick shots, jocks.” The link appears to be no longer accessible.

The StudFiles link on Jeff’s USMCPT site takes you to an escort Web site that is still live today. It’s for an escort named “Bulldog.” On the page there’s a picture of Bulldog’s torso, shirtless, wearing dog tags. He’s 32 years old, lives in Washington, DC, is “5’9”, 200 pounds, brown high and tight haircut, green eyes, 8+cut!” Under “position” it says “Top!” For an email – or “emale," as it says – contact it gives usmcpt@aol.com. There is also a link to visit “the Adult Photos” in Gallery 16. In order to access those photos, you need to buy an electronic Web ID that proves you are over the age of consent...

Once you buy the ID, for $20 a year (it’s a write-off), you enter the WorkingBoys.net Web site. You click on Gallery 16 and arrive on Bulldog’s adult page. It’s not unlike the PG-rated page except that Bulldog is now wearing a pair of dog tags, sitting spread eagle, and hard as a rock. The profile also has as link “Visit Bulldog on the Net!” – it links back to http://www.USMCPT.com

The WorkingBoys.net escort profile is still live today. Interestingly, the name of the html file for the page is “DC007.”

A bit more Internet sleuthing turned up even more escort profiles for apparently the same escort on various other sites. Meetlocalmen.com contains a profile with the same spread-eagle picture as was on the other sites. This site includes the escort’s name as Jeff/Bulldog. His location: DC. His Internet address is yet another Web site that is no longer active. His rates, $1200/weekend. (While the profile is still live at MeetLocalMen.com, it takes a bit of hunting to find it. You need to click on "Meet Local Escorts," then click on DC, then skip through 16 pages or so until you find Jeff in DC, then click on that picture.)

-

A search for USMCPT on Google turns up two more escort sites for Bulldog, one in DC and one in Philly (both are still online, but in inactive status). One mentions the weekend rate of $1200/weekend, the other an hourly rate, $200. The sites also include feedback from satisfied customers. The most recent review is from 11/12/2002, from a man named Spaceman. An earlier review, dated 7/11/2000, is from a man who says he’s an active duty senior officer in the US Army. He notes that Jeff has a Marine background.

So in the end, why does this matter? Why does it matter that Jeff Gannon may have been a gay hooker named James Guckert with a $20,000 defaulted court judgment against him? So he somehow got a job lobbing softball questions to the White House. Big deal. If he was already a prostitute, why not be one in the White House briefing room as well?

This is the Conservative Republican Bush White House we're talking about. It's looking increasingly like they made a decision to allow a hooker to ask the President of the United States questions. They made a decision to give a man with an alias and no journalistic experience access to the West Wing of the White House on a "daily basis." They reportedly made a decision to give him - one of only six - access to documents, or information in those documents, that exposed a clandestine CIA operative. Say what you will about Monika Lewinsky - a tasteless episode, "inappropriate," whatever. Monika wasn't a gay prostitute running around the West Wing. What kind of leadership would let prostitutes roam the halls of the West Wing? What kind of war-time leadership can't find the same information that took bloggers only days to find?

None of this is by accident.

Someone had to make a decision to let all this happen. Who? Someone committed a crime in exposing Valerie Plame and now it appears a gay hooker may be right in the middle of all of it? Who?

Ultimately, it is the hypocrisy that is such a challenge to grasp in this story. This is the same White House that ran for office on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. While they are surrounded by gay hookers? While they use a gay hooker to write articles for their gay hating political base? While they use a gay hooker to destroy a political enemy? Not to mention the hypocrisy of a "reporter" who chooses to publish article after article defending the ant-gay religious-right point of view on gay civil rights issue.

Who in the White House is at the center of all of this? Who allowed this to go on in the People's House? Who committed the crime of exposing Valerie Plame? Jeff Gannon has the answers to these questions, and boy we know he loves to talk.

Let him talk to Patrick Fitzgerald.

Comment: If it were not for the Internet and its dedicated users, the current Administration would rule with an iron hand. The American media knows all about such matters, in detail, but not one word about them, or other outrageous gaffes of the Bush people ever gets into print or onto any television station.  A recent poll showed that the majority of young Americans- 18-25, get their national and international news from the satiric Daily Show and those from 25-35, from the Internet, not from print media or television. For good reason to be sure. A huge anti-Bush demonstration in Canada is covered by the mainline media with the caption:’ Small group of demonstrators greet Bush visit.’ We published photographs from the Canadian media that showed thousands of protesters, not dozens, but none of these pictures were ever shown in the United States.