Good Insight on the Gannon Affair

Here and Now : Who is Jeff Gannon? - 2/14/2005

I was commenting on Loyopp's site about Gannon and talking about something I had heard on Boston's local NPR station (WBUR) on a show called Here and Now with Robin Young.

They interviewed Gannon AND Bob Dean, "White House correspondent for COX newspapers" and former President of the White House Correspondants Association.

Loyopp makes some excellent points on his post as to which aspects of this story are newsworthy:

"Gannon" got White House access with a false name partly gossip sheet material, partly media news page

Isn't that a security concern? Scott McLelland has stated "Gannon" was cleared under his real name. Unless someone can show otherwise, this isn't hard news. The angle that gets elevated to media news is that we expect the press corps to monitor one another for professional integrity. How did it happen that the White House press, a merciless group of gossip hounds didn't uncover this guy? Where was their outrage that a hack was occupying a seat at White House briefings? The story someone should tell (has anyone seen one?) is how "Gannon"s journalistic credentials stacked up against the other reporters who had White House access. It could be, for all I know, that the six passes allocated on a daily basis were passed out first come - first served at the gate. It could be flaky left wing reporters got passes, too. If so, end of story. If "Gannon" took a seat and someone from, for example, Le Monde was left out in the cold the media establishment should be screaming bloody murder.

The radio interview with Bob Dean speaks to much of this.

Drawing from my comments on Loyopp's site, here is why this is a worthy listen:

[Dean...] ...apparently sat next to Gannon for much of the past two years and said that he was a nice, friendly guy and that he got along well with him - he likes him. He said emphatically that Gannon's questions raised eyebrows amongst his peers in the press corps. He said that the role of the press corps should be adversarial and that Gannon was instead acting to cast Administration rhetoric or policies in a positive light for the camera. He went on to say, however, that he didn't think that the Press Corps association would move to change anything. He said that he believes that the legitimate members of the press corps would rather err on the side of inclusion. I think that that was important. He also pointed out that there is a reporter named Mokhiber who is an unabahed lefty (and I have seen some right wing blogs starting up on him already), but that Mokhiber writes exclusively about corporate crime and that Mokhiber's questions tend to be "fact based."

One final note... I read somewhere (I will try to find it again) that a meeting is scheduled for today between The (tentatively named) White House Press Correspondants Association and Scott McClellan to discuss the Gannon/Guckert affair.

[Update: I have listened to it again... The first time host Robin Young asks Gannon why he had access to the Plame memo he denies it comme d'habitude. When she asks him again at appx. minute 3+, however, instead of denying that he had access to it, he seems to say that he was being rewarded for doing a good job.]

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