The latest on Guckert/Gannon

Salon’s Eric Boehlert continues to move the ball forward on the James Guckert/Jeff Gannon story, this time explaining how the White House cleared the former male prostitute into the White House because he wrote for a partisan website, GOP USA.

Guckert approached the White House in February 2003 seeking a pass for White House briefings. “Talon News” did not yet exist, so he used a site, owned by Talon’s founder and GOP activist Bobby Eberle, that did.

…Guckert, using an alias and with no journalism experience whatsoever, was writing on a voluntary basis for a Web site dedicated to promoting Republican issues. To determine whether Guckert would gain entrance to the press room, normally reserved for professional journalists working for legitimate, recognized and independent news organizations, the press office simply logged on to the Internet and confirmed that GOPUSA “existed,” and then quickly approved Guckert’s access. In a White House obsessed, at least publicly, with security and where journalists cannot even move between the White House and the nearby Old Executive Building without a personal escort, Guckert’s lenient treatment was likely unprecedented.

In this instance, it was amazing how lax the White House standards became. To get a congressional media pass, Guckert was asked to provide proof that he worked for a news outlet that has subscribers and revenue, is independent from a partisan entity, and has salaried journalists on staff. Because Guckert failed on all three criteria, he was rejected. Bush staffers, meanwhile, confirmed the GOP USA “existed” — it had a website — and gave a fake reporter working for a fake news outlet a “day pass” to the White House every day for two years.

[E]ven though Guckert failed to secure Capitol Hill credentials, the White House waved him into press briefings for nearly two years using what’s called a day pass. Those passes are designed for temporary use by out-of-town reporters who need access to the White House, not for indefinite use by reporters who flunk the Capitol Hill test.

To obtain a day pass during the Clinton administration, a reporter “had to make the case as to why that day was unique and why [he] had to cover the White House from inside the gates instead of outside,” Lockhart says.

Hardly the case with Guckert. At this point, we still don’t know why the White House made this “arrangement” with a fake reporter, or who in the White House ultimately approved this deal.

Stay tuned.