I’m a little (OK, more than a little) late to the Jeff Gannon/James Guckert story, but this is one scandal that appears to have some legs.
Summarizing the story would take far too long, but Atrios had as good a summary as any: a partisan operative with no background in journalism, whose work frequently involves passing off RNC press releases as his own stories, was allowed to be a part of White House press briefings day after day, operating under a pseudonym, providing a regular lifeline for Scott McClellan and making it difficult for other reporters to get answers to serious questions.
There are dozens of pertinent angles to the story, but it seems to all come back to the White House and its “relationship” with Guckert.
Most would agree that the White House briefing room should, at a minimum, be reserved for actual reporters who work for actual news outlets. Clearly, this was not the case with Guckert and “Talon News,” whose work was not credible enough to even get credentials from Tom DeLay’s Republican Congress. So how, exactly, did Guckert, a Republican Party activist, gain access into the press conferences, allowing him to “play reporter”?
Scott McClellan would have us believe he had no choice.
“As the press secretary, I don’t think it’s the role of the Press Secretary to get into picking or choosing who gets press credentials.”
Utter nonsense. If I called the White House asking for press credentials, McClellan would decline. There are only so many seats in the briefing room; if every writer with a website asked for credentials, McClellan would have to start holding his briefings on the Ellipse.
Indeed, every aspect of media relations is carefully controlled and manipulated by the White House. McClellan has complete control — over who’s questions are answered, who gets access, even which reporters get to travel on Air Force One. He “picks and chooses” every day — and for unclear reasons, he consistently chose to make Guckert’s job easier.
At this point, McClellan knew Guckert was using a fake name, worked for a right-wing website that could hardly be characterized as a “news” outlet, but arranged for Guckert to have regular access to the White House. With this in mind, I have a few questions that McClellan could help us out with.
* Did McClellan ever make an arrangement with Guckert in advance, planting certain softball questions that the White House wanted to hear?
Consider the press briefing from May 10, 2004:
Guckert: In your denunciations of the Abu Ghraib photos, you’ve used words like ‘sickening,’ ‘disgusting’ and ‘reprehensible.’ Will you have any adjectives left to adequately describe the pictures from Saddam’s rape rooms and torture chambers? And will Americans ever see those images?
McClellan: I’m glad you brought that up, Jeff, because the President talks about that often.
Guckert was there as a partisan ally of the White House; it’d be worth knowing if McClellan and Guckert had any kind of “arrangements” about which questions would be asked and when.
* Did the White House ever compensate Guckert or his employer with public funds?
We know the Bush gang believes in paying media figures — with our money — to help get its message out. Gannon was employed by a third-tier website with very few readers, which suggests he couldn’t have been making a lot of money as a “Talon News” WH correspondent in a city with a high cost of living. One wonders, therefore, if perhaps Guckert got the “Armstrong Williams treatment.”
* How did Guckert learn about Valerie Plame?
Dems on the Hill are already on the case with this one.
Two Democrats in Congress are pressing for investigations into how a Washington reporter who used a pseudonym managed to gain access to the White House and had access to classified documents that named Valerie Plame as a C.I.A. operative.
The Democrats, Representatives John Conyers Jr. of Michigan and Louise M. Slaughter from Rochester, wrote yesterday to Patrick Fitzgerald, the independent prosecutor appointed in the Plame case, seeking an investigation into how the reporter, James D. Guckert, who used the name Jeff Gannon, had access to classified documents that revealed the identity of Ms. Plame.
* Exactly which White House officials approved of daily passes for Guckert?
Here we have a fake journalist working for a fake news outlet using a fake name being given access to the White House. Did McClellan approve this on his own or was the decision made a little higher up? (Cough, cough, Karl Rove, cough…)
* After heightened security following 9/11, what kind of security arrangements were made between the White House and Guckert?
Ten years ago, I was a White House intern and remember that getting a visitor in for a meeting meant a security check. Daily access to the White House meant a background check. What kind of arrangements were made for Guckert to access the White House every day — even after heightened post-9/11 security — with a bogus identity? And why did McClellan circumvent the process exclusively for him?
[S]ecurity is a significant difference between the two types of [White House] passes that still exist. The hard pass requires a lengthy background check, punctuated by fingerprints and photographs. Someone picking up a day pass, however, simply presents a name, Social Security number and date of birth while the Secret Service does an instant check. That means Guckert, who covered the White House for nearly two years, was never subjected to a background check. Additionally, questions remain whether his passes were issued under his alias or his real name.
Stay tuned. For the most up-to-date, comprehensive take on this scandal, John Aravosis is doing yeoman’s work on the Guckert story.