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Friday, February 11, 2005

Politics: Propagannon

I haven’t commented on this story even though it broke Monday night because the details seemed so outrageous. It was so perfect a scandal that it had to have been a setup. Was this going to be another Dan Rather memo scandal? We will see, but for now, the mainstream media has picked it up. If this shakes out to be authentic, the virtual citizens at the blog, DailyKos, deserve tremendous credit for their real investigative journalism.

From the NY Times (free registration required for full text):

Democrats Want Investigation of Reporter Using Fake Name

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE Published: February 11, 2005

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.

From New Jersey Senator Lautenberg:

Lautenberg Requests All Documents From White House Relating to Discredited "Journalist" James D. Guckert, A.K.A. Jeff Gannon
WASHINGTON, DC -- In light of yet another scandal involving the Bush administration's manipulation of the media, United States Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) today requested from White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan all the documents relating to the press credentials of James. D. Guckert, a.k.a. "Jeff Gannon"; the "journalist" now famous for being the White House correspondent for his softball questioning of President Bush and various Administration spokespeople.

And here are links to some of the first TV news segments:

Who is Jeff Gannon MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann Reports

David Brock (Media Matters for America) on Court TV

John Aravosis (Americablog) and Eric Boehlert (Salon.com) on CNN

The Media Matters page that I linked to also contains a link to JD Guckert's appearance with Wolf Blitzer on CNN.

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