Ex-White House reporter is lightning rod on panel about blogs

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/politics/11355138.htm

BY DAWN WITHERS

Chicago Tribune


WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Jeff Gannon, the former White House reporter for Talon News, a conservative online news outlet, has once again roiled the Washington journalism establishment.

Gannon, whose actual name is James Dale Guckert, resigned two months ago after gaining notoriety for using a fake name while working as a reporter covering the White House. Though he had no journalism experience and previously worked as an escort, he managed to ask President Bush a question at a nationally televised news conference.

On Friday, with an invite from the National Press Club, he appeared on a panel about bloggers and journalists. At the end of the gathering, one blogger shouted at Gannon and was escorted out of the building

.....

During one of the more contentious moments of the discussion, Gannon defended the Bush administration's payments to writers who offered favorable comments on some of its policies.
"What I find interesting about ... Armstrong Williams (a commentator who was paid $241,000 by the Education Department to promote Bush's education policy) is that in order for the administration to get a fair hearing on the No Child Left Behind Act, it had to pay somebody to say it because I don't think anybody wrote a positive article about the No Child Left Behind Act," said Gannon. "All we hear is the mantra that it's underfunded and doesn't work."

"I'm sorry," interrupted Ana Marie Cox, editor of the blog Wonkette, "that's the opposite of a fair hearing. You don't pay somebody to get a fair hearing."
With the contentious viewpoints left hanging, one man left the gathering muttering, "There's no professionalism left in the room."

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[merh]

1. Actually, one man was heard screaming "who did you sleep with

in the White House" before he left the gathering muttering "There's no professionalism left in this room." LOL.

:hi:

[lala_rawraw]

2. This is not nearly

As bad as what I wrote about this farce. I have to wait on copy edit and then will go peddle it out. I was and am pretty angry.

[sabra]

3. Looking forward to it...

[lala_rawraw]

5. i might be bitch slapped for it, so don't get excited yet, lol ... n/t

[Minstrel Boy]

4. "Lightning Rod"

I thought his professional name was "Bulldog"?

[alittlelark]

7. LOL!!

[Selteri]

6. I couldn't watch the press conference after

I wtched every single member on the board defend Gannon/Guckert that his choice of actions made him a free lancer, not a single one said that he _personally_ was a shill for the Bush Administration.