Mr. Rove, I salute you. You may not always get the credit you deserve, but many of us know it was your genius that engineered a Republican takeover of our government. Over the past few months, I've been privileged to actually witness what I assume to be some of your tricks and tactics, particularly when it comes to your control of the media.
It all started around two months ago, when it was discovered that the Department of Education had surreptitiously paid $240,000 to conservative political commentator Armstrong Williams to routinely promote the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) on his broadcast shows. In an attempt to defend his decision to accept the money, Williams claimed that he had always supported the policy. That can't be true, I thought. There must have been a reason, Mr. Rove, why you felt it necessary to pay for Williams' support.
Then I read that in 2001 Williams strongly criticized, both on television and in his nationally syndicated column, the administration's decision to drop private school vouchers from the NCLB. In fact, these commentaries were the only times Williams mentioned NCLB prior to accepting the money in December 2003. Since then, he has specifically praised the policy in at least five columns. Hats off to you, Mr. Rove. This was obviously money well spent.
I had to wait another two months before my next lesson. Finally, in early February, I noticed that some weblogs were uncovering a story about a certain White House reporter named Jeff Gannon. This trick was truly a work of genius. Apparently, "Jeff Gannon," whose real name is James Guckert, was a fake news reporter from the fake news agency Talon News. Gannon's editor-in-chief at Talon News, a Republican activist from Texas named Bobby Eberle, is also the president of GOPUSA.com, a "conservative news, information, and design company dedicated to promoting conservative ideals," according to its Web site.
Gannon had access to the White House press for two years without ever being subjected to background check. Ever. Gannon was known for asking softball questions and clearly served as a lifeline for Press Secretary Scott McClellan amid hostile questioning from less compliant reporters. Media Matters for America, a liberal press watchdog that has done extensive research into the case, discovered Talon's "news" almost always consisted of recycled White House and Republican National Committee press releases. Gannon even admitted to doing this in an interview on CNN, as if it was his "journalistic responsibility" to simply recycle this information to the public.
Gannon stayed under the radar until Jan. 26, 2005, when a question proffered during a Presidential press conference went too far. (In reference to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Senator Hilary Clinton, Gannon asked the President how he could "work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality.")
Fortunately, Gannon's nationally televised question caught the attention of some political weblogs on the Internet. Soon, Gannon's real identity was uncovered - along with a hidden past. Apparently, before becoming Washington Bureau Chief for Talon News, Gannon ran a male escort service and hosted a male porn site. His service advertised fit male Marines; Gannon even offered himself as an "escort" of choice, charging $200-per-hour. How, Mr. Rove, did you secure Gannon access to the White House without a Secret Service background check? Oh, I see, you gave him a daily pass, which, unlike a permanent pass issued to other journalists, avoids such checks. He had a daily pass every day, for two years. Evidently, the daily pass doesn't even require a real name. Brilliant move, Mr. Rove.
Gannon claims that he met you only once, at a White House Christmas party. However, Gannon's aggressively partisan work and the ease with which he got day passes makes it hard to believe that his presence wasn't at least implicitly sanctioned by you. Also, you are a man who rarely gives on-the-record interviews to the mainstream media, yet you had time to talk to GOPUSA and Talon News on several occasions. So there must be some connection between you and Gannon. Though the White House can claim that it was unaware that Gannon was using an alias, it must have played some part in maintaining his cover. Otherwise, we're looking at a major security breach.
The Gannon story broke a couple weeks ago, and he has since resigned his post at Talon News. Even with the revelation that Gannon was another case of a Republican homophobic closet case, the real news here is how this fake newsman might be connected to Armstrong Williams and your propaganda machine. Was this another instance of you and the Bush administration paying for favorable media coverage? Probably not, since you found a man who would, as he wrote, serve as "a conservative journalist embedded with the liberal Washington press corps."
It was, undoubtedly, yet another instance of your genius: how you managed to move from paying for media support to finding the perfect someone to support your policies without any financial remuneration, whatsoever. Your opponents had better find a solution for you quick. For as long as you are in the White House, it's looking bleak for fair and responsible news coverage. Once again, I salute you, Karl Rove.
