- Originally published in Roll Call February 16, 2005
Copyright 2005 Roll Call, Inc.
By Mary Ann Akers ROLL CALL STAFF
Gannon Fodder. With the story of faux reporter "Jeff Gannon"
growing more bizarre and salacious by the minute, at least two Members
of Congress want more information on how the conservative activist got
clearance to cover White House news conferences under a pseudonym.
Reps.
John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) sent a Freedom of
Information Act request Tuesday to the Department of Homeland Security
seeking all records pertaining to the Secret Service's decision to
clear the
"reporter" into White House news conferences.
"He
is not a legitimate journalist," Slaughter told HOH. "I think of all
the legitimate journalists who would love to have access to the White
House. And he gets in there with no clearance and is given access to
private CIA memoranda. This is devastating."
Gannon,
whose real name is James Guckert, resigned last week from the
conservative Web site Talon News under intense scrutiny from liberal
bloggers, including John Aravosis, who this week posted evidence -
including photos - on his Web site AmericaBlog.org that Guckert was
involved with gay sex sites and may himself have been a male escort.
Guckert
told CNN's Wolf Blitzer last week that he only worked as a software
consultant on those sites and that nothing was ever actually posted on
them. But AmericaBlog shows at least a half dozen gay escort sites,
including MeetLocalMen.com and WorkingBoys.net, featuring photos that
are allegedly of Guckert.
Slaughter said
allegations of male prostitution did not motivate her and Conyers to
submit the FOIA request. "I don't care about his personal life. I don't
care about his politics," she said. "But I do care about who gives us
the news."
The FOIA request, which was
reported Tuesday on the Web log RawStory.com, seeks, among other
things, all records about what types of passes were issued to Guckert,
the frequency of his White House clearances and "whether the Secret
Service or the White House routinely allow guests to use false names."
Coming
so soon after revelations that conservative commentator Armstrong
Williams took payments from the Bush administration, the Guckert
controversy is all the more troubling, Slaughter said. "I think
Americans ought to wake up and have some idea of where their news is
coming from," she said.
Meanwhile, some
Senate Democrats who had considered signing on to the FOIA request had
second thoughts after discovering the latest information on Guckert's
alleged sexual exploits. One Senate Democratic aide told HOH the
Senators wanted to wait and see how the story "shakes out" before
acting.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.),
aka the "hottest Senator," asked the White House last week for all
documents relating to press credentials for Guckert. His office has yet
to receive a response. Guckert could not be reached for comment.
Party
Animal. Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) was spotted Saturday night at Cafe
Japone, the popular Dupont Circle sushi bar and karaoke parlor,
partying with his staff and doing a little crooning of his own.
There
was much to sing about. Honda had just won a vice chairmanship of the
Democratic National Committee and was taking his campaign staff out to
celebrate.
Honda and his aides sat a table
next to some "loud, scantily clad, barely legal birthday partiers
screaming and squealing," according to one source who was there. The
squealers chose Britney Spears and "Summer Lovin'" from "Grease," a
personal fave of HOH.
Our informant said
Honda was reluctant at first to sing in front of the packed bar. But
his persistent staff egged him on. After he finished his noodle soup,
the Left Coast Congressman got up and belted out "I Left My Heart in
San Francisco."
The Congressman said Cafe
Japone is one of his favorite spots and that "many of my staff enjoy
the atmosphere there." Why the reluctance to sing, Congressman? "My
voice was hoarse from all the shouting at the campaign, so I didn't
think I would sing at all - just have some hot tea and enjoy the scene.
But when I heard the opening strains of 'I Left My Heart in San
Francisco,' well, instinct took over!"
More
Gannon ... er, Guckert, Scoop. The Gannon controversy prompted leaders
of the White House Correspondents' Association to seek an emergency
meeting Tuesday with Scott McClellan, President Bush's spokesman. Ron
Hutcheson, Knight Ridder's White House correspondent who serves as
president of the correspondents' association, told HOH that the purpose
of the meeting was to get information on the credentialing process. He
said they did not discuss security.
He
said the "fact-gathering" meeting did not focus on Gannon, who went to
White House news conferences and lobbed easy, and critics say
conservative-tinged, questions at Bush. Rather, he said, the meeting
focused on the "broader issue of credentialing."
Gannon,
as he was known to other reporters, was denied credentials to cover
Congress. But as McClellan explained to the correspondents' association
members, one does not need a Congressional reporter's pass to get a
daily pass to the White House. A Congressional pass is required only to
get a permanent pass to the White House.
Hutcheson
said while there were "times when I got annoyed with Gannon's questions
- they were stated to express an opinion. ... I was far more concerned
about non-responses from the podium" to substantive questions from real
reporters about Bush's policies.
The board
of the White House Correspondents' Association is scheduled to meet
Feb. 28 to discuss the credentialing issue further.
Oppression
of Speech. Sponsors of legislation to protect journalists from being
federally compelled to disclose their sources renewed calls to pass the
bill in light of Tuesday's federal appeals court ruling against two
journalists.
One of the bill's sponsors,
Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), went on the House floor and declared, "In the
wake of today's troubling court decision, now is the time for Congress
to reassert the First Amendment freedom of the press vigorously by
enacting a federal media shield." He said his bill would "protect the
confidential source tradition that is at the very center of the freedom
of the press."
Time magazine's Matt Cooper
and Judith Miller of The New York Times face up to 18 months in jail
for refusing to reveal their sources before a federal grand jury
probing who leaked undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame's name to the
media. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia upheld a lower court ruling that Cooper and Miller
are not protected by First Amendment privilege.
Cooper
has written about the Plame controversy; Miller has not. Robert Novak
is the journalist who published Plame's name in a 2003 column, citing
two senior Bush administration officials as his sources.
Asked
about Tuesday's court decision, Cooper told HOH, "I was disappointed by
the ruling obviously. In the United States you hope no journalist would
have to go to jail simply for doing his or her job. And it's of course
unsettling to face that prospect."
Tory Newmyer contributed to this report.