NEWS: Propagandagate: Bush Payola Scandal Widens, Fake News Organization Comes Under Increased Scrutiny

POLITICS: Propagandagate: Bush Payola Scandal Widens, Fake News Organization Comes Under Increased Scrutiny

The widening payola scandal, which began in earnest with revelations that right-wing pundit Armstrong Williams was paid by the Bush administration to promote its education policies, picked up steam this last week when similar arrangements came to light involving conservative columnists Maggie Gallagher and Michael McManus and their support of Bush’s $300 million marriage initiative. The controversy surrounding Bush’s possibly illegal use of public funds for propaganda purposes has forced the president to publicly order his cabinet secretaries to stop paying off members of the media, and has raised troubling questions about the government’s appropriation of what is supposed to be an independent press.

The payola scandal has emerged in the wake of other disturbing incidents in which the Bush administration has violated federal law by using government money to pay for fake news segments promoting its Medicare prescription drug program and pushing its views on the evils of youth drug abuse. And now it's being reported that the White House has given press credentials to a fake “news organization” so that a fake “journalist” can ask loaded pro-Bush questions during press briefings. The “news organization” in question, Talon News, is run by editor-in-chief Bobby Eberle, who is also president and CEO of GOPUSA, a right-wing political organization. Talon News appears to be little more than a front for GOPUSA: it has no physical news room or office, and many of the “news” articles appearing on its web site are actually introductory paragraphs linked to articles from the GOPUSA web site. Its sparse “staff” includes a handful of Republican activists, most notably Talon’s White House “correspondent,” who goes by the name “Jeff Gannon.” Eberle and “Gannon” are both regular posters on the radical right-wing forum, Free Republic, and “Gannon” has also hosted a talk show on the companion site, Radio Free Republic. “Gannon” refers to himself on his personal web site as "a conservative journalist embedded with the liberal Washington press corps," where he recently advised his “liberal colleagues” that “Bush is here for another 4 years. Get over it!”

“Jeff Gannon,” who has accused his press corps colleagues of "work[ing] off of the [Democratic] talking points,” has developed his own reputation for dubious journalistic integrity. He has been caught using press releases and other documents from the Bush administration and the Republican party in his "news" articles, quoting them verbatim and without attribution. He has even plagiarized Rush Limbaugh, using one of Limbaugh’s false assertions in a question that he asked Bush during his Jaunuary 26 press conference.

“Gannon” is best known for lobbing verbal softballs over the plate at press briefings to take the heat off his pal, White House press secretary Scott McClellan:

“Gannon” has also garnered a lot of attention for himself by tossing up a gimmee to President Bush during his recent press conference:

But wait, it gets goofier. A few of the regulars over at Daily Kos have been researching the background of “Jeff Gannon,” and have discovered that the name he reports under as a White House correspondent is a pseudonym. The White House is apparently aware of this, and has given him his credentials under his pseudonym even though married female reporters who use their maiden names professionally are required to take credentials with their married names. Even more curiously, “Gannon’s” journalistic background prior to his first appearance on the web in late 2002 and meteoric rise to the White House Press Corps, appears to consist of a two-day seminar at the Leadership Institute for Broadcasting Journalism, a training camp for right-wing pundits with extensive ties to anti-union groups.

And if all that weren’t enough to set alarm bells off in your head, “Jeff Gannon” is apparently a key figure in the Valerie Plame outing. “Gannon” was cited by the Washington Post as having sole access to an internal CIA memo that identified Plame as a covert CIA operative, and referred to the memo in an October 2003 interview with Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson. He has been subpoenaed by the federal grand jury investigating the Plame outing.

Taken as a whole, the payola scandal, illegal fake news segments, and the bizarre “Jeff Gannon” affair all demonstate a pattern of subterfuge and corruption that is perhaps unprecedented in scope and severity, painting an Orwellian picture of the Bush PR machine. Could “Propagandagate” be the straw that breaks the back of the Bush administration?

Hat Tips: Media Matters for America, Daily Kos

OH, I friggin love it. Please, media, turn up the heat.

let the impeachment proceedings begin

Very well written and very insightful.

I agree! Extremely well-done. One of the best news threads I've seen in a while...very professional.

I seriously doubt that this is the staw that breaks the camel's back.

Think of all the horrible shit that this administration has done; the first election,
doing nothing to prevent 9/11, imprisonment of Muslim-Americans with out trial lawyers or even being told what they did wrong, Abu-Ghraib. The list goes on and on.

All the administration has to do is kick up the terrorism alert scale.

David Cross does a bit about how Bush could eat a little Jew baby and all they'd have to do was kick the scale up to red.

i agree. aside from the interesting content, one of the best-written pieces i've seen on the newswire.

please let it all unravel. they're so fucking corrupt, and i'm amazed it's gone on this long.

A related article...


Fair and balanced?
Some Democrats are using Bush's pay-for-say media scandals to push for a new Fairness Doctrine for broadcasting.

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By Eric Boehlert

Feb. 1, 2005 |

As the punditocracy's payola scandal -- which has featured conservative commentators such as Armstrong Williams cashing Bush administration checks -- continues to spread in Washington, some Democrats hope the fallout will be enough to kick-start support for the Fairness Doctrine. Rescinded in 1987 by the Federal Communications Commission, the original doctrine made sure that radio and television broadcasters covered political topics with fairness and balance.

Architects of the policy, established in 1949, concerned themselves with keeping the airwaves open to both opponents and proponents of public-policy issues. They likely never foresaw the possibility of broadcast pundits secretly being on the government payroll while touting White House policies. But Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., thinks the growing outrage over media misconduct will help spur interest in the doctrine.

wouldn't we have had to round up some Muslim-Americans to have prevented 9-11?

Yeah. Many thanks for taking the time to write this great piece.

Unfortunately, this administration seems to be bullet-proof. It certainly won't bring Bush down. Perhaps some low level people may be forced to leave, but I predict much more of these kinds of shenanigans in the future.

Um. What are you smoking over there, Stirfry? Don't bogart that shit.

Great, well-written article. Thanks for all those links. Very interesting.

I understand what you're saying, but no, actually. I'm sure there were sleepers that were American citizens, but none of the actual attackers were American.

Way to harsh everyone's mellow, holmes.

Jeez. Give the thread a chance before you pronounce it DOA.

i was gonna put "Muslims and Muslim Americans" but i thought you'd get the point i was making. guess not though...

I got it, was just being a smartass.

smartass!

I wish I could say this was a surprise, but I think we all know that the Bush administration's corruption knows no limits. I keep hoping one of these countless scandals will be the "straw" that breaks the camels back. But, sadly, the American public has shown an amazing ability to ignore reality. It's gone beyond mere ignorance or gullability. This is a willful disregard for any information which conflicts with their distorted concept of reality.

I'm likewise sure this won't be the straw that breaks the administration's back, but hopefully it'll help break the stranglehold that it has on the media, and that'll hopefully break the stranglehold the media has on John Q. Public --- But that all is probably wistful and wishful thinking... still, I repeat, turn up the heat...

edited to say: I love mixing me some metaphors

[Edited on Feb 01, 2005 6:30PM]

Ha, ha, ha, Bush will burn in Hell!!

Anyone else nottice we haven't heard of a single rainbow colored alert since the election? Three months and not a bert or even an Earnie.

Anyway, I'd like to think this will be the magic scandal that does it, but with the GOP in control of all three branches of the Gov. I'm not holding my breath.

I really am so impressed with that post. I don't think I have read one so well presented. I'm glad it was one I agreed with

There's many things that happened in the past four years any of which Bush could be impeached. Not surprisingly, I fined Bush's fear fucking more offensive than Clinton receiving a blow-job from a whitehouse intern.

[Edited on Feb 01, 2005 6:54PM]

it just doesn't stop, and 51% of this country could care less........