{"id":1029,"date":"2005-02-17T11:30:33","date_gmt":"2005-02-17T19:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2005\/02\/sculpting_the_press\/"},"modified":"2005-02-17T11:30:33","modified_gmt":"2005-02-17T19:30:33","slug":"sculpting_the_press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2005\/02\/sculpting_the_press.html","title":{"rendered":"SCULPTING THE PRESS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that the Jeff Gannon\/James Guckert
\nstory<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> has made Keith Olbermann’s “Countdown” newsquiz<\/FONT><\/B><\/A>, it’s safe to say the mainstream
\nmedia have taken notice of the latest White House farce. True, it was the last question in the quiz,
\nNo. 14:
\n

<\/P>
\n


\n


\n

Name one of the other websites registered to Jeff Gannon\/James Guckert besides
\n“jeffgannon.com”.

+ zombo.com
+ hotmilitarystuds.com
+
\nbloggermann.msnbc.com
+ mulletsgalore.com<\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE>The
\ncorrect answer, of course, is “hotmilitarystuds.com” — although, as Maureen Dowd notes this morning<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> in “Bush’s Barberini
\nFaun” in The New York Times, Gannon\/Guckert (now, courtesy of Dowd, a k a B’sBF) was also
\nassociated with Workingboys.net, Militaryescorts.com, MilitaryescortsM4M.com and
\nMeetlocalmen.com. How does such “an enterprising young man … get to question the president
\nof the United States?” she asks. (The real Barberini Faun, at right.)
\n

<\/P>
\n

<\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n

Well, here other various mainstreamers explaining it: Howard Kurtz yesterday<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> in The
\nWashington Post; Joe Strupp yesterday<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> in
\nEditor & Publisher; Jim Shea yesterday<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> in the
\nHartford Courant; Joe Conason
\nyesterday<\/B><\/STRONG><\/FONT><\/A> in the New York Observer; Sidney Blumenthal yesterday<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> in
\nLondon’s Guardian; and Frank Rich coming on Sunday<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> in the Times — to name just a
\nhalf dozen, all of whom are playing catchup.<\/P>
\n

Dowd answers the question with her own question:<\/P>
\n


\n

I was rejected for a White House press pass at the start of the Bush
\nadministration, but someone with an alias, a tax evasion problem and Internet pictures where he
\nposed like the “Barberini Faun” is credentialed to cover a White House that won a second term by
\nmining homophobia and preaching family values?<\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n

<\/P>
\n

Which pretty much explains how fishy things are. The Bush regime is “waging a jihad against
\njournalists,” Dowd notes — and she’s exactly right — “buying them off so they’ll promote
\nadministration programs, trying to put them in jail for doing their jobs and replacing them with
\nringers.”<\/P>
\n

Our poet in residence Leon Freilich<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> makes light of the
\nissue:<\/P>
\n

I.D., I.D., HO<\/B><\/P>
\n

Who’re the plants and who’re the shills?
Try to guess —
Welcome all to Capitol
\nHill’s
Meet the Press.
<\/I><\/P>
\n

But that’s whistling past the graveyard, if you ask me.
\n

Postscript:<\/B> Freilich’s retort:
\n

FAKE REPORTERS COVERING A FAKE PRESIDENT<\/B><\/P>
\n

And if I laugh at any mortal thing,
‘Tis that I may not weep.
–Lord
\nByron<\/B><\/P>
\n

To laugh rather than to barf,
Is a far better thing by harf.
–Lowly
\nMe<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that the Jeff Gannon\/James Guckert story has made Keith Olbermann’s “Countdown” newsquiz, it’s safe to say the mainstream media have taken notice of the latest White House farce. True, it was the last question in the quiz, No. 14: Name one of the other websites registered to Jeff Gannon\/James Guckert besides “jeffgannon.com”.+ zombo.com+ hotmilitarystuds.com+ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-gB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}