Imagine for a minute that we are back in the Clinton
era. Someone breaks the story that a former male
prostitute using an alias and working for a phony
news organization has been allowed into the
White House every day without a full security
background check. This “reporter” got his start in
the prestigious White House press corps despite
having no prior journalistic experience and despite
being denied press credentials by the journalist-run
Congressional press office.
This “reporter” is known by his phony first name
to the president and partisan White House press
officials. He also is known to legitimate reporters
covering the White House for mainstream news
organizations, for two reasons. First, he always
seems to ask questions that are supportive of the
president and disparaging of the other party.
Second, and more importantly, he seems to have
inside information before anyone else, including
major newspapers and television networks,
on key stories such as when the Iraq War is
starting and whether Valerie Plame was an
undercover CIA operative. The leaking of
Ms. Plame’s name, which is a serious crime,
is currently under criminal investigation, yet
this “reporter” has not been questioned by
any prosecutors.
President Clinton was impeached and almost
removed from office for having sex with an intern
and then lying about it to a grand jury. While
these are serious matters, the fake reporter
scenario described above is a comparably
serious matter in a real story that is breaking
at this moment, yet the Republican-controlled
Congress is doing nothing to investigate it.
If Bill Clinton were president at this time, you
can be sure that the GOP would be all over
this story, calling for full Congressional
investigations and chastising the press for
not fully investigating the matter.
Unfortunately, the so-called “liberal media” is
showing itself to be a cowed, conflict-averse
shadow of the Fourth Estate that successfully
challenged and brought down the Nixon
presidency once proof of serious crimes
started to emerge thirty years ago. Huge
corporations own most of our media outlets
these days, and their balance sheets have
been enriched by Bush Administration policies.
Rocking the boat and undermining the
corporate-dominated GOP agenda is not
in their interest.
Go to
http://americablog.blogspot.com or
http://www.dailykos.com, or type the name
“Jeff Gannon” into your favorite search engine,
and you will see the credible evidence that
has been unearthed about this story by the
citizen journalists known as “bloggers.”
The story of Mr. Gannon, whose real name
is James Guckert, is at least as interesting
as the Michael Jackson trial or Martha
Stewart’s prison life. Moreover, the
Guckert/Gannon case raises important
questions related to White House security
in the post-911 era, White House tampering
with the objectivity of the press, and possible
White House leaking of classified national
security information. Finally, the male
prostitution angle raises the question of how
White House officials could regularly
welcome a person into the White House
who allegedly was participating in an
illegal activity (contrary to what
Mr. Gannon/Guckert says, this is not a
“private issue,” because his nude pictures
soliciting “business” are still on the Internet
as I write this column).
Our nation’s founders wanted separation of
power so that the president, Congress,
Supreme Court, independent press, and
state governments could each serve as
a brake on the power of the others.
Unfortunately, the Republican cover-up of
this Gannon/Guckert story is the latest
example of the dangers of one-party rule
in our federal government, and the
complicity of our corporate-controlled press
in allowing one party to dominate.
The Republican Congress also refused to
issue subpoenas and follow up on the
serious allegations of election tampering
during the 2004 election, and our
democracy is the poorer for it.
The Bush Administration already has been
proven to have paid reporters to report
favorably on their education and social
service policies. Now the Guckert/Gannon
affair shows that they possibly also went
so far as to use a phony reporter from a
phony news agency so that Administration
press releases, which Guckert/Gannon
released with very few changes as his
“stories,” could be given the semblance
of objective scrutiny that comes from
having an independent third party,
like a newspaper or broadcast company,
review the facts and write an article.
Many Asian Pacific Americans came to
this country to escape one-party states
where government accountability and
press freedom were not strong. Some of
us suffered from incarceration behind
barbed wire based on our national origin
during World War II. We know from bitter
experience what can happen when laws
similar to the PATRIOT Act allow
government intrusions and the indefinite
detention of citizens with little
independent oversight. We understand
how fear of an outside enemy can be
used as a reason to limit civil liberties
and quell dissent at home.
All of us, whether we are Republican,
Democrat, or independent, should be
calling for an independent inquiry into
the Gannon/Guckert situation. Our
most cherished Constitutional rights
depend on an Administration that is
accountable to the people and a press
that is free of government control.
