Press Release

Occasionally this journal employs the services of the Shell Answerman to cover important issues of the day. Today's issue, the recent "outing" of news flack Jeff Gannon.

Shell Answer Man: Thank You for coming, I'll take the first question.

Question: So This guy, Jeff Gannon, what's his real name and who did he work for?

Shell Answer Man: Well, thanks to several blogs, like Americablog and Wonkette, we know that his name is James Guckert. Jeff Gannon was was a name made up for his work on the website Talon News, and was the one he used to get credentials to go to press conferences at the White House.

Question: So the White House doesn't have a problem with people coming in with assumed names? Didn't we have something called Homeland Security?

Shell Answer Man: Well, that's a part of the question, you need to look deeper. Guckert was there, apparently to throw softball questions to the President's press secretary, and the president himself. Guckert's credentials, as Jeff Gannon, were turned down by the Congress, so it should be a surprise that the White House would have less strict rules on security. Now the question is, who's vouching for this guy?

Question: Is Jeff Gannon a Porn Name?

Shell Answer Man: Not exactly, but I can see what you're inferring. Guckert was found to not only have ads on several escort websites, but also owns a couple of military studs for hire domains. In fact, Guckert's profiles seem to have the Marine "bulldog" theme. If he was going for a porn name, I'm sure it would be Jeff Cannon, but it's oh, so close.

Question: so you're making a supposition that Guckert might have been placed by someone to ask softball questions?

Shell Answer Man: It seems likely. Gucker's questions usually were off topic from what other reporters were asking, were generally favorable to the administration, and were offered up when the press secretary, or the president needed a break from more difficult questioning. The Talon News site usually reprinted White House press releases with no real reporting.

Question: So would the White House have hired Mr. Guckert?

Shell Answer Man: That's unknown right now. Certainly the connection isn't clear, and it could have been done by a GOP supporter who placed him there, but now that we know that the administration paid bloggers and newspaper columnist to write favorable pieces for the campaign, it really doesn't seem to unlikely that they would continue to try to hamstring the media through underhanded tricks like this. Of course, the fact that they payed for a guy who does tricks is just the icing on the cake.

Question: So this guy could do porn?

Shell Answer Man: If you go for that military jock look guy, yes. Especially since his career as a serious journalist is pretty much shot. Of course, he's going to have to loosen up. Thanks for your question Mr. Guckert.

Question: So why isn't more media attention being payed to this story, why is it only being talked about in blogs and on the Daily Show?

Shell Answer Man: Old news, print media and television is scared of this story. This truly shows the power of the blogoshere to get in and take down a guy. It's not so much that they took down a real piece of trash, but they actually fear that they could be looked at next. They saw the blogs take down Dan Rather, and they still saw the trouble with Jaston Williams, the New York Times reporter a couple of years back, who won the Pulitzer Prize, but was then shown to be making up all of his stories. They see the that these bloggers can not only fact check, but go after their lives. There could be more dirty little secrets than Desperate Housewives. Reporters don't want their lives to be the story.

They are afraid of being seen as frauds, picking up the latest press release, rewriting it, and going home. Which is the state of journalism in a lot of circles. I think we're seeing the building of a lot of embankments in the old journalism stalwarts where they are not embracing the new media, and they are receiving a lot of attacks for it, deserved or not.

Question: So what will Happen to Guckert?

Shell Answer Man: Well, it's unlikely that he'll be popular on the gay pride circuit, but it's likely he'd show up writing a book, starting a right wing blog like Gay Patriot or of course, continuing to escort, delivering more press releases, if you get the drift. Thank you for attending.