The Appearance of Impropriety, part 4
When you can't pay off enough reporters to endorse your policies, why not grow your own?
From Democratic Underground:
Apparently the Bush administration isn't just paying journalists to spout White House propaganda - they're also planting journalists in press conferences to ask helpful questions. At a press conference last week, George W. Bush was happy to take a question from Jeff Gannon of "Talon News." Gannon asked, "Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. Harry Reid was talking about soup lines. And Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet in the same breath they say that Social Security is rock solid and there's no crisis there.
Of course, Harry Reid never said any such thing - so where is Mr. Gannon getting his facts?
More from Media Matters:
Although Gannon is a regular at White House press briefings and Talon News claims to be a news organization, Talon appears to be little more than an arm of the Republican Party. Talon News' editor in chief, Bobby Eberle, is a Republican activist who served as a delegate to the 1996, 1998, and 2000 Texas Republican Conventions and to the 2000 national Republican Convention.
From Democratic Underground:
Apparently the Bush administration isn't just paying journalists to spout White House propaganda - they're also planting journalists in press conferences to ask helpful questions. At a press conference last week, George W. Bush was happy to take a question from Jeff Gannon of "Talon News." Gannon asked, "Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. Harry Reid was talking about soup lines. And Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet in the same breath they say that Social Security is rock solid and there's no crisis there.
Of course, Harry Reid never said any such thing - so where is Mr. Gannon getting his facts?
More from Media Matters:
Although Gannon is a regular at White House press briefings and Talon News claims to be a news organization, Talon appears to be little more than an arm of the Republican Party. Talon News' editor in chief, Bobby Eberle, is a Republican activist who served as a delegate to the 1996, 1998, and 2000 Texas Republican Conventions and to the 2000 national Republican Convention.
posted by Management at 5:06 PM
6 Comments:
Talon News "reporter" lobs Bush another softball; is Talon a news organization or an arm of the Republican Party?
During President Bush's January 26 White House press conference, Jeff Gannon, Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent for the self-described conservative news outlet Talon News, asked the president the following question:
Thank you. Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. [Senate Minority Leader] Harry Reid [D-NV] was talking about soup lines. And [Senator] Hillary Clinton [D-NY] was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet in the same breath they say that Social Security is rock solid and there's no crisis there. How are you going to work -- you've said you are going to reach out to these people -- how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?
Although Gannon is a regular at White House press briefings and Talon News claims to be a news organization, Talon appears to be little more than an arm of the Republican Party. Talon News' editor in chief, Bobby Eberle, is a Republican activist who served as a delegate to the 1996, 1998, and 2000 Texas Republican Conventions and to the 2000 national Republican Convention. In 1999, Eberle "was recognized with a unanimously approved resolution of commendation by the Republican Party of Texas for service and dedication to the Republican cause." His biography on Talon's website notes: "Bobby has devoted considerable time and energy to the Republican effort" and "Bobby is a member of Texas Christian Coalition and Texas Right to Life."
Eberle is also the president and CEO of GOPUSA.com, a "conservative news, information, and design company dedicated to promoting conservative ideals" that carries articles and commentary by Gannon and Talon News. GOPUSA is also affiliated with MillionsofAmericans.com, a conservative advocacy organization run by Bruce Eberle, a relative of Bobby Eberle and a conservative fundraising consultant. Gannon's articles for Talon News frequently appear on GOPUSA.com (for example, here, here, and here). Bruce Eberle and his company have made extensive financial contributions to Republican Party candidates and committees.
Gannon identifies himself on his personal website as "A Voice of the New Media" and "a conservative journalist embedded with the liberal Washington press corps." The top item on his website reads:
NOTE TO MY LIBERAL COLLEAGUES: Bush is here for another 4 years. Get over it!
You threw everything you had at him, even phony documents and he still beat you. Give up.
WashingtonPost.com "White House Briefing" columnist Dan Froomkin noted in his February 19, 2004, column, "Within the press corps, Gannon is known for asking softball questions." Froomkin has cited examples of such softballs.
From Froomkin's February 19, 2004, column:
Here's an example from yesterday. [White House press secretary Scott] McClellan was fending off hardballs about whether the president should be held responsible for the job-growth predictions when he nodded to Gannon.
"McClellan: I think we've been through this issue. [Nod to Gannon] Go ahead.
"Gannon: Scott, when you talk about the unemployment -- or the jobs being created, is that based on the payroll survey, or the household survey? Because there's -- because of the tax cuts, there's been a tremendous increase in the number of entrepreneurs that have started their own businesses, and those numbers aren't reflected in the payroll survey.
"McClellan: That's correct, yes. The household survey is different from the payroll survey. And the household survey showed that some -- an increase of 496,000 jobs in January alone. So there are different numbers that you're talking about there. And we can look at both. But, again, you're getting into -- you're getting into the numbers here. The numbers that the President is interested in is the actual numbers of jobs being created and the policies that we are taking to create an even more robust environment for job creation."
In his March 10, 2004, column, Froomkin indicated that Gannon has served as a useful lifeline for McClellan amid hostile questioning from less compliant reporters:
But he [Gannon] does keep lobbing those softballs. Sometimes he even brings props. And press secretary McClellan seems to appreciate it.
Yesterday, for instance, McClellan was getting hammered with questions about the 9/11 commission and the possible inappropriate juxtaposition of a visit to a 9/11 memorial with a fundraiser on Thursday.
It was getting ugly. "I'm not even going to dignify that with a response," McClellan said in response to a jibe. (See the full text of the briefing.)
Then he saw daylight:
"Go ahead, Jeff."
Gannon: "Thank you. First of all, I hope the grand jury didn't force you to turn over the wedding card I sent to you and your wife. (Laughter.) Do you see any hypocrisy in the controversy about the President's mention of 9/11 in his ads, when Democratic icon Franklin Delano Roosevelt's campaign issued this button, that says, 'Remember Pearl Harbor'? I have a visual aid for folks watching at home."
McClellan: "You're pointing out some historical facts. Obviously, Pearl Harbor was a defining moment back in the period of World War II, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt was strongly committed to winning World War II and talked about it frequently."
Gannon: "So you think it certainly is valid that the President does talk about it and --"
McClellan: "Yes, he addressed this this weekend, when he was first asked about it. September 11th was a defining moment for our nation. We all shared in that experience. And it's important that we look at how we lead in a post-September 11th world. And that's an important discussion to have with the American people, and to talk about the differences in approaches to winning the war on terrorism and preventing attacks from happening in the first place."
Newsday reported on March 6, 2004, that when the federal grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of CIA covert operative Valerie Plame subpoenaed White House records on contacts with many journalists, Gannon was among them. Froomkin explained in his March 10, 2004, column that "the reason Gannon is on the list is most likely an attempt to find out who gave him a secret memo that he mentioned in an interview he had with Plame's husband, former ambassador and administration critic Joseph Wilson." Froomkin continued:
Gannon asked Wilson: "An internal government memo prepared by U.S. intelligence personnel details a meeting in early 2002 where your wife, a member of the agency for clandestine service working on Iraqi weapons issues, suggested that you could be sent to investigate the reports. Do you dispute that?"
According to a December Washington Post story by Mike Allen and Dana Milbank, "Sources said the CIA is angry about the circulation of a still-classified document to conservative news outlets suggesting Plame had a role in arranging her husband's trip to Africa for the CIA. The document, written by a State Department official who works for its Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), describes a meeting at the CIA where the Niger trip by Wilson was discussed, said a senior administration official who has seen it."
On top of being secret, CIA officials said it was wrong.
On March 9, 2004, Talon News also reported that it "learned that one of the journalists being targeted [in the federal grand jury investigation of the Plame leak] is Jeff Gannon." According to that article, Gannon told Talon News that the memo he cited in his interview with Wilson "did not come from inside the administration." "I don't know why I'm on the list of journalists being called before the Grand Jury," Gannon said. "I have been an outspoken critic of the leak probe and an aggressive questioner of the motives behind it. That seems to have drawn the attention of someone with the authority to issue subpoenas."
Gannon's syndicated column, "Jeff Gannon's Washington," appears on his website. RIGHTALK, which airs radio programs "from leading conservatives and organizations," and bills itself as a "conservative web alternative to National Public Radio," airs Jeff Gannon's Washington weekly.
— K.B. & J.F.
Posted to the web on Wednesday January 26, 2005 at 3:01 PM EST
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It's Payola Pie time again! (See Idiots 184.) Yes, it was revealed last week that yet another arm of the Bush administration has been caught making "inappropriate payments" to journalists. This time it's the Pentagon, who have apparently been "paying journalists to write articles and commentary for a Web site aimed at influencing public opinion in the Balkans," according to the Associated Press. As well as the propaganda puff pieces, the website carries AP and Reuters articles to give it an air of credibility. Don't worry though, apparently "The Pentagon's inspector general, Joseph Schmitz, is reviewing that case and also looking more broadly at Pentagon activities that might involve inappropriate payments to journalists." So you can bet that this will be all sorted out real soon.
MSNBC.com
Journalists paid to write for military Web site
Pentagon is investigating the practice
The Associated Press
Updated: 5:08 p.m. ET Feb. 4, 2005
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon’s chief investigator is looking into the military’s practice of paying journalists to write articles and commentary for a Web site aimed at influencing public opinion in the Balkans, officials said Friday.
At the request of Larry Di Rita, chief spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the Pentagon’s inspector general, Joseph Schmitz, is reviewing that case and also looking more broadly at Pentagon activities that might involve inappropriate payments to journalists.
The Balkans Web site, called Southeast European Times, as well as a second aimed at audiences in North Africa, have no immediately obvious connection to the U.S. government but contain a linked disclaimer that says they are “sponsored by the U.S. European Command.” That is the military organization based in Germany responsible for U.S. forces and military activities in Europe and parts of Africa.
The second site, called Magharebia and aimed at the Maghreb region that encompasses Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, is still in development and has not reached the stage of having paid correspondents, said Air Force Lt. Col. Derek Kaufman, a European Command spokesman.
Both sites carry news stories compiled from The Associated Press, Reuters and other news organizations. The Pentagon’s role in these Web sites was first reported by CNN on Thursday.
‘Information operations’
The Balkans Web site also has articles and commentary by about 50 journalists who Kaufman said are paid by European Command through a private contractor, Anteon Corp., an information technology company based in Fairfax, Va.
The Web sites are examples of what the military calls “information operations,” or programs designed to influence public opinion by countering what the Pentagon considers to be misinformation or lies that circulate in the international news media. The Pentagon’s use of the Web sites has raised questions about blurring the lines between legitimate news and what some would call government propaganda.
The Balkans site grew out of the U.S. air war against Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in 1999, Kaufman said. It sought to counter what U.S. officials considered a Serb propaganda machine that made effective use of the Internet.
The site aimed at North Africa was started in October 2004 and is a new weapon in the global war on terror.
“This specifically is trying to reach a youthful audience that is potentially ripe for extremist messages and terrorist recruitment,” Kaufman said. “It’s very much an effort to provide a voice of moderation, but it’s not disinformation. Every printed word is the truth.”
Journalists’ identities not disclosed
Kaufman said information warfare experts at European Command do not edit the stories written by contributing journalists for Southeast European Times, but they “review” the stories after they are processed by Anteon editors, and they sometimes change the headlines. He cited as an example a proposed headline that originally read, “Croatian Prime Minister Remembers Holocaust Victims,” which European Command changed to “Croatian Prime Minister Remarks on Dangers of Extremism,” which Kaufman said “more closely reinforced” the U.S. message.
About 50 paid correspondents contribute to Southeast European Times, including one American journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Kaufman said. Another European Command spokesman, Air Force Maj. Sarah Strachan, said many of the journalists work primarily for news organizations, although she said the details of those employers could not be provided for privacy reasons.
In a letter Thursday to the Pentagon inspector general, Di Rita asked for a comprehensive review in light of recent disclosures that other government agencies paid journalists to promote administration policies.
“I have no reason to believe there might be a problem,” Di Rita wrote, but he said a review was called for in view of the Defense Department’s size and its complex budgeting structure.
Previous case involved Education Department
Without mentioning him by name, Di Rita alluded to the case of commentator Armstrong Williams, who was hired by the Education Department — through a contract with a public relations firm — to produce ads that featured former Education Secretary Rod Paige and promoted President Bush’s No Child Left Behind law. Two other cases of columnists being paid to help promote administration policies have come to light in recent weeks, and Bush said Jan. 26 that the practice must stop.
“It would be most helpful to review activities going back six to eight years, as I assume many existing relationships have continued for that many years or longer,” Di Rita wrote, noting the Southeast European Times operation. “It would be appropriate to review that activity and others like it.”
It was not clear Friday whether other U.S. military commands have similar Web site operations. Navy Capt. Hal Pittman, the chief spokesman at Central Command, responsible for U.S. military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, said, “We’re reviewing the utility of this kind of Web site.”
© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6915347/
Washington -- President Bush said Wednesday that federal agencies should stop awarding contracts to outside commentators as a Democratic lawmaker assailed the administration over the latest example and an advocacy group called for an investigation.
Separately, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and nine colleagues released a report showing that the Bush administration spent more than $88 million last year on contracts with public relations firms, an increase of 128 percent over the last year of the Clinton administration.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher was touting Bush's "healthy marriage" initiative while working on the program under a $21,500 contract from the Department of Health and Human Services. The news followed an earlier controversy over conservative commentator Armstrong Williams, who has apologized for failing to disclose a $241,000 Education Department contract to promote the president's No Child Left Behind law.
Asked about the issue at a news conference, Bush said: "Mr. Armstrong Williams admitted he made a mistake. And we didn't know about this in the White House. And there needs to be a nice, independent relationship between the White House and the press, the administration and the press." Asked if the Education Department had also made a mistake, Bush said yes.
The president added: "All our Cabinet secretaries must realize that we will not be paying, you know, commentators to advance our agenda. Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet."
Gallagher, a marriage expert who heads a Washington think tank, apologized to her readers Tuesday for failing to reveal her contract to assist HHS while writing about the marriage initiative in articles and columns, one of which referred to Bush's "genius." She also received $20,000 in Justice Department funds to write a report on marriage for a private group.
In a statement Tuesday, Gallagher said: "It was a mistake on my part not to have disclosed any government contract. It will not happen again." But she said The Post article was "completely false" in saying that her HHS contract was "to help promote the president's proposal."
The article noted that under the contract, Gallagher wrote brochures for the program, helped ghost-write a magazine article for a top official and conducted a briefing for regional officials. She was also required to "assist" HHS "in ongoing work related to strengthening marriage."
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and four other Democrats introduced legislation Tuesday that would bar funding of covert propaganda or material that is partisan or intended for self-aggrandizement or puffery.
A statement by one cosponsor, Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, cited the Gallagher contract in saying that "what we really need right now is for the administration to come clean about its propaganda campaign. The administration should disclose all publicly funded contracts signed with journalists, commentators and public relations firm to promote administration policies."
Miller has already asked for a Government Accountability Office probe of such contracts.
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URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/01/27/MNGJTB11AT1.DTL
Limbaugh bragged that his show inspired Talon News "reporter's" erroneous question to Bush
Nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh proclaimed that he fabricated a point surfacing in a question that Talon News White House correspondent Jeff Gannon subsequently asked of President Bush at a January 26 White House press conference. Gannon asked Bush: "[H]ow are you going to work with people [Democratic leaders] who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?" prefacing the question with the assertion that Senate Minority Leader "Harry Reid was talking about [the poor having to get food in] soup lines." But Reid made no reference to soup lines. As Limbaugh noted, "Uh, Harry Reid never said 'soup lines.' That's my term for the simple way to characterize the Democrats' view of America." Limbaugh said he was "flattered and honored and proud to have a point made by this program represented in the press conference and asked by a reporter."
From the January 26 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: I now want to get to the audio sound bites of the Bush press conference today. I said earlier today in the program, shortly after we began, that somebody in the White House press corps listens to this program. It is Jeff Gannon from Talon News. Here is his question, which is a repeat, a rehash, of a precise point I made on this program yesterday and is highlighted on RushLimbaugh.com.
GANNON [from January 26 White House press conference]: Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy: Harry Reid was talking about soup lines, and [Senator] Hillary Clinton [D-NY] was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet in the same breath, they say that Social Security is rock solid and there's no crisis there. You've said you're going to reach out to these people. How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?
LIMBAUGH: I'm not upset by this, folks. I'm honored. I'm thrilled. Don't misunderstand. I'm not accusing anybody of anything. I just think it's fabulous here. Now, you may think that my ego is out of control. Au contraire, my friends. I have no ego. Not of the kind you're talking about, anyway, or thinking about. No, what makes me think that the reporter was listening to the program is that Harry Reid never actually said "soup lines." That is my characterization of their portrayal of America. He never actually said it. He just describes circumstances reminiscent of soup lines.
[...]
LIMBAUGH: You know, we gotta play audio sound bite No. 1. This is so great. This program yesterday was represented today in a question asked by a member of the White House press corps. Yesterday I made the point. Well, here, let me just play the cut and then I'll explain for those of you who weren't here yesterday why I am convinced that this reporter listened to this radio program yesterday and took a point made by me into that press conference today.
[replayed Gannon's question]
LIMBAUGH: The president said he's going to do what he's been always doing and that's just go straight to the American people and not allow himself to be filtered by the partisan media. Now, we made this point yesterday. I mean, Hillary is out there talking about the economy is on the verge of collapse, and Harry Reid's describing America with nobody's go to health insurance, 45 million without health insurance, wages are going down. It's horrible out there! Uh, Harry Reid never said "soup lines." That's my term for the simple way to characterize the Democrats' view of America or vision of America. They look out there and they see 1930s soup lines all over the place, but Dusty Harry [Limbaugh nicknaming Harry Reid] never actually said that yesterday, but the reporter [Gannon] attributed it to him -- and I'm not angry about this at all, folks! I'm flattered and honored and proud to have a point made by this program represented in the press conference today and asked by a reporter.
White House-friendly reporter under scrutiny
By Charlie Savage and Alan Wirzbicki, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent | February 2, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has provided White House media credentials to a man who has virtually no journalistic background, asks softball questions to the president and his spokesman in the midst of contentious news conferences, and routinely reprints long passages verbatim from official press releases as original news articles on his website.
Jeff Gannon calls himself the White House correspondent for TalonNews.com, a website that says it is "committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news coverage to our readers." It is operated by a Texas-based Republican Party delegate and political activist who also runs GOPUSA.com, a website that touts itself as "bringing the conservative message to America."
Called on last week by President Bush at a press conference, Gannon attacked Democratic Senate leaders and called them "divorced from reality." During the presidential campaign, when called on by Press Secretary Scott McClellan, Gannon linked Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, to Jane Fonda and questioned why anyone would dispute Bush's National Guard service.
Now, the question of how Gannon gets into White House press conferences is coming under intense scrutiny from critics who contend that Gannon is not a journalist but rather a White House tool to soften media coverage of Bush. The issue was raised by a media watchdog group and picked up by Internet bloggers, who linked Gannon's presence in White House briefings to recent controversies over whether the administration manipulates the flow of information to the public.
These include the disclosure that the Education Department secretly paid columnist Armstrong Williams to promote its education policy and the administration's practice of sending out video press releases about its policies that purport to be "news stories" by fake journalists.
McClellan said Gannon has not been issued -- nor requested -- a regular "hard pass" to the White House, and instead has come in for the past two years on daily passes. Daily passes, he said, may be issued to anyone who writes for an organization that publishes regularly and who is cleared to enter the building.
He said other reporters and political commentators from lesser-known newsletters and from across the political spectrum also attend briefings, though he could not recall any Internet bloggers. McClellan said it is not the White House's role to decide who is and who is not a real journalist and dismissed any notion of conspiracy.
Nonetheless, transcripts of White House briefings indicate that McClellan often calls on Gannon and that the press secretary -- and the president -- have found relief in a question from Gannon after critical lines of questioning from mainstream news organizations.
When Bush called on Gannon near the end of his nationally televised Jan. 26 news conference, he had just been questioned about Williams and the Education Department funds, an embarrassment to the administration. Gannon's question was different.
"Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the US economy," Gannon said. "[Minority Leader] Harry Reid was talking about soup lines, and Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet, in the same breath, they say that Social Security is rock solid and there's no crisis there. How are you going to work -- you said you're going to reach out to these people -- how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"
As it turned out, Reid had never talked about soup lines. That was a phrase attributed to him in satire by Rush Limbaugh on his radio show.
Last year, during the presidential campaign, Gannon's comments could be even more pointed. In a Feb. 10, 2004, briefing with McClellan, for example, Gannon rose to deliver the following:
"Since there have been so many questions about what the president was doing over 30 years ago, what is it that he did after his honorable discharge from the National Guard? Did he make speeches alongside Jane Fonda, denouncing America's racist war in Vietnam? Did he testify before Congress that American troops committed war crimes in Vietnam? And did he throw somebody else's medals at the White House to protest a war America was still fighting?"
David Brock, the former investigative journalist who made his name revealing aspects of former President Bill Clinton's extramarital affairs, said he was watching last week's press conference on television and the "soup lines" question sparked his interest because it "struck me as so extremely biased." Brock asked his media watchdog group, Media Matters for America, to look into Talon News.
It quickly discovered two things, he said. First, both Talon and the political organization GOP USA were run by a Texas Republican activist and party delegate named Bobby Eberle. Second, many of the reports Gannon filed for Talon News "appeared to be lifted verbatim from various White House and Republican political committee documents."
Eberle did not return phone calls yesterday, and Gannon declined to comment. He did reply to Brock's group on his personal blog: "In many cases I have liberally used the verbiage provided on key aspects of the issue because it is the precise expression of where the White House stands -- free of any 'spin.' It's the ultimate in journalistic honesty -- unvarnished and unfiltered. If only others would be as forthcoming."
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