I just watched the
Jeff Gannon clips at Crooks and Liars. (Our favorite former White House "correspondent" joined the "Who is a Journalist" panel at the National Press Club.) Here's my report....
I think ultimately the panel shed real light on fake news sources and
its unreliability. And Jeff Gannon himself may have been Exhibit A.
He got his shot at a National Press Club audience - and slowly, smoothly, he began
to unravel...
The moderator got things started, following up on Matthew Yglesias's point
about "news" being created by political operatives.
MODERATOR: You've seen it with several cases with this administration -
indirectly paying commentators, paying supposed journalists,
to write certain kinds of things or to have certain opinions on television shows.
Again, did anyone think that that is journalism?
And why are we seeing all of these things
happening now, from the Thune campaign that a couple of people have
referred to, to these kinds of journalistic plants or stories that would
be planted in the mainstream media.
American Prospect's John Stanton argued that Lyndon Johnson used to phone newspaper
editors asking for friendly editorials, but
"It's more crass now with the administration sort of giving people money to do it. But
it's always happened." Though he then concedes that "If people think they're journalists, that is sort
of a problem."
Jeff Gannon, however, disagrees. Er, I think. He's all over the
board...
JEFF GANNON: This idea that journalists are being paid isn't something that this
administration invented. This had been done under previous adminstrations but it didn't cause a
ripple at all. And currency in this town is not necessarily money.
It's access, and all the people that consider themselves journalists in this room
value access, because that produces information, more than they do money.
[Title card: "Jeff Gannon's credentials came under scrutiny after asking
questions at White House briefings."]
JEFF GANNON: What I find interesting about the Armstrong Williams case is
that, in order for the administration to get a fair hearing on the "No Child
Left Behind" act, it actually had to pay somebody to say it. Because I
don't think anybody wrote a positive article about the "No Child Left
Behind" act, the cases where it's working! All you hear is the mantra
"It's underfunded and it doesn't work."
Gannon looked smug and smirky as he said this. But Wonkette and Yglesias immediately dive in with counterpoints. And then, for Gannon, it goes from bad to worse.
WONKETTE: You don't pay someone to get a fair hearing. That's the opposite of
a fair hearing, actually, to pay someone to get a hearing. [Laughter]
YGLESIAS: That's simply wrong. I've written good things about "No Child
Left Behind". There's been plenty of them out there. There's obviously a
debate about this, there are people who don't like it, but
it's gotten a really, exceptionally fair hearing, because
it has supporters on different spots. It's gotten criticism from conservatives,
it's gotten praise from some liberals. And, you know, part of what's so weird about this is
that I kind of wish I'd gotten a check, since I bothered to....
WONKETTE (TO GANNON): That is the most awesome defense of
Armstrong Williams I've ever heard, by the way. Like,
I haven't heard that particular defense. I've heard he's not a real journalist
and therefore it's okay that he got paid, but not that you have to
pay to get a fair hearing.
JEFF GANNON: Well, I, I think what you're seeing is --
WONKETTE: Then how come the Weekly Standard's not getting paid?
JEFF GANNON: Well, why would the administration do that? If they --
WONKETTE: Because they don't want a fair hearing. They want a positive hearing.
That's why they do that. [Laughter]
JEFF GANNON: No, they want an opportunity to be heard.
I mean, one of the criticisms, wait a minute, Ana --
WONKETTE: He would've failed them if he'd only given them opportunity.
JEFF GANNON: Ana --
WONKETTE: Wouldn't have earned his pay!
JEFF GANNON: One of the criticisms of my writing has been, uh,
that I was, uh, just, uh, repeating what the administration said about any particular issue. Yes! (Pause)
I did that!
[stunned silence]
JEFF GANNON: Okay. Why? Because I was about the only news source that was providing
that information without, uh, a filter! And the President has spoken about the filter
that the media applies, uh, to his message. There is nothing wrong with
reporting what the administration says about a particular issue.
When
your story [Wonkette laughs; Yglesias starts lunging for his microphone] -
wait a minute! When your story says: "White House supports this particular policy,"
they give you information! And they give you statements about it!
JEFF GANNON: Why does everything have to be looked at through, uh, a lens that represents
every particular point of view?
WONKETTE: That's called 'news'.
[The camera catches a reaction from Gannon. His eyes actually dart around for a second...]
Jeff was such an easy target at this point. I think the
Baltimore Sun's reporter
(Julie Hirschfield Davis) diverted the momentum, trying to unify conservatives and liberals with a
fair, careful description of the journalistic point Jeff was missing.
BALTIMORE SUN: I think we're having a really hard time agreeing - as a country,
and as a panel - on what's a journalist.
But I think one thing that knits us all together - whether we're journalists or not
- is that we see the value of bringing a different point of view
to, whatever. I mean, the unfiltered coverage that the administration gets is when they
say what they say. They say it into the camera. Scott McClellan
quotes are in the paper, the president has his
news conferences, makes remarks to the press - they put it right on TV.
That's unfiltered.
The role of the press is to look at that with a
perspective. And to ask the questions that need to be asked.
[The camera catches another reaction from Gannon]
You wanna ask conservative questions, you wanna ask liberal questions -
fine! But our role is not simply to say, 'this is what they
said'.
Period. That's the end of the story.
[The camera catches another reaction from Gannon]
There's blood in the water now. Later I think the panelists actually hung
back, realizing Gannon's worst enemy on that panel was himself.
JEFF GANNON: That's exactly the point, uh, that, uh, all this came about because people
disagreed with my question that I asked. It was a very pointed
question, uh, there's no, no doubt about that. But there's alot of people in
this country that wanted the answer to that question, and that's
my role as a journalist - is to, is to ask questions
like that. ["How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced
themselves from reality?"]
For example, I brought a visual aid.
[Gannon holds up a map of the United States.]
Uh, even though this, uh, is, represents the red-blue county map,
it's actually green, because I ran out of ink on my printer.
[Laughter]
But, but, see, see all this green out there...
[Laughter continues from one of the panelists]
JEFF GANNON: And, those are, those are all the people that are interested in the questions that I
ask. And they would like the White House to comment on issues of
importance to them! And my questions stood out! And, and I performed, I
think, a valuable service to alot of people in this country,
pursuing story lines and getting the White House to comment on things
that, that, uh, the rest of, uh, my colleagues weren't doing.
This, I think, is high point of the panel. Even Gannon's pre-memorized
talking points, tossed out at random moments, don't seem to earn
him any wiggle room.
JEFF GANNON: But the point I was trying to make is - look what happened to me because I did
that. What is the impact going to be for the next, uh, man or woman
that goes into that briefing room, raises their hand to ask a question?
Are they going to stop and think "Well, if somebody out there, on the left
or the right, doesn't agree with my question, am I going to be the target
of, uh, this inquisition?" - as, as I have been. And it's a, it's a very chilling, uh,
effect that it has on, on the press.
FISHBOWL: Jeff, I actually have to disagree with you here. I think that the idea
that you - it's less that people attacked you because they disagreed with the
question. They attacked you because they thought your work-product was
poor.
And I think that that's an important distinction. They thought
that the journalism that you were practicing was bad journalism,
and didn't meet the standards of journalism necessary to report from the
White House.
And I think that that's a very important distinction.
Because it's not that liberals are attacking everyone who reports from
the White House. Because as far as I know, there are no widespread calls to kick
Fox News out of the White House press briefing room.
JEFF GANNON: Well you can hardly call Fox News conservative. I, I --
[Laughter]
JEFF GANNON: I, well, it, uh - laugh! Laugh! Well --
What's weird is that comes out of nowhere. I think Gannon was baiting
the panel, trying to lead them away from attacking him. Or maybe he's
just stupid. (Later on his blog he
remembers himself saying "I don't really consider
Fox News to be conservative....") Anyways, it didn't work.
Instead, Wonkette gets him into real trouble...
WONKETTE: Do you think that you would've served your readers, hold on,
do you think you would've served that vast map of red - or green - readers
better if your question had been factually accurate?
JEFF GANNON: Well, uh --
WONKETTE: Maybe that was the reason why people attacked your question?
JEFF GANNON: Okay, I, well, if - my questions always sound like that, and,
and if --
WONKETTE: Wait, no, no - you admit --
JEFF GANNON: Now wait. Now wait. Now wait. You just wait a minute. You're --
WONKETTE: You attributed a quote to Harry Reid that did not exist,
right?
JEFF GANNON: Uh --
WONKETTE: Right?
JEFF GANNON: The only, the only thing that I did is I, I left out a little phrase in the
question that said that, uh, I mis-worded the question. I should've said
"He spoke of the economy as if..." If you -
[Laughter]
JEFF GANNON: Okay, if you put that in
there, if you put it -- well now - wait a minute, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna parse these
questions. We did that in the last administration, uh, parsing, uh,
parsing people's answers. Now, now where the -
WONKETTE: So you pretend Harry Reid had said those things!
JEFF GANNON: -- where, where the, where the criticism came from - and I'm
going to get down to Garrett - where the criticism came from are liberal operatives who conduct, uh, a
uh - their, their whole reason for existing, and it's the
Media Matters folks. They, you know - it's an organization uh, begun by John
Podesto, uh, David Brock is the CEO - it's filled with, uh, refugees from
the DNC and other, uh, left-wing organizations, strictly for the purpose
of attacking conservatives in the media. I got into their sights, and,
and, that's what got this whole thing started.
YGLESIAS: And they scored a hit. Because your question was wrong, because you were printing
RNC press releases and putting --
JEFF GANNON: Wait a minute! I, I'm not the guy that was sitting there waving
phoney documents at the podium and saying, uh, "We have, Mr. President, we have evidence
that you didn't serve your time in, in the Texas Air Guard! Look, I've got
proof!" [Jeff unfurls his green map of the United States.] And it was a fraud and a phoney!
[Shakes finger menacingly.]
And are those people kicked out of there?
WONKETTE: Yes! [Laughter]
JEFF GANNON: The fellow who did it is gonna get a promotion!
He's gonna get a promotion!
YGLESIAS: Okay. Hold on. Hey. They lost - they lost their jobs!
That's about it - except for the questioner who asked,
"Are you concerned that you're advertising and participating
in a business that's illegal in D.C. and neighboring jurisidictions
might result in a criminal investigation or prosecution? And if you're
not concerned - why are you not concerned?"
Admittedly that's a tough question. But Jeff handles it - well, judge for
yourself.
JEFF GANNON: Well, uh, first of all, you're speaking to uh, things that, uh,
have been alleged. And, uh, you know, I'm not commenting on those
things, because none of it has anything to do with my reporting, and I
didn't come here to discuss those things. I came here to talk about,
uh, uh, journalists, and what constitutes journalism. So, uh, you know,
thanks for the question, but, uh, I can't go into that any further.
Great answer, Jeff!
But Fishbowl (and Wonkette) even get Gannon on the defensive with a relatively
simple question.
FISHBOWL: I think that the most interesting part of your story so far that has yet
to be fully investigated is how you got in the first time.
It took the President of the White House Correspondent's Association
sitting down in a personal meeting with the White House Press Secretary
for me to get in.
JEFF GANNON: Well, aren't you fortunate. Be - that you had somebody to
intercede on, on your behalf. I did it the old-fashioned way. I called
up, and I persevered. And, there wasn't a single reason for them --
WONKETTE: How long did you persevere?
JEFF GANNON: Stop.
WONKETTE: How long - just curious.
JEFF GANNON: Uh, for quite some time!
WONKETTE: Like, a day, weeks, months...
JEFF GANNON: For quite, quite some time. And --
WONKETTE: Can you - c'mon, just - please.
JEFF GANNON: I don't - honestly, honestly, honestly, I don't remember,
because it was -
WONKETTE: C'mon...between days and weeks. Surely you can tell us?
JEFF GANNON: I would say it was, it was closer to weeks than it was days.
But, I went through the same telephone, uh, madness that you went through
getting to the right person to get considered.
Jeff gives a long, rambly answer, eventually circling back
to a talking point about "how there are people that are protecting a franchise
and that are employing outdated standards to determine who was a journalist, and,
and who works for a legitimate news service."
But it was almost surreal, watching him babble his way through the
story of Jeff Gannon's road to a press pass.
JEFF GANNON: Frankly, you know, there, uh, there's always this, this thing about bringing new people in.
I mean - and where does that come from? I don't know if it comes from,
uh, people not wanting, uh, to - to go to the trouble
to do it.
But I was able to, I was able to go in one day,
and I asked to come back. And I kept asking to come back. And
one of, one of my colleagues, uh, said to me - who,
who liked me - and said, you know, we, it's good that you,
that you come here. Because you obviously approach these
things from a different perspective - and that's, and that is refreshing.
If you're going to come here, you need to get a hard pass.
Go, go into the office and, and see how you get a hard pass. And, and
that's when I started.
Very, very shortly after I began going to the White House, I, I
started down that road to get the hard pass. And the first requirement
was you have to be credentialed by the, uh, Senate and House galleries.
Which is where I went. And I began that process, and it was a very
enlightening process where it gave me alot of, uh, information.....
YGLESIAS: I'm having a little trouble believing that your recollection
of how you got into the White House press briefing room for the very
first time, as you were first starting doing journalism, in a
not very distant past - that you don't have a clear recollection of - you
know, I don't know that you need to give an exact number of days --
JEFF GANNON: Honestly, honestly, I don't even remember the first,
I don't even remember the date, the first time I went in. Okay?
It, you know, but all these people have, uh -
YGLESIAS: But do you have any idea why, after your days or weeks or
unspecified-amount-of-time of 'perseverance', they changed their minds?
I mean, I guess if you were talking over and over again to these people,
they might have said something.
JEFF GANNON: I guess it was my turn. I guess they looked at everybody else
who, who comes in and out of there on a daily basis, that, uh - "Okay,
we'll let this guy in today."
I think that says it all. No, I'll go even further. I think that should be the title of the Jeff Gannon auto-biography.