The latest case of break-neck-paced blogosphere vetting makes it clear that it may soon dawn on some folks on the left AND on the right that the Internet makes it easy to spread words and personal histories f-a-s-t.
The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz gives this summary:
The conservative reporter who asked President Bush a loaded question at a news conference last month resigned yesterday after liberal bloggers uncovered his real name and raised questions about his background.
Jeff Gannon, who had been writing for the Web sites Talon News and GOPUSA, is actually James Dale Guckert, 47, and has been linked to online domain addresses with sexually provocative names. He has been under scrutiny since asking Bush how he could work with Senate Democratic leaders “who seem to have divorced themselves from reality.” The information about Gannon was posted on the liberal sites Daily Kos, Atrios and World o’ Crap.
World o’ Crap? That’s what people have called THIS site…but we digress:
Under the headline “A Voice of the New Media: The Voice Goes Silent,” Gannon wrote on his personal Web page that because of the attention “I find it is no longer possible to effectively be a reporter for Talon News” and that he is quitting “in consideration of the welfare of me and my family.” Gannon added in a brief interview that “my family has been victimized” and that he wanted to “put some separation between Talon News and the White House.”
Gannon’s resignation highlights the no-holds-barred atmosphere of the Web, which both enabled him to function as a reporter — his stories appeared on a site founded by Texas Republican activist Bobby Eberle — and produced a swarm of critics determined to expose him.
Among the domain names registered by Gannon’s company several years ago, but never launched, were Hotmilitarystud.com, Militaryescorts.com and Militaryescortsm4m.com, along with Exposejessejackson.com. The bloggers also have linked to a since-withdrawn America Online photo of a man who appears to be Gannon, posing in his underwear, with a screen name bearing the initials “JDG.”
In his underwear? That could get him a $50 fine in Virginia…
But the importance here is that he was exposed (so to speak) by blogs, this time on the left. One of our key contentions is that Blogtopia will finally come of age when blogs on the left and right all pounce on people on the right and left equally who have said unacceptable things or who have something that needs to come out in public.
In this case, the blogs that looked into the issue and pressed the issue were liberal blogs. Tim Russo aka Democracy Guy gives a good summary of the case against Gannon, asking: “Only question is this…is this the point that a real investigation gets launched into White House payola?”
But if this case interests you (whether you are on the right or the left) why not read the posts for yourself? Below are some of the links from the liberal blogs that pressed this story (these are NOT all-inclusive; links start with more recent posts, working their way back).
Americablog posts here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here…plus this KEY INVESTIGATIVE POST here, ANOTHER INVESTIGATIVE post here, PHOTO INVESTIGATIVE POST here, more revelations here, escort service link here, INVESTIGATIVE AOL profile here, post on what would happen if under Clinton here, Gannon quitting here, escort service allegations here.
Daily Kos posts here, here, here, here.
Atrios posts here and here.
World ‘O Crap posts here and a MAJOR post here.
UPDATE: A Salon atricle actually gets into some of meatier issues — and questions – raised by this whole affair. A small part:
Gannon’s star turn quickly piqued the interest of many online commentators, who wondered how an obvious Republican operative had been granted access to daily White House press briefings normally reserved for accredited journalists.
Two weeks later, a swarming investigation inside the blogosphere into Gannon and Talon News had produced all sorts of damning revelations about how Talon is connected at the hip to a right-wing activist organization called GOPUSA, how its “news” staff consists largely of volunteer Republican activists with no journalism experience, how Gannon often simply rewrote GOP press releases when filing his Talon dispatches. It also uncovered embarrassing information about Gannon’s past as well as his fake identity. When Gannon himself this week confirmed to the Washington Post that his name was a pseudonym, it only added to the sense of a bizarre hoax waiting to be exposed.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.